Society
Are You Ready For Parenthood? Try This Simple Test!
The essential guide to whether you’re ready for kids. Tongue may be slightly in cheek. (read more)
Articles by Lisa Muggeridge
Society
Silver Linings: No Longer a Football Widow
Abba were right: breaking up is never easy. Nevertheless, it does come with some benefits (read more)
Society
The Vatican: Why Should An NGO Have a UN Seat?
Why does a Non Governmental Organisation have UN status as Nonmember State Permanent Observer? (read more)
Features
Ban the Burkini? Or Ban Middle-Aged White Male Decision-Makers?
Legislation covers everyone, not just the few women who dress in a way you find threatening (read more)
Society
Drugs: The Only Issue In Which Ignorance is a Virtue
Maybe our ‘war on drugs’ should be reframed as a ‘war’ on ignorance (read more)
Society
State-Scrounging and the Single Mother
Work, motherhood, singledom – the no-win blame game that winds the taxpayer right up (read more)
Society
Just Not the Damned Archers – An Ode to Radio Four
A grown-up relationship that lasts – the erudite but soothing appeal of Radio Four (read more)
Society
The Timeline of Being a Woman
Political activist Lisa Muggeridge chronicles the ways culture, politics and society combine to control women’s lives. (read more)
Art
Sex, Slashing and Suffrage: The Rokeby Venus (Diego Velasquez)
Mary Richardson’s ‘vandalism’ of the Rokeby Venus has become part of the story this painting tells, not something which detracts from its beauty. (read more)
Society
If I ran the economy…
The fact that our market is distorted enough that millions of working families now need state help to meet basic living costs is the problem. Not the ‘scroungers’ (read more)
Society
When The TUC Abandoned Unions
The power of labour to challenge capital is to be absorbed into the benefits system. Trade unions are no longer necessary. (read more)
Events
Kendal Calling : Festivals, Politics and Culture
Kendal Calling’s strength comes from its ability to tap into and play host to what has emerged since the digital revolution gave bands and artists the ability to promote themselves. (read more)
Society
Time for the Twitter Bubble to Burst
If your Twitter row is resulting in someone being fired, imprisoned or put at risk, it is time to get some perspective on your internet use (read more)
Society
Shafting the Welfare State [Part 2]
Social reform driven by market needs, with social policy development using corporate models. (read more)
Society
Shafting the Welfare State
The reality of social enterprise hides behind opaque language and mysterious ‘third sector’ jargon that alludes to volunteerism and good intentions. The key word is ‘enterprise’. They are run as businesses (read more)
Society
In Defence of Iain Duncan Smith
It is time to mount a defence of one the most hated figures in British politics – Iain Duncan Smith (read more)
Society
Chavs and Austerity
For those of us caught in austerity, there was no shock. Austerity is a forced return home. (read more)
Society
We Are Not All Trayvon Martin
Why tackling what happened to Trayvon Martin requires more than shouting his name and pretending you are the same. (read more)
Society
Intersectionality
Race, class, gender, sexuality, age, geography, identity and the economic inequality our system requires, comes down on women’s lives brutally. (read more)
Society
Cis or gender. What’s Your Privilege?
Transphobia is not about an academic term, it is about the reality of living in a country where you can’t even guarantee your doctor will speak to you like a human being, and where the risk of violence is the norm. (read more)
Society
On Porn and Prostitution
The market in education meant a market in women’s bodies. The welfare cuts meant a market in women’s bodies. The social work cuts meant an expansion to the market for young men’s, women’s, and children’s bodies. (read more)
Society
Twitter Storms
It’s dangerous, people are not who they seem on the internet. Inside those twitter storms (I’ve had a few) there are usually one or two who hang around for a week or so, its easy to pick up fixations on the net. They can be local, they can hang on for several years, having someone fixated on a fantasy idea of you that you cannot challenge is not fun. (read more)
Society
Outside of business, it’s business as usual
Orwell Prize shortlister Lisa Ansell takes a commonsense view of financial crisis and ground-level resilience I logged on to twitter today for the first time in a bit, and I saw that Baroness Warsi has (read more)
Society
Tribalism is a luxury
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize this very week, Lisa Ansell brings a very personal set of convictions to her writing. More than simple commentary, Ansell's own circumstances imbue her politics with the authority of one (read more)