Hello, I’m Antonia Bance. I live in Oxford, and represent Rose Hill and Iffley ward on Oxford city council. In May 2008, I was appointed lead member for social inclusion and young people, part of the Labour administration on the city council. Professionally, I work in policy and communications for an NGO. I was Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Oxford West and Abingdon constituency in 2005.

Politics
I’m a feminist and a democratic socialist. I’m part of the Labour wing of the Labour party - don’t pigeonhole me as old or new Labour, please. I’m loyal to the Labour party: Labour offers this country the best chance to enjoy a future of equality and social justice. I think that the vast majority of what we have done in the last decade has been great, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t criticise when we do something wrong, stupid or both.

Just so you know, I opposed the war in Iraq, but believe that UK troops remaining in Iraq can help create an environment where the people of Iraq can determine their own future; and I stand with Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and a negotiated two-state settlement, with democracy and security for both nations. Having said all that, foreign policy isn’t my passion: social policy is. If I want one thing from the remainder of this historic third term, it’s making sure that child poverty is cut by 50% by 2010; if I’ll campaign for one thing at the next general election, it’ll be for the only party committed to abolish it altogether by 2020.

About the site
This is both a personal site and a political one. The blog is for my opinions and things I’m interested in; there are also some pages about the ward I represent accessible from the sidebar. If you’re looking for information about other wards or Labour in Oxford, please go to Oxford Labour. Nothing I say here represents the opinion of the Oxford Labour party or city Labour group; nor does it represent the opinion of my employer.

My main areas of interest are women’s, poverty and young people’s policy and Labour politics. I blog about traditional women’s issues like abortion and violence against women, and on new feminist issues, like teenage pregnancy and Fathers4Justice. I also blog about some lesbian and gay issues and about other issues as they strike me as interesting. I’m trying to break the habit of blogging about work. Throughout, the blog is grounded in the wonderful city where I live: Oxford. I blog to record interesting times in my life, such as being a parliamentary candidate, and working for John Kerry in Philadelphia. This site is also a space for me to put up my opinions, flag up interesting things, communicate with friends and record life.

If you’re looking for in depth analyses of the war in Iraq, the pros and cons of ID cards or why we should join the Euro, you won’t find it here: not because I don’t have an opinon or don’t care, but just because I don’t find them very interesting, and because so many other people blog about these sort of issues that it wouldn’t take you long to find someone who could reinforce or challenge your opinions better than me.

Site rules
Welcome to my website. I make the rules here. This concept is succintly expressed as “my site, my rules”. I’m not going to create a platform for racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial or homophobia. I will delete comments that violate this rule or that are otherwise offensive. It’s not about discouraging the participation of those who disagree with me - have I taken down comments from apologists for Fathers4Justice? No, I have not. If you’re uncomfortable with this, don’t bother hanging around. Just in case you’re not clear: calling me a man-hater, a feminazi, implying that I am a fascist or national socialist, being glad that as a lesbian I’ll never have children (that’s what you think…) and similar comments are indeed enough to get you banned.

External links
If you’re looking for my archived website from the general election campaign 2005, go here. My Normblog profile is available here. I was profiled as part of a piece in the Guardian about women bloggers in June 2006; it’s available here. I was Politics Online’s Person of the Week in September 2006; you can read my profile here.

My best posts
If you’re new to the blog, perhaps you’d like to start with these posts, which I think are my best (newest first):

Local politics, Rose Hill and being a councillor
A letter to our local Tories , 7 August 2007
What young people want, 11 June 2007
Reasons to be cheerful, 5 December 2006
Being a Guardian-cack inspired councillor (on homophobia), 24 June 2006
Still not a councillor-blog (on life as a new councillor), 30 May 2006

National politics
On loan to Reading (local elections 2007), 4 May 2007
This blog will be backing Jon Cruddas, 14 November 2006
McDonnell in Oxford, 12 November 2006
On being a fantastic politician (meeting Gordon Brown), 1 October 2006
Antonia elsewhere (writing for the NS from party conference), 27 September 2006
9/11 five years on, 11 September 2006
Unity (on the attempted coup against Tony Blair), 7 September 2006
John Prescott and the education white paper , 18 Dec 2006
Blackpool Rocks (on Tory party conference), 8 Oct 2005
The next generation (on the Labour party), 4 September 2005
8725 votes and a historic third term, 6 May 2005
Nearly there (night before the general election), 5 May 2005
Last night (taking on the SWP), 29 April 2005

Women’s rights and feminism
A new trade in Croydon (trafficking), 22 August 2007
A discussion: the key priorities for a minister for men, 7 May 2007
How to win equal pay and end domestic violence, 7 March 2007
Poor little men (on all-women shortlists), 22 June 2006
Government policy on prostitution, 28 Dec 2005
The aggressive children of teenage mums, 17 Oct 2005
On the left (on socialist feminism), 30 August 2005
Women can’t stop rape, 12 August 2005
F4J Mark 2, (the post that caused all the trouble), 14 June 2005
Too much too young updated (teenage pregnancy), 23 May 2005

Miscellaneous
How the voluntary sector gets it wrong, 10 July 2007
On being a baby-murderer (the perils of looking for a flatmate), 30 May 2007
In Scotland (on the right type of voluntary sector), 19 April 2007
Not living in the real world (my one and only post on climate change), 11 March 2007
This is for all the people who came before (the first civil partnerships), 19 Dec 2006
Liam and Jody, (on homophobia), 20 Oct 2005
Oxford in the autumn, 16 September 2005
Open season on teenagers (on the GCSE results), 16 August 2005
Back from Philadelphia (the Kerry-Edwards campaign), 7 November 2004

(updated 25 May 2008)