Against this Brexit now
So, the date for the referendum on Britain's exit from the European Union has been set (23rd June) and politicians on both sides are coming out with their position on the matter. Unusually, David...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Converts more liable to become terrorists? Really?
ThinkProgress, a site some of us had taken for a progressive opinion site, recently published a piece titled "Why Converts To Islam Are So Susceptible To Becoming Terrorists", by one Beenish Ahmed (right). That...
Why was Sarah Reed in prison, not hospital?
Sarah Reed told family of alleged sexual assault in hospital, from the Guardian It has been revealed that Sarah Reed, the woman who was found dead in her cell at Holloway Prison in London...
Another victim of the great British mental health misery-go-round
They first sent me to Windsor, and then to Stoke on Trent In a holding cell in Liverpool three days and nights I spent My solicitor can't find me and my family don't know...
It’s only rape if it’s rape
Last weekend David Bowie died, and amid the non-stop media tributes (which have been compared to the relentless coverage of Lady Diana's death in 1997, although they can't have really approached that — normal...
Cologne attacks tell us nothing about Islam
On New Year's Eve, an organised gang of hundreds of young men, described as being of Arab or North African appearance, descended on the main railway station in Cologne, Germany, and molested and robbed...
Mediation, bullying and how it leads to adult violence
A week or so ago, I found a link that Karen Ingala-Smith, a prominent British campaigner against violence against women, posted about an 'experiment' in Harrow, north-west London, in which victims of domestic violence...
The AK-47 has always been the guerrilla weapon
In today's Guardian there is a feature on why the AK-47 has suddenly become the weapon of choice for terrorists, replacing suicide belts and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The article features a petty arms...
Joe Holliday and medical gender assignment
Back in the late 1990s I remember watching a documentary about a young girl then named Joella Holliday, whose mother had been fighting to get a birth certificate issued that said she was female....
Apple iCloud scam warning
Earlier today I got an email ostensibly from Apple, which told me that my iCloud ID was facing deletion because I had not ‘confirmed’ it. The email read: You’ve not yet confirmed your iCloud...
No, Labour will not survive another split
In today’s Observer, there is a long article by former Labour stragegist (now a London headteacher) Peter Hyman in which he claims that the current Labour party is a party of “pacifism, republicanism and...
Populist bigots need not be fascists
Yesterday there was an article published in the Times by Melanie Phillips (it is paywalled, but a scanned image can be found here), a writer whose rantings against Muslims used to be a favourite...
Muslim women don’t owe solidarity to bigots
This morning I was listening to Vanessa Feltz’s phone-in show in London which is every weekday from 9am to noon. I tuned in just before 10am at which point I was heading out on...
Propaganda is not care
I saw a graphic that was presented next to an article for childminders on how to teach ‘British values’, as now required by the government, and the schools inspectorate Ofsted (which also governs children’s...
Sympathy for Tania Clarence shows disablist attitudes
In April 2014, Tania Clarence smothered three of her four children, Olivia, Ben and Max, all of whom had spinal muscular atrophy type 2 (SMA2), at the family home in New Malden (see earlier...
Review: Britain’s ISIS Supporters
[ISIS: The British Women Supporters Unveiled](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/isis-the-british-women-supporters-unveiled) from Channel 4 (available for 26 days as of this writing) On Monday night Channel 4 broadcast what purported to be an investigation into a group of British...
The Paris attacks: what kind of “game changer” are they?
So, a week and a half after the attacks on civilian targets in central Paris, including a stadium, a concert hall and several restaurants on Friday night supposedly by ISIS (or rather, a group...
Who’s a waste of space, then?
A letter to … My godson, with whom I’ve decided to sever ties | Life and style | The Guardian When I used to read the print edition of the Guardian, the paper I've...
Germaine Greer’s views are extreme, but so are her critics’
The Goldfish last week posted an entry in which she examined the complaints of 'silencing' and 'censorship' regarding the petition to prevent Germaine Greer from speaking at Cardiff University on the grounds of having...
About that “only disability in life” meme
You can't be on social media for more than a few weeks at a time, especially in any group with any disability connection whatever, without someone posting that infuriating meme that says "The only...