An elderly couple visited my flat today. The estate agent told them about the local amenities, the opportunities for development, the parties the local residents’ association holds in the square every month. The old man looked out of the window onto the back garden, and as he did so a blanket of sunlight burst through the grey clouds. He...

This letter was submitted to Melanie Phillips through her website on 2nd November. Re-posted and open for comments at New Statesman online. Dear Ms Phillips, In a piece published on 21 October (“Jimmy Savile and how the liberal left encouraged the sexualisation of our children”)  you bring to the public’s attention the shameful...

This afternoon Michael Fallon and Ed Balls were on Radio 5, discussing the local election results. After a bit of Punch and Judy stuff, Balls was asked about the underwhelming demand for elected mayors. His response was, in tribal terms, a bit of a blinder: “David Cameron said it would mean Borises up and down the country – the country...

One day, when I was a teen, I started to cut myself, making thin little slits on my ankles and arms with a penknife. I stopped sleeping. I started to hear strange noises and voices in my head at night. Then I started to fall out with everyone at school; I found myself dipping into a weird sense of ecstasy: watching myself saying and doing...

Earlier this week, Rowenna Davis asked a very good question: what’s happened to the Big Society? Should the coalition ever wish to revive this maligned initiative, it could do much worse than look at Queen’s Park, the local government ward in the North of Westminster, where the residents have begun to campaign for a community...

As forums for a feminist protest go, the ITV Saturday night dating show Take Me Out is somewhat unlikely. The format is simple: 30 girls are lined up behind buzzers, a man appears on stage, and over a series of rounds he is subjected to an appraisal of his looks, character and lifestyle with the help of various VTs featuring his friends and...