It is a statement both welcome and one that raises the question of how it could not already be the case. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has today vowed that a Labour government would treat violence against women as a “national emergency”, pledging an overhaul of the way in which such violent crimes are policed.
Combating violence against women and girls lies at the heart of the Standard’s Show Respect campaign, which is funding workshops about healthy relationships in schools, starting with £500,000 from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.
It would cost just £20 million to provide every schoolchild access to a healthy relationships programme in Year Nine. That represents 0.02 per cent of the Department for Education’s budget. This is an issue in need of both urgent funds and a champion in government. Cooper is right in her diagnosis of the scale of the crisis we face, which is why the next government must commit to early interventions before attitudes harden and back our campaign with cash, so that healthy relationship workshops can be placed in every disadvantaged school in the capital.
Jude makes it better
Euros drama has not quite hit fever pitch yet. England’s opening group match was fairly typical, with a strong start followed by 45 minutes of the opponents back in the game. And yet another three points tonight against Denmark and the team will have already qualified for the knock-out stages. Fans of not even that great a vintage will recall that progress — or even qualification in the first place — has not always been guaranteed.
There is always reason to dream, but this time, the Three Lions have a not-so-secret weapon: Jude Bellingham. England have fielded fleet-footed central midfielders before (but can Gerrard and Lampard play together?). The team has even had Real Madrid galacticos. But as Martin Robinson writes in today’s newspaper, Bellingham is something else entirely. Even if things go wrong, “Jude will step up and sort it out”. A two-footed, cool-headed comfort blanket for psychologically damaged England supporters.
Tube’s Swift makeover
While the football is going on in Germany, Wembley is hosting its own international superstar: a certain Taylor Swift. In honour of the singer’s arrival in the capital (and the swarming of Swifties), Transport for London has reimagined the Tube map.
Available exclusively in tomorrow’s Standard, the map has each line named after a different album and each station after a song. Still, expect severe delays on Red — the only possible name for the Central line.
