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Portsmouth schools join MP for Suffragette singalong in Westminster

By 27 November 2018September 8th, 2022No Comments

MP Stephen Morgan has hosted a special performance to mark the 100-year anniversary of the first women being given the vote.  Thirty young people from Portsmouth schools travelled up to sing in Westminster.

Portsmouth Music Hub has been working with schools from the city to compose three songs to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage. They performed their songs in front of the Suffragette statue in Parliament Square. Stephen Morgan MP invited a selection of MP’s and Lords to watch the singing.

Prior to performance, the young people took a tour of the Palace of Westminster to learn a little more about how parliament runs on a day to day basis.

The event forms part of Stephen’s Vote 100 Portsmouth campaign, which both aims to celebrate the centenary of women’s right to vote and look forward to what women can achieve in the next 100 years with a series of local events and activities throughout the year.

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Stephen Morgan MP said: 

“I really enjoyed hearing the young people of Portsmouth singing their songs; Deeds Not Words, Hear Our Voice and The Suffragettes. Even after all that has been achieved in the last century, there remains a great need for better gender balance in elected roles.

While the centenary is an opportunity for us to recognise how far we have progressed in the fight for gender equality, it’s also important we recognise how much further we have to go.

My Vote 100 Portsmouth campaign aims to address these issues, to inspire more young women to use their democratic voice and to encourage women into elected roles. I look forward to continuing to mark this important year through ongoing Vote 100 events

I’d like to thank Cottage Grove Primary School, Craneswater Junior School, St. Edmund’s Catholic School, St. John’s Cathedral Catholic Primary School, Charter Academy and St. Swithun’s Catholic Primary School for their hard work and enthusiasm”.

Sue Beckett, CEO of Portsmouth Music Hub, said:

“Music can bring history to life, and children from Portsmouth Schools have captured an important moment in time, when our country took a leap towards a fairer world.

Singing 3 songs, composed by the award-winning team of composers at Portsmouth Music Hub, the children evoke and remember the struggle of the Suffragette movement; the passion, the dedication and the courage.

The children’s performance at Parliament, beneath the statue of the campaigner Millicent Fawcett, is a celebration of all the progress that has been made to end discrimination in our laws and in our lives.”