On one level, David Cameron’s decision to legislate for equal marriage is a measure of just how far the Conservative Party has come since the 1980s. Only a quarter of a century ago, it was still acceptable for a Tory local government leader to respond to the arrival of AIDS with a call for ‘90% […]
Posts under ‘Sexual Politics’
The state should rid itself of its turbulent church
Nov 24th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Equality and religous freedom. Two fundamental rights, belief in which we share, at least in principle, with the Tory party. Maria Miller, Culture Secretary and minister for equalities, may well have our sympathy, then, in urging the Church of England to think again on women bishops. Some MPs, of all major parties, led by former […]
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On this day: the biggest women’s strike ever
Nov 23rd, 2012 by Jon Lansman.On this day, 23 November 1909, began a strike known as the Uprising of the 20,000. Over 20,000 Yiddish-speaking immigrants, mostly young women in their teens and twenties, launched a strike in New York’s garment industry. The strike lasted 11 weeks and remains the largest known strike by women in history. The morning after the […]
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For the Tories, housing is just another market chip
Nov 13th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.A right to decent housing does not exist in the Tory lexicon. Three Tory measures in the last few weeks are now exposing the ruthlessness with which a rigged market is cutting swathes through the housing needs of all the most vulnerable groups within the population. First, housing benefit is being abolished for all persons […]
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Kate Middleton and the right to ogle a young woman
Sep 20th, 2012 by Amelia Horgan.There’s been something of a royal flush this summer with not one but two of the younger members of our most elite family thrust, nakedly, into the spotlight. From billiards in the buff to the recent announcement that yet more gossip outlets, this time Italian and Swedish, are set to publish photos of Kate Middleton […]
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Labour party conference: we need to talk about women
Sep 13th, 2012 by Lucy Reese.Earlier this summer I was given a fantastic opportunity. I was selected as a delegate for the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras at this year’s Labour Party conference in Manchester. I was very excited at the time – it’s always nice to be chosen – but it all seemed a long way off. Something […]
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Assange: no superhero
Aug 23rd, 2012 by Lucy Reese.Julian Assange. I won’t say that I don’t think the work he did with WikiLeaks was totally awesome and incredibly important, yet as I’ve argued before, I have many reservations towards Assange the person – or rather the persona he projects to the world. Possibly this is because I was slightly underwhelmed when I saw […]
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Respect leader: “Galloway’s comments on rape are deeply disappointing and wrong”
Aug 21st, 2012 by Newsdesk.Respect’s leader, Salma Yaqoob has made the following statement on her own website: A heated controversy around Julian Assange … is conflating issues around freedom of speech with debates about what constitutes violence against women. Let me be clear, as a politician and as a woman. Rape occurs when a woman has not consented to […]
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Remind me, who was it who banned pictures of anal fisting?
Aug 8th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Simon Walsh has today, thankfully, been found not guilty at Kingston Crown Court of possessing “extreme pornography” — primarily images of consenting gay men engaged in legal acts of anal fisting. Had he been found guilty, he would have faced a possible penalty of three years in custody and inclusion on the sex offenders’ register. […]
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Sorry Cardinal O’Brien, but reality is redefining itself
Mar 4th, 2012 by David Osler.If you are still unpersuaded of the need for secularism to prevail in politics, then consider the latest religious intervention. Britain’s most senior Catholic is dominating the news agenda today with a hyperbole-laden polemic against the prospect of men being allowed to marry men, and women being allowed to marry women. Cardinal Keith O’Brien starts, […]
