The Rest Is Politics discuss the winner of the Politika Policy Competition

"A few months ago, you’ll remember we mentioned a policy competition for young people by Politica called Policy for Positive Change. The challenge we set, along with Politica, was for young people to write a 1,000-word policy proposal. They could choose from topics such as the online world, social inequality, AI, healthcare, climate, crime, and education. We said we would discuss the policy that was chosen as the winner.

The winner is Rosie Halsall. She is 18 and from Yorkshire and the Humber. Her proposal is that there should be annual provision of free sports bras and fittings for all secondary school girls.

The argument is that women participate in sport less than men, and there are many issues that stem from that, including osteoarthritis. There was also some interesting coverage last week showing that people who participate in sport are more likely to be confident and successful in later life — something you’d definitely buy into as a huge sport fan. I actually met Rosie by accident in the street walking up here. She was with her friends near Embankment Tube, which was lovely. What are the chances of encountering someone from Yorkshire on the very day we were going to talk about her proposal? Spooky — it really makes you wonder whether there isn’t a pattern to the universe.

Huge congratulations to Rosie. People may also want to read her paper, which we’ll share in the links. Some of the statistics are quite striking: one in two women suffer from osteoporosis risk compared with one in five men. Women lose up to 10% of their bone density in the first five years after menopause. This condition costs the NHS £1.8 billion annually. Only 36% of girls wear a sports bra for PE, although 84% believe it’s essential. Seventy-two percent feel self-conscious exercising without one, and 69% say they can’t run or jump freely without one — which is, of course, crucial for sport.

A sports bra is only one part of the broader story of women’s sport, with many other factors at play, but I’m really pleased that Rosie is drawing attention to how important sport is for development, and how sad it is that, according to these statistics at least, women currently participate less in sport than men at school."