Girls, careers and posh schools
Girls must choose career or motherhood, says top head – Telegraph The Telegraph has interviewed the 'headmistress' of a London private girls' school, Francis Holland in Regent's Park, who says that she's "not a...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Iraq: We were right all along
So, today Tony Blair finally admitted in an interview on CNN (more here) that his action in following the Americans into war in Iraq in 2003 may have helped allow the rise of ISIS,...
It’s official: Connor Sparrowhawk died of neglect
Yesterday, the verdict was delivered in the inquest into the death of Connor Sparrowhawk, known as Laughing Boy or LB, in the NHS learning disability unit at Slade House, Oxford, in July 2013. The...
You were warned
I rarely watch Question Time, the late-night show on BBC1 in which an audience gets to ask questions of a panel of politicians and journalists, because it's on too late (I usually start work...
On Jeremy Corbyn and those nukes
Last week Jeremy Corbyn, the new Labour leader, said in an interview that if he were Prime Minister, he would not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances, which provoked a storm of controversy with...
No, meat is not murder (and other reflections on Corbyn)
Last week it was revealed (or we were reminded) that the new shadow cabinet member for agriculture and the environment, Kerry McCarthy, was a vegan who gave an interview with the vegan magazine Viva!Life,...
‘House Muslims’, whatever we call them, are a thing
The other day Tell MAMA, which monitors hate crimes against Muslims, published an anonymous article claiming that certain unnamed "moral guardians of the Internet", mainly aged between 20 and 35 "who spend their time...
Saudi Arabia minimising civilian casualties?
I was rather surprised to hear the ongoing war in Yemen being described as the "forgotten war" on BBC's Newsnight, as I've been hearing about it almost non-stop on my social media feeds; but...
Name the problem: White Bigotry
There are some themes which will be familiar to anyone who follows or is involved in feminist discourses about rape and other violence against women and children: that the perpetrators often go unnamed while...
Jeremy Corbyn, ‘Islamists’ and women-only carriages
Earlier this week Jeremy Corbyn (right) gave his support to considering reintroducing women-only carriages on trains, which were found in the UK until the 1970s and still in a number of other countries, particularly...
No, we can’t hold all air shows by the sea
I heard the most extraordinary and ridiculous interview on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. John Humphrys was interviewing John Turner from the British Air Display Association about the accident outside Shoreham, West Sussex...
Review: The World’s Worst Place to be Disabled
The World's Worst Place… is a documentary featuring Sophie Morgan, a British model and TV presenter who has been a wheelchair user since being paralysed in a car accident twelve years ago, travelling to...
Fear-free healthcare, revisited
Back in 2012, I published on this site a manifesto of sorts, calling for healthcare in the UK to be free of fear. Back then I was heavily involved in ME activism and three...
Why does Amnesty need a policy on prostitution?
Last week, Amnesty International adopted a policy supporting the decriminalisation of the sex trade after a debate in which it was subjected to intense lobbying from two groups of feminists (amid renewed mud-slinging between...
Review of Wanted: A Very Personal Assistant
Wanted: A Very Personal Assistant is another part of BBC Three's ongoing season of programmes about disability, Defying the Label. In this two-part series, four young people with mobility impairments of differing severity were...
Yes, we do get rid of ‘hate preachers’
‘If you hate the migrants in Calais, you hate yourself’ | Nick Cohen (in today's Observer) People have been sharing this feature by Nick Cohen since it first appeared online yesterday (and I had...
There’s more to the Binladins than OBL
Yesterday a light aircraft crashed when attempting to land at Blackbushe airfield near Farnborough. The airfield is a former RAF base which has also been a passenger airport, but these days is used for...
On Jeremy Corbyn: no, it’s not about purity
The Labour Party are currently holding their leadership election following the resignation of Ed Miliband after he lost the general election in May. The four candidates are Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper and...
Review: Don’t Take My Baby
Don’t Take My Baby is an hour-long BBC drama, broadcast on BBC Three (which is likely to be removed from digital TV and only shown online as of next year, something one review says...
Anti-FGM crusade brings out the busybodies
The crusade against FGM is out of control – Spectator Blogs Brendan O'Neill wrote the above article on the incident reported recently in the British press, in which Baroness Jenny Tonge took a flight...