Lactivism

I was recently having a conversation with a friend about breastfeeding and how to be a champion without alienating people by making them feel bad for their choices. It's a fine line. As a lactivist I want to tell people about the risks of formula feeding and I want to provide support for women who want to breastfeed, but I know that I have at times caused offence when discussing this topic.

I think that some women may be quite defensive about their decision to formula feed, despite vocalising their pride at this choice perhaps a part of them doesn't feel good about it and so they feel the need to justify it and defend it when they feel their choice is being criticised.

There are things I would like to say on the subject but don't feel that I can for fear of being judged to be judgemental - haha.

I am trying to change my approach into a positive one. There are people you will never reach, so it is best not to come at lactivism from that perspective, rather to simply be approachable to those seeking information and support. So I am undertaking leadership training with La Leche League so that I can be a peer supporter. I'm also going to plug other Lactivists blogs, websites and online stores ;)

First on the list is Lactivist itself. The website is a fantastic hub of information and support, not to mention their fantastic breastfeeding t-shirts! They are currently running a competition to win £40 of Butterfly Babies vouchers. See here for more.

A New Kind of Government

I'm not a natural optimist. I have to work quite hard to be one, but I believe that it is worth it and that it is a healthier attitude than pessimism. This week we have welcomed a new kind of government into power, a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. As soon as the election results were looking like a hung parliament was going to be the outcome, this is precisely the solution I thought would come about. From some time over the weekend, when informal talks were happening and seemed to be going well, I had a good feeling about it. Lib Dems in Government.... how can that be a bad thing? Speaking as a Lib Dem party member and volunteer campaigner I saw this as a wonderful opportunity to do something different. The old system wasn't working, as a nation we were swinging between Labour and Tory and neither party were getting it right.

The election results showed that the nation was split. No party had an overall majority and so it became necessary for two or more parties to cooperate. This is precisely the kind of democracy that I have long wished to see in action. Why must we have an adversarial system? Why can't the politicians from different parties and different backgrounds at least try to work together? It works in other countries, it works in the European Parliament. Why shouldn't it work here?

The Tories and Lib Dems demonstrated in their talks that they were able to sit down and compromise, that they were able to put the interests of the nation above the interests of their parties. The leaders passionately want this to work and even though they will undoubtedly face some opposition from within their own parties, I believe that they can set the example and make it work.

I have encountered a lot of negativity towards this coalition already. I believe this comes down to two fundamental causes: Firstly that this is a new way of running the country and people are wary of change. This way of working has not been proven to work in Britain before. Secondly, bigotry. I'm sorry to say this, especially of friends, but so many people have blinkered views of politicians, or of one party in particular. I've heard people saying "Look what happened last time the Tories were in power!" But I say to them - that was a long time ago. Thatcher came to power over 30 years ago. The political landscape has changed since then, the population has changed since then and the politicians have changed since then! I have found myself reminding people that this Tory party is NOT the same as the one under Thatcher. It is not the same as the one under Major. This is Cameron's Conservative party.

We all saw what happened to Labour under the "New" banner of Tony Blair, the party did change. No longer is Labour the left wing, unionist party of old. For a long time now the Liberal Democrats have represented the most left wing of the three main parties and under Cameron we can already see the Conservatives edging towards the middle from their old position on the right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping for joy at a predominantly Conservative government and I do have an edge of scepticism to my view. We have a proven Eurosceptic in the Foreign Office and an early pledge to hack public spending. But what I am saying is let's not judge this coalition before it has even got going. They have settled upon a 5 year fixed term parliament. Let's at least give them that long to show us what they can do, how well they can work together.

If it doesn't work, if the economy doesn't recover as well as the experts suggest it should be able to in that time, if Lib Dem policies are continually blocked then fine, vote differently in 2015. We can always go back to the old system (but I doubt that will happen if we get the reform we want!) but don't condemn this one just because it is different or not what was hoped for.