1x50g Ball of Featherstone (Green) Sockmatician Edition Yarn (DK)

FEATHERSTONE’S STORY

The green stripe in my brooding rainbow is called Featherstone. This is Lynne Featherstone, or to give her her correct title, The Right Honourable The Baroness Lynne Featherstone PC.

Now a member of the House of Lords, Lynne was the Liberal Democrat MP for the constituency of Haringey, in which my husband and I lived for fourteen years, while in Highgate. She is the instigator and architect of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013, and worked tirelessly to get the bill passed during her time in government as part of the LibDem/Tory coalition at the time.

Lynne told me herself that she faced much opposition from the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, being repeatedly told, “It’s not in our manifesto, Minister, It’s not in our manifesto.” Undeterred, she continued her work, gathering as much support at the lower levels of parliament as she could, until there was such a groundswell of support in favour of bringing in the new legislation that the man at the top could no longer ignore the issue. It would have been toxic for him to do so, when so many MPs were in favour.

Benjamin and I invited Lynne to our own wedding. It was such an important day for us, but also for the social progress of our country, and as it took place on the first day that same-sex marriage was legal in England and Wales, we felt it only right that we should thank Lynne for affording us the opportunity to have our relationship officially recognised in law by inviting to share the occasion with us. We were delighted when she accepted the invitation, and extremely proud to have her there as part of our special day, which wouldn’t have been able to take place if it hadn’t been for her and her campaign.

When I was putting this collection of colourways together, I asked Lynne to choose which colour in the Pride Rainbow she would like to be represented by, and she immediately said the dark green. It was only then that I remembered that she had been wearing a dark green dress when she attended our wedding, so her answer felt utterly perfect.