Today I am wearing purple not just because I am already old and want to learn to spit but in memory of the fight which the Suffragettes waged to obtain the vote 100 years ago. How brave they were, not only physically but mentally as well! It takes a lot of courage to take up a banner and march in demonstrations even in the present time, when women are more visible in the public eye and much more confident in expressing their views. I was interested to hear at a talk given by Simon Heffer that the reason the women were granted the vote after the age of 30 was not because they were considered not to be mature enough to vote until they were 9 years older than males but because the government of the day wanted them at home to replace the loss of about two generations of the population in the Great War: don’t let the women have the opportunity of further education and a place in industry and the professions but keep them at home producing children.
Three generations of women have escaped having to fight for the right to vote so they are beholden to use it whenever the need arises. The WI is always in the forefront of sensible campaigns on behalf of the family and women’s welfare and are no longer bound by strict conventions on what is acceptable to be discussed in order to gain results. This week there is a question in Parliament about the practice of surgical mesh implants (Sling the Mesh) so why do some people think we cannot discuss FGM?
Every year once the short list for resolutions is released, it surprises me how many articles appear either in the national press or on the media on these very topics. This can be a good thing or not---are these ideas going to be old hat before the WI comes to discuss them in June or are they useful preparatory work as a build-up? Last year’s mandates are doing well. Lots of articles about plastic litter and measures to combat loneliness. The latter crosses over into the 2018 homelessness and modern slavery issues. The problems of self-image and the media and the selfie culture which is on the short list is appearing more often and also open talk about mental illness.
The sort of press interest we don’t need is people carping about the cost of the annual subscription and suggesting that the WI is closing branches. Is £41 for 11 meetings and for having the backup of a national organisation to look after our interests expensive? We are attracting younger members nationally although not locally. If we want younger members we really need evening WIs and operate where there are a lot of young women living and working. Reading the WI Life it seems to be the thirty year olds who are coming in perhaps to learn crafts but more likely to combat loneliness beyond work. Can we attract the older lonely too to get a good mix, since the sheltered accommodation these days is being built in the larger towns?
Our WI craft group has met twice since Christmas. We are turning our attention to making soft toy animals for the Annual Council Meeting competition. (This ties in with the resolutions about domestic abuse as the toys are to be given to women’s refuges). The book group has been reading The Girl on the Train which led to a lot of discussion about mental and physical abuse in the home. Because of a break over Christmas we had also read The Essex Serpent which was set in late Victorian times when women were beginning to question whether they had to obey convention and stay in the home rather than be educated and take an informed interest in the emergence of science and medicine.
So I’m back where I came in. We must not let the Suffragettes down by taking for granted all that they have won for us and remember that the early WI members were actively lending their support to their struggles. We can and should use their legacy to keep improving the lot of our families and others who find themselves suffering from injustice wherever they are.
 
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​There is one thing I can promise you in 2018: you will not find any recipes nor pictures of food on my blog. What did journalists and people on the media write about before they discovered food? On every page of newspapers these days there is something about baking or cooking or dieting. If it is not directly taking up columns, then it is in the adverts. I cannot be the only person bored to tears by the subject. However, I reserve the right to let you find references to food waste because that is something which I feel strongly about and which the WI wants to work towards reducing.
So that is one New Year’s resolution. The next is to try to eliminate as much plastic from my life as possible. I will continue to take paper bags with me when I shop for food and read the labels on any new purchase to see what it contains and where it came from. This slows the whole shopping process down but is quite interesting to do. I wonder whether the WI campaign, along with David Attenborough may really make a difference. Surely all plastic should display advice on whether it can be re-cycled or not. Couldn’t all plastic be collected in one bin and be similarly dealt with at a plant in every authority?  It is so confusing at present with no common treatment available.
If we are going to try to live by WI mandates we can all look out for our neighbours to combat loneliness and problems of depression which this often exacerbates. Homelessness is another problem that a WI member can try to alleviate by supporting her local women’s refuges and looking out for solutions. What a difference it would make if every town council took upon itself to house one homeless family! All communities have houses standing empty for months, sometimes years on end. Locally, we have an unused school building which has a roof, electricity and water which could be a refuge---albeit temporary until it is knocked down for re-development.
The local WI meeting last week touched on some of these topics when running through the shortlist of possible resolutions to go up for discussion at Cardiff at the NFWI Annual General Meeting in June. At this stage it is an individual choice from five topics but later we will vote as a WI either for or against the resolutions chosen to go forward. We listened to a very interesting talk on food nutrition when I think we all learned something new and useful about the food that we eat and what our bodies need and do with it. A high proportion of our members are planning to become dual members with the morning WI. Our interest groups continue to flourish.
The discussion group which meets monthly in a member’s house is one of the most successful of these. It is now four years old and has not run out of topics yet nor had anyone so offended as to walk out. Last night we were discussing body image in line with one of the shortlist resolutions. This again is a field where social media and advertising have a lot to answer for. It is not a new problem as everyone has always worried about how other people view us but now through social media one is on trial by a vast audience which is made up of spiteful people cloaked by anonymity. It is no longer one’s peer group in class nor one’s own family nor villagers on the street; it is the whole country telling everyone else where one’s face or body falls short of perfection. Little wonder the victim refuses to go out, go to school or walk back into the workplace.

27th November
The Resolution Selection Meeting was held at Gatehouse, Aylesbury this afternoon. The WI Advisers briefed us on the 5 resolutions on the short list to go to the Annual General Meeting at Cardiff in June next year. Every WI has the chance to send 2 representatives to hear a little more about the resolutions than is printed in the November WI Life magazine. They can then return to their WIs and hope to bring more information to their members before they hand in their preferred personal selection.  In the old days, the advisers had to rely on written notes and do lots of homework for themselves but nowadays NFWI provides screened presentations and videos which can be used along side personal experience and research. This certainly makes the afternoon livelier and helps to lift the gloom induced by the topics under discussion. The two, one on Female Genital Mutilation and the other on Modern Slavery were second visits to previous subjects but more specific in their approach. The one on mental health is certainly very topical and may be a battle already half won. At first, I thought the problems of presenting a positive body image in the digital age was too lightweight to deserve a resolution but having listened to the presentation I could see there was more to this one than I had first considered. (Therein lies the importance of these selection meetings). However, the one on oral health strikes me as too minor to “waste” a resolution on. It is always difficult not to show one’s own bias when presenting the resolutions to one’s WI or indeed to an audience like todays---or on this blog!--- but obviously we will try. It is shaming that so many of the members feel that the resolution process shouldn’t take up part of two monthly meetings in the year. I am going to be very naughty and reveal an exchange in the break which absolutely made my day. A lady who had been travelling in Africa was talking about the abuse rampant against salamis! One of those moments which occur increasingly often at certain times of life. Of course, she realised almost immediately her mistake and we switched our sympathy towards the Somalis.
16th November
This morning there was the Jigsaw Swap coffee morning held in a member’s house. It was well attended by mostly WI members but a few Ramblers were there as well. Funds raised were split between the Denman College Appeal and Adoption UK so each charity received £50. One doesn’t need to buy or sell a jigsaw to attend: to sit around and talk is quite acceptable.
14th November
I have been meaning to visit the WI shop at Stuart Lodge and finally did so today. I didn’t do my homework beforehand so arrived when the craft people were engaged in a group session of decorating candles. Apparently the second Tuesday of the month there is always some kind of a craft going on. It didn’t matter as I could still browse around the shelves and chat to people I hadn’t seen for ages. Now I know about this activity I might bring some of the local craft group down---those who have never been to Stuart Lodge at all. It was a lovely drive south, past Chequers and under the golden leaves of the trees with the sun shining AND a roe deer stepped out into the road ahead of me, surveyed the approaching cars and returned the way he had come. Of course, I hadn’t got a camera so missed recording a really magic moment.
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4th June

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the Annual General Meeting at the Royal Albert Hall but caught snatches of it on the broadcast and in the media. I did quiz people on their return. It was obviously a memorable occasion and the Queen's presence was much appreciated: the Princess Royal and the Countess of Wessex were welcomed too.But how disappointing that there was such a muddle over the resolution. Our WI had told our delegate to vote against it before we were aware of the amendment (not that that made much difference) so it will be interesting to hear what she did then and after with the "move to the next business".It was a shame that at such an important meeting as the centenary, the weakness of the NFWI resolution selection procedure was revealed. The system as it stands needs revising so that the members do not confuse voting to discuss a resolution at the AGM  with the actual vote for or against it. Some members take no interest in the campaigning side of the WI but without it the WI wouldn't have lasted long enough to celebrate its centenary.

 

3rd June

It was the evening for the local WI to meet but once more in a foreign venue: this time we were in the Rose Room where we used to gather many years ago before the membership outgrew it. We listened to an interesting talk about CID work in Bucks. The competition for a pair of handcuffs in any medium was startling to say the least---some of the exhibits looked straight out of "50 Shades of Grey". It made me wonder what I didn't know about our membership! We heard a report on the Royal Garden Party and another from a member who had just returned from a residential course at Denman College.Although Jean had gone on her own and it was her first visit she had found the experience most enjoyable. She had gone for a bit of a rest but worked very hard on a pastry course from which she had returned with goodies to share with friends.Some of the finished shawls for the fistula patients in Ethiopia which the members are knitting were on display but apparently there are twice as many about to be sewn together and edged before the end of July.We were also called to a gathering to make things with which to "Bomb" the town square when the WI has booked a stall at the next Farmers' Market.What with erotic handcuffs and bombing plans I don't know what our WI is coming to!

 

2nd June

Three lucky members from the local WI joined others to attend the Royal Garden Party hosted by the Duchess of Cornwall in Buckingham Palace Gardens. The Bucks WI coach was allowed to park at the side of the Mall which was very convenient. It threatened rain but never did but wow! the wind! The queues to get inside the palace gardens were long and very colourful. It was like watching a fashion show while we waited.The security people were quick and efficient and we were soon crossing the forecourt and entering the beautiful main hall and then on through to the gardens. There were lots and lots of gorgeous hats being blown among the chairs and tables set out for tea. We saw the royal party which included the Countess of Wessex and Princess Alexandra; the Calendar Girls were in attendance too. The tea was lovely and as there wasn't seating for 8000 women, we stood about balancing proper plates and cups and chatting to members from all over the country. The queues for the loos were extremely long but everyone was talking 50 to the dozen so we didn't really mind. We wandered round the gardens and listened to the bands and then it was all over and it was time to find our coach and return home. A great experience to remember.

15th January
Halfway through the month already! Tonight the local WI discussion group got together. We were supposed to be talking about New Year Resolutions but it wasn't a topic conducive to much talk.Most people there didn't make them or knew that they broke them very early on anyway. Also if one revealed a resolution it rather drew attention to one's basic failings which perhaps should remain hidden and certainly not be discussed by everyone in the WI. So we ended up running through the members' experiences with the local NHS and the town pharmacy which did provide mixed feelings. The topic for the next session should be more interesting. Perhaps I ought to have conducted a bit of a survey on the referendum I introduced on my blog in the first entry of this year.

9th January
Today was the meeting of the Current Affairs sub-committee down in High Wycombe at the Bucks Federation HQ. We spent a lot of time organising the coming Investigation and Discovery meeting in March which promises to be a sell-out.We are especially pleased about this as we know that other federations have difficulty attracting WI members to any event which has a whiff of science about it. So well done to Bucks members! We also spent time debating whether we ought to return to being named Education and Current Affairs because we didn't want to be restricted to work with the WI campaigns. We know that the events that have been popular over the years have been based on history, geography and the environment and we don't want to be deadly serious all the time. We need to cover the campaigns because that is our job and we enjoy organising things like the Great Food Debate and lobbying MPs about midwives but we want a bit of fun too. So we have asked the BOT to agree to a change back.

8th January
The first local WI meeting tonight and yet more new members arriving! We are going to need our name badges more than ever as we get to know new faces.The talk was given by one of our own members and she called it Spinning Plates. If the crowd had come to see a juggler it would soon have seen its mistake because these spinning plates are beneath our feet. We watched an excellent presentation about volcanoes and earthquakes and everyone was so quiet and attentive that you would have heard a pin drop, never mind a plate.It was not the same during the coffee break when the level of chatter was extremely loud---well, we hadn't seen each other for about a month! We handed in our voting slips for the AGM resolution choice and paid subscriptions and planned events over the next few months.Some of us are going to play scrabble to see if there is a team in the making for the County competition.I am sure our WI will have a go because it usually does have a shot at most of the county competitions whether it is craft or croquet.