Hapless, hopeless dad. How many times have we all come across him? Whether it’s Homer Simpson or Daddy Pig, these portrayals reinforce the stereotype that men are incapable in the domestic sphere. The idea is that men couldn’t possibly be competent fathers who know what they’re doing. It’s unfair, false and sexist.
It doesn’t need to be this way. One of the reasons why I fought so hard to introduce shared parental leave while I was employment relations minister was because I believe dads and children deserve better. Now, we must go further.
There is nothing that compares to the bonding between parent and child in that first year of life. Study after study shows how both parents being involved in the early weeks and months of a child’s life is good for the child’s development.
Shared parental leave is good for dads. Looking after their newborn on their own is a unique learning experience. Changing nappies, pureeing food, getting a baby to sleep – none of this is rocket science. It just needs time, patience and a LOT of unconditional love. With parenting, like any other skill in life, practice makes perfect.
I found that in my own family. When our eldest, Andrew, was born five years ago, shared parental leave wasn’t available. It was this time around with Gabriel. Because Duncan and I took it in turns to be at home with Gabriel, we each had different experiences with him – I was the one helping Gabriel to learn to roll over and sit up, while Duncan was in charge of weaning Gabriel onto solid food.
1/50 4 April 2019
England football manager Gareth Southgate with the OBE that he received at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London
PA
2/50 3 April 2019
Newborn lambs in a snow covered field near Allendale, Northumberland, after temperatures dipped below freezing overnight. Hill snow, sleet, showers and gales are expected for parts of the UK as the chilly snap keeps hold.
PA
3/50 2 April 2019
Armathwaite Hall hotel in Keswick, Cumbria holds Lemoga classes with the lemurs from Lake District Wild Life Park, who were mingling with the class to create a personal yoga experience which aims to heighten the sense of wellbeing for both lemur and human. With their friendly, outgoing personalities and love for human contact, lemurs make the perfect yoga buddies, helping people to laugh, unwind and stretch away their troubles
PA
4/50 1 April 2019
Fire fighters attend to two police cars that were destroyed after being set on fire outside Goldthorpe police station in South Yorkshire in a suspected arson attack
PA
5/50 31 March 2019
Forensics teams work at the scene of a stabbing in Edmonton in London. Four people have been stabbed in a spate of knife attacks in the north of the capital over the weekend
Getty
6/50 30 March 2019
Workers from the Honda plant in Swindon during a protest march through the town as the car giant will be urged to reverse its decision to close its UK plant
Unite South West/PA
7/50 29 March 2019
Pro-Brexit protesters outside Westminster as MPs voted on a Government motion on the EU withdrawal
PA
8/50 28 March 2019
England football captain Harry Kane is made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by the Duke of Cambridge during an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace
PA
9/50 27 March 2019
Gallery staff give a final dusting to the ‘Olympe’ sculpture by Aspencrow, modelled on Cara Delevingne and an interpretation of Medusa, as it is unveiled at the JD Malay Gallery in Mayfair, London
PA
10/50 26 March 2019
PD Marci with handler PC Neil Billany, PD Kai with handler PC Jean Pearce, PD Bruno with handler Rob Smith, PD Delta with handler PC Mark Snoxhall, PDSA vet Rosamund Ford, and PD Dave with handler PC Andy Salter at Borough market in London where the dogs were honoured with the PDSA Order of Merit for helping emergency services during the 2017 London terror attacks at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Borough Market
PA
11/50 25 March 2019
Britain’s Attorney General Geoffrey Cox arrives in Downing street, London for a cabinet meeting. British Prime Minister Theresa May will today chair a potentially volatile meeting of her cabinet amid reports of an attempted coup by colleagues over her handling of Brexit.
AFP/Getty
12/50 24 March 2019
Workers peeling off stickers left on the Cabinet Office door on Whitehall, London, left by anti-Brexit campaigners after they took part in the People’s Vote March
PA
13/50 23 March 2019
Protesters take part in the Put It To The People March on Whitehall in London. Thousands of protesters gathered for the march from Park Lane to Parliament Square calling for a public vote on the Governments final Brexit deal
Getty
14/50 22 March 2019
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after a news briefing after meeting with EU leaders in Brussels
Reuters
15/50 21 March 2019
The mosque and community centre on Albert Road in Birmingham where a police forensic team are at work after it had its windows smashed with a sledgehammer. An investigation involving counter-terrorism officers has been launched after four mosques in the Birmingham area were attacked overnight
PA
16/50 20 March 2019
Gallery technicians install Edvard Munch’s The Scream at the British Museum in London, ahead of the opening of Edvard Munch: love and angst exhibition, which runs from 11 April to 21 July
PA
17/50 19 March 2019
The ‘tall ship’ William II passes a wind turbine as it sails along the north east coast near Whitley Bay in Tyne and Wear after it set off from Blyth in Northumberland on a voyage round the coastline of Great Britain calling at 10 ports en route and changing crews at each stage. The Blyth Tall Ship project is a charity working alongside Blyth community volunteers to recapture the spirit of adventure that was employed in the town to discover the Antarctic 200 years ago and the turbine is part of a pilot field operated by EDF off Blyth which uses concrete float-and-submerge foundations
PA
18/50 18 March 2019
Messenger, the largest bronze cast sculpture in the UK, arrives in Plymouth Sound by barge as it makes its way to be installed outside Theater Royal Plymouth, Devon
PA
19/50 17 March 2019
Flooding in Silsdend, Yorkshire. Heavy rain has caused widespread flooding across the country. Flood warnings remain in place across the UK
PA
20/50 16 March 2019
Police at the scene in Fulham, west London where a 29-year-old man was stabbed to death this morning. The Metropolitan Police said it was called “to reports of a fight in progress” by ambulance crews and arrived on the scene at about 12.27am. The victim was found with stab wounds and died at the scene at 12.56am despite attempts by paramedics and members of the public to save his life
PA
21/50 15 March 2019
Schoolchildren gather around Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace as they take part in a student climate protest in London. Thousands of pupils from schools, colleges and universities across the UK will walk out in the second major strike against climate change this year. Young people nationwide are calling on the Government to declare a climate emergency and take action. Similar strikes are taking place around the world today including in Japan and Australia, inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg who criticised world leaders at a United Nations climate conference
Getty
22/50 14 March 2019
Families of those killed during Bloody Sunday march through Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland. The Public Prosecution Service announced only one former British soldier is to be put on trial in connection with his role in the shootings that left 13 people dead in Derry on 30 January 1972. Families of those killed gathered outside The Museum of Free Derry, yards from where the killings took place, before marching to the city centre hotel to hear the announcement
Charles McQuillan
Getty
23/50 13 March 2019
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street as he heads to the House of Commons, to deliver his Spring Statement. He announced he was slashing the UK growth forecast and warned no-deal Brexit will destroy pledge to end austerity
PA
24/50 12 March 2019
British Synchronised swimmers Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe, attempting to recreate their World Championship routine in a pool filled with plastic for The Big Bang Fair challenge, opening this week at the NEC Birmingham. The campaign for the Big Bang competition, which is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) for young people in the UK has been created to help highlight how the eight million tonnes of plastic dumped in the world’s oceans every year affects marine life
PA
25/50 11 March 2019
Snow surrounds the Tan Hill pub in North Yorkshire
PA
26/50 10 March 2019
A man feeds food to dogs during the ‘Brexit Dogs Dinner’ protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London
Reuters
27/50 9 March 2019
Protesters from the climate change pressure group Extinction Rebellion demonstrate by pouring fake blood onto the street outside Downing Street in London
Reuters
28/50 8 March 2019
A woman runs with her Komondor dog as it is judged in a show ring on the second day of the Crufts dog show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham
AFP/Getty
29/50 7 March 2019
Scaffolding which has blown down in strong winds in Hampstead, north London
Robert Berg/Twitter/PA Wire
30/50 6 March 2019
Police and bomb disposal services outside the University of Glasgow after the building was evacuated when a suspect package was found in the mailroom
PA
31/50 5 March 2019
Police officers secure the scene where a suspicious package was found near Waterloo railway station. Other packages were also found at Heathrow Airport and London City Airport, with the police saying they were bombs. Counterterror officers are investigating the three devices as linked following a series of evacuations. One of the packages opened by office staff at Heathrow Airport burst into flames. Scotland Yard did not rule out the existence of other bombs. “The packages – all A4-sized white postal bags containing yellow Jiffy bags – have been assessed by specialist officers to be small improvised explosive devices,” a spokesperson said. “These devices, at this early stage of the investigation, appear capable of igniting an initially small fire when opened. “The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is treating the incidents as a linked series and is keeping an open mind regarding motives.”
Reuters
32/50 4 March 2019
Large waves crash over the sea walls at Cleveleys near Blackpool, as the remains of Storm Freya, which has battered Britain with gales, heavy rain and snow causes widespread travel disruption
PA
33/50 3 March 2019
Christopher Hepworth with partner Tanisha Prince (right) on their way to victory in the annual UK Wife Carrying Race at The Nower in Dorking, Surrey
PA
34/50 2 March 2019
Police officers search near the scene on St Neot’s Road in Harold Hill, east London following the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old girl on Friday night. Police were called to reports of a knife attack in the Romford area by the ambulance service at 9.25pm. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene just over an hour later. Her next of kin have been informed and detectives from the Metropolitan Police have launched a murder investigation
PA
35/50 1 March 2019
Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Niamh Emerson celebrate after winning gold and silver medals in the women’s pentathlon at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow
Getty
36/50 28 February 2019
A painting, believed to be the second version of “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is picutred during a photocall in London following its restoration. – The 400-year-old canvas — depicting the beheading of an Assyrian general, Holofernes, by Judith from the biblical Book of Judith — was found in 2014 when the owners of a house near the southwestern city of Toulouse in France, were investigating a leak in the ceiling. It is a burst of violence painted in haunting tones by a Renaissance master worth at least $100 million — or yet another fake distressing the art world.
AFP/Getty
37/50 27 February 2019
Dozens of firefighters worked through the night to battle a major moorland blaze in West Yorkshire. More than 1.5sq km of Saddleworth Moor was ablaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the UK’s hottest winter day on record
Reuters
38/50 26 February 2019
Alastair Cook after he received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace
PA
39/50 25 February 2019
Nobby the polar bear cools down at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park during unseasonably warm weather. The park was covered in a blanket of snow at the end of February 2018 as the UK was hit by sub-zero temperatures. Forecasters have said that after this weekend’s warm weather, temperatures later this week should return to normal
PA
40/50 24 February 2019
Olivia Colman won the best actress in a leading role award for ‘The Favourite’ at the 91st Academy Awards in Hollywood
PA
41/50 23 February 2019
Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson seen on the big screen as he addresses a protest over the BBC’s Panorama programme outside the BBC in MediaCityUK, Salford
PA
42/50 22 February 2019
A girl takes a photo of her dog with daffodils in St James’s Park in London
PA
43/50 21 February 2019
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the party’s Shadow Secretary of State for Departing the European Union Keir Starmer leave a meeting with European Union Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels
Reuters
44/50 20 February 2019
Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, (middle row, left to right) Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey, (front row, left to right) Sarah Woollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan, following a press conference for the Independent Group where the three Conservative MPs, Woollaston, Allen and Soubry, announced their resignation from the party
PA
45/50 19 February 2019
A full moon sets near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside as the sun begins to rise, ahead of the super snow moon on Tuesday evening
PA
46/50 18 February 2019
MP Chuka Umunna speaks during the announcement of his resignation, along with a group of six other Labour MPs, including, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey and Gavin Shuker and who will be known as the Independent Group
PA
47/50 17 February 2019
Climate change activists block the road as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest outside a London Fashion Week event at Tate Britain in London, calling on the fashion industry to use its influence to help to create a sustainable world.
PA
48/50 16 February 2019
Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest over BP and Iraq at the British Museum in London, Britain
Reuters
49/50 15 February 2019
Schoolchildren take part in a student climate march in Parliament Square in London. Thousands of UK pupils from schools, colleges and universities will walk out for a nationwide climate change strike. Students in 60 cities from the West Country to Scotland are protesting, urging the government to declare a climate emergency and take action over the problem. They are keen that the national curriculum is reformed and the environmental crisis is communicated to the public. Similar strikes have taken place in Australia and in European countries such as Belgium and Sweden
Getty
50/50 14 February 2019
A lady enjoys the beach in sunshine in Brighton, East Sussex. The Met Office forecast said Thursday and Friday would see early fog patches followed by plenty of sunshine
PA
1/50 4 April 2019
England football manager Gareth Southgate with the OBE that he received at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London
PA
2/50 3 April 2019
Newborn lambs in a snow covered field near Allendale, Northumberland, after temperatures dipped below freezing overnight. Hill snow, sleet, showers and gales are expected for parts of the UK as the chilly snap keeps hold.
PA
3/50 2 April 2019
Armathwaite Hall hotel in Keswick, Cumbria holds Lemoga classes with the lemurs from Lake District Wild Life Park, who were mingling with the class to create a personal yoga experience which aims to heighten the sense of wellbeing for both lemur and human. With their friendly, outgoing personalities and love for human contact, lemurs make the perfect yoga buddies, helping people to laugh, unwind and stretch away their troubles
PA
4/50 1 April 2019
Fire fighters attend to two police cars that were destroyed after being set on fire outside Goldthorpe police station in South Yorkshire in a suspected arson attack
PA
5/50 31 March 2019
Forensics teams work at the scene of a stabbing in Edmonton in London. Four people have been stabbed in a spate of knife attacks in the north of the capital over the weekend
Getty
6/50 30 March 2019
Workers from the Honda plant in Swindon during a protest march through the town as the car giant will be urged to reverse its decision to close its UK plant
Unite South West/PA
7/50 29 March 2019
Pro-Brexit protesters outside Westminster as MPs voted on a Government motion on the EU withdrawal
PA
8/50 28 March 2019
England football captain Harry Kane is made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by the Duke of Cambridge during an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace
PA
9/50 27 March 2019
Gallery staff give a final dusting to the ‘Olympe’ sculpture by Aspencrow, modelled on Cara Delevingne and an interpretation of Medusa, as it is unveiled at the JD Malay Gallery in Mayfair, London
PA
10/50 26 March 2019
PD Marci with handler PC Neil Billany, PD Kai with handler PC Jean Pearce, PD Bruno with handler Rob Smith, PD Delta with handler PC Mark Snoxhall, PDSA vet Rosamund Ford, and PD Dave with handler PC Andy Salter at Borough market in London where the dogs were honoured with the PDSA Order of Merit for helping emergency services during the 2017 London terror attacks at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Borough Market
PA
11/50 25 March 2019
Britain’s Attorney General Geoffrey Cox arrives in Downing street, London for a cabinet meeting. British Prime Minister Theresa May will today chair a potentially volatile meeting of her cabinet amid reports of an attempted coup by colleagues over her handling of Brexit.
AFP/Getty
12/50 24 March 2019
Workers peeling off stickers left on the Cabinet Office door on Whitehall, London, left by anti-Brexit campaigners after they took part in the People’s Vote March
PA
13/50 23 March 2019
Protesters take part in the Put It To The People March on Whitehall in London. Thousands of protesters gathered for the march from Park Lane to Parliament Square calling for a public vote on the Governments final Brexit deal
Getty
14/50 22 March 2019
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after a news briefing after meeting with EU leaders in Brussels
Reuters
15/50 21 March 2019
The mosque and community centre on Albert Road in Birmingham where a police forensic team are at work after it had its windows smashed with a sledgehammer. An investigation involving counter-terrorism officers has been launched after four mosques in the Birmingham area were attacked overnight
PA
16/50 20 March 2019
Gallery technicians install Edvard Munch’s The Scream at the British Museum in London, ahead of the opening of Edvard Munch: love and angst exhibition, which runs from 11 April to 21 July
PA
17/50 19 March 2019
The ‘tall ship’ William II passes a wind turbine as it sails along the north east coast near Whitley Bay in Tyne and Wear after it set off from Blyth in Northumberland on a voyage round the coastline of Great Britain calling at 10 ports en route and changing crews at each stage. The Blyth Tall Ship project is a charity working alongside Blyth community volunteers to recapture the spirit of adventure that was employed in the town to discover the Antarctic 200 years ago and the turbine is part of a pilot field operated by EDF off Blyth which uses concrete float-and-submerge foundations
PA
18/50 18 March 2019
Messenger, the largest bronze cast sculpture in the UK, arrives in Plymouth Sound by barge as it makes its way to be installed outside Theater Royal Plymouth, Devon
PA
19/50 17 March 2019
Flooding in Silsdend, Yorkshire. Heavy rain has caused widespread flooding across the country. Flood warnings remain in place across the UK
PA
20/50 16 March 2019
Police at the scene in Fulham, west London where a 29-year-old man was stabbed to death this morning. The Metropolitan Police said it was called “to reports of a fight in progress” by ambulance crews and arrived on the scene at about 12.27am. The victim was found with stab wounds and died at the scene at 12.56am despite attempts by paramedics and members of the public to save his life
PA
21/50 15 March 2019
Schoolchildren gather around Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace as they take part in a student climate protest in London. Thousands of pupils from schools, colleges and universities across the UK will walk out in the second major strike against climate change this year. Young people nationwide are calling on the Government to declare a climate emergency and take action. Similar strikes are taking place around the world today including in Japan and Australia, inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg who criticised world leaders at a United Nations climate conference
Getty
22/50 14 March 2019
Families of those killed during Bloody Sunday march through Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland. The Public Prosecution Service announced only one former British soldier is to be put on trial in connection with his role in the shootings that left 13 people dead in Derry on 30 January 1972. Families of those killed gathered outside The Museum of Free Derry, yards from where the killings took place, before marching to the city centre hotel to hear the announcement
Charles McQuillan
Getty
23/50 13 March 2019
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond leaves 11 Downing Street as he heads to the House of Commons, to deliver his Spring Statement. He announced he was slashing the UK growth forecast and warned no-deal Brexit will destroy pledge to end austerity
PA
24/50 12 March 2019
British Synchronised swimmers Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe, attempting to recreate their World Championship routine in a pool filled with plastic for The Big Bang Fair challenge, opening this week at the NEC Birmingham. The campaign for the Big Bang competition, which is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) for young people in the UK has been created to help highlight how the eight million tonnes of plastic dumped in the world’s oceans every year affects marine life
PA
25/50 11 March 2019
Snow surrounds the Tan Hill pub in North Yorkshire
PA
26/50 10 March 2019
A man feeds food to dogs during the ‘Brexit Dogs Dinner’ protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London
Reuters
27/50 9 March 2019
Protesters from the climate change pressure group Extinction Rebellion demonstrate by pouring fake blood onto the street outside Downing Street in London
Reuters
28/50 8 March 2019
A woman runs with her Komondor dog as it is judged in a show ring on the second day of the Crufts dog show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham
AFP/Getty
29/50 7 March 2019
Scaffolding which has blown down in strong winds in Hampstead, north London
Robert Berg/Twitter/PA Wire
30/50 6 March 2019
Police and bomb disposal services outside the University of Glasgow after the building was evacuated when a suspect package was found in the mailroom
PA
31/50 5 March 2019
Police officers secure the scene where a suspicious package was found near Waterloo railway station. Other packages were also found at Heathrow Airport and London City Airport, with the police saying they were bombs. Counterterror officers are investigating the three devices as linked following a series of evacuations. One of the packages opened by office staff at Heathrow Airport burst into flames. Scotland Yard did not rule out the existence of other bombs. “The packages – all A4-sized white postal bags containing yellow Jiffy bags – have been assessed by specialist officers to be small improvised explosive devices,” a spokesperson said. “These devices, at this early stage of the investigation, appear capable of igniting an initially small fire when opened. “The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is treating the incidents as a linked series and is keeping an open mind regarding motives.”
Reuters
32/50 4 March 2019
Large waves crash over the sea walls at Cleveleys near Blackpool, as the remains of Storm Freya, which has battered Britain with gales, heavy rain and snow causes widespread travel disruption
PA
33/50 3 March 2019
Christopher Hepworth with partner Tanisha Prince (right) on their way to victory in the annual UK Wife Carrying Race at The Nower in Dorking, Surrey
PA
34/50 2 March 2019
Police officers search near the scene on St Neot’s Road in Harold Hill, east London following the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old girl on Friday night. Police were called to reports of a knife attack in the Romford area by the ambulance service at 9.25pm. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene just over an hour later. Her next of kin have been informed and detectives from the Metropolitan Police have launched a murder investigation
PA
35/50 1 March 2019
Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Niamh Emerson celebrate after winning gold and silver medals in the women’s pentathlon at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow
Getty
36/50 28 February 2019
A painting, believed to be the second version of “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is picutred during a photocall in London following its restoration. – The 400-year-old canvas — depicting the beheading of an Assyrian general, Holofernes, by Judith from the biblical Book of Judith — was found in 2014 when the owners of a house near the southwestern city of Toulouse in France, were investigating a leak in the ceiling. It is a burst of violence painted in haunting tones by a Renaissance master worth at least $100 million — or yet another fake distressing the art world.
AFP/Getty
37/50 27 February 2019
Dozens of firefighters worked through the night to battle a major moorland blaze in West Yorkshire. More than 1.5sq km of Saddleworth Moor was ablaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the UK’s hottest winter day on record
Reuters
38/50 26 February 2019
Alastair Cook after he received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace
PA
39/50 25 February 2019
Nobby the polar bear cools down at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park during unseasonably warm weather. The park was covered in a blanket of snow at the end of February 2018 as the UK was hit by sub-zero temperatures. Forecasters have said that after this weekend’s warm weather, temperatures later this week should return to normal
PA
40/50 24 February 2019
Olivia Colman won the best actress in a leading role award for ‘The Favourite’ at the 91st Academy Awards in Hollywood
PA
41/50 23 February 2019
Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson seen on the big screen as he addresses a protest over the BBC’s Panorama programme outside the BBC in MediaCityUK, Salford
PA
42/50 22 February 2019
A girl takes a photo of her dog with daffodils in St James’s Park in London
PA
43/50 21 February 2019
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the party’s Shadow Secretary of State for Departing the European Union Keir Starmer leave a meeting with European Union Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels
Reuters
44/50 20 February 2019
Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, (middle row, left to right) Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey, (front row, left to right) Sarah Woollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan, following a press conference for the Independent Group where the three Conservative MPs, Woollaston, Allen and Soubry, announced their resignation from the party
PA
45/50 19 February 2019
A full moon sets near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside as the sun begins to rise, ahead of the super snow moon on Tuesday evening
PA
46/50 18 February 2019
MP Chuka Umunna speaks during the announcement of his resignation, along with a group of six other Labour MPs, including, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey and Gavin Shuker and who will be known as the Independent Group
PA
47/50 17 February 2019
Climate change activists block the road as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest outside a London Fashion Week event at Tate Britain in London, calling on the fashion industry to use its influence to help to create a sustainable world.
PA
48/50 16 February 2019
Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest over BP and Iraq at the British Museum in London, Britain
Reuters
49/50 15 February 2019
Schoolchildren take part in a student climate march in Parliament Square in London. Thousands of UK pupils from schools, colleges and universities will walk out for a nationwide climate change strike. Students in 60 cities from the West Country to Scotland are protesting, urging the government to declare a climate emergency and take action over the problem. They are keen that the national curriculum is reformed and the environmental crisis is communicated to the public. Similar strikes have taken place in Australia and in European countries such as Belgium and Sweden
Getty
50/50 14 February 2019
A lady enjoys the beach in sunshine in Brighton, East Sussex. The Met Office forecast said Thursday and Friday would see early fog patches followed by plenty of sunshine
PA
The flexibility of sharing leave also meant we could divide the time whatever way suited us best. We spent a few weeks in the summer together as a four, which was a wonderful time for our family to get to know our newest member together. And it meant I could come back to work in August and September last year for my constituency summer tour and party conference season.
And, of course, shared parental leave is good for mums. Having the choice to share the leave helps reduce the impact of time out of the labour market. Women who have children earn less, are less likely to be promoted and are more likely to be placed on the “mummy track” as managers assume they are not interested in new challenges. More dads taking parental leave isn’t a silver bullet, but it’ll make employers think twice about gender-based assumptions and the division of caring responsibilities.
So, on the fourth anniversary of shared parental leave, I couldn’t think of anything better than spending the morning with dads who shout from the rooftops about being a father, and the joys and challenges it brings.
We need more men to talk about their experiences of being a dad with colleagues, friends and family. It shouldn’t be surprising to hear about men being good fathers and it’s one of the most powerful ways we can counter the harmful “hapless dad” stereotype.
The anniversary is also a good time to reflect on how we can make parenthood that little bit easier and workplaces that little bit more family-friendly.
Employers should have better training for managers so that both women and men are properly supported as they start their families. They should encourage senior management to have better balanced work lives and to talk openly about leaving early to pick up their child from school instead of pretending they’re off to a client meeting.
And if employers are serious about wanting to build a more equal workplace, they should put their money where their mouth is. They must enhance shared parental pay at the same rate they do for maternity pay because no parent should miss out on time with their baby.
It is also time that shared parental leave is extended to self-employed dads, that fathers are given an additional four weeks of use-it-or-lose-it paternity leave and for shared parental leave to be a day one right, along with the right to request flexible working.
We must demand better that just talking about this. We must act. That is why I have set out these proposals in a Bill I have brought to parliament this week. If the government wasn’t bogged down in their own Brexit mess, then they could have delivered this already. Lucky for them, the hard work is done, and all ministers need to do is back the Bill. Parents are watching.
