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| Friday 27 February 2009 |
Deconstructing dads
Instead of lecturing fathers about ‘doing their bit’, politicians would do better to understand the messy and complex reality of contemporary parenting.
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| Tuesday 17 February 2009 |
Rule 18: be sceptical about ‘bad childhood’ reports
With so many shrill studies telling us that parents are selfish and uncaring, is it any wonder some children might feel a little insecure?
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| Friday 30 January 2009 |
The making of a
modern-day witch hunt
The publication of the paperback version of Richard Webster’s The Secret of Bryn Estyn is a powerful reminder of who is driving today’s hysterical anti-paedophile witch hunts: police, judges, politicians… the elite, not the mob.
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| Monday 29 December 2008 |
If only it had stayed ‘all in his mind’
Alastair Campbell’s first novel offers an intriguing peep into New Labour’s view of the human condition: a world in which fucked-up lunatics and victims are governed by other fucked-up lunatics and victims.
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| Monday 15 December 2008 |
Rule 17: The kids don’t know it all
In Britain’s ‘new vision’ for primary education, adults are reduced to the mere flatterers of techno-savvy kids. It’s a recipe for ignorance.
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| Wednesday 3 December 2008 |
The truth: why Down’s births have gone up
The idea that more Down’s syndrome births show that Britain has become more ‘caring’ is severely misleading.
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| Friday 21 November 2008 |
‘Just as bad as denying penicillin to a sick man’
As a medical student in 1968, Michael Crichton adopted a pseudonym to write a thriller about a young woman seeking an abortion, at a time when abortion was mostly illegal in the US. The book still packs a humane punch today.
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| Wednesday 12 November 2008 |
‘Baby P’: don’t turn this tragedy into a policy
Let’s stop the government from using this case as a springboard for spreading suspicion. PLUS: Ken McLaughlin on ‘scattergun social work’.
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| Wednesday 22 October 2008 |
Rule 16: Strong families need more than money
With both the state and market proving unreliable, maybe families will look to each other for support in hard times.
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| Thursday 18 September 2008 |
Rule 15: Not everyone you know is a latent paedophile
Allowing everyone to vet their neighbours and partners won’t save children from abuse, but it will have a poisonous effect on community life.
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| Tuesday 9 September 2008 |
Rule 14: Nobody needs a ‘Grandparents’ Charter’
The army of unpaid conscripts who look after their grandkids is growing – but they don’t need a rulebook to manage their childcare affairs.
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| Thursday 17 July 2008 |
Rule 13: You don’t have to love your maternity leave
Month after month bonding with baby can be tiring and stressful. But dumping more of the burden on to men is no solution.
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| Friday 27 June 2008 |
Why we need a parents’ liberation movement
In this new essay Jennie Bristow traces the origin of the ‘woman question’, victim feminism, and the therapeutic state.
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| Wednesday 4 June 2008 |
Rule 12: An ‘action plan’ won’t stop teen drinking
The problem with teenage drinking is not their livers, but their lives: they’re sticking two blurred fingers up at today’s stifling adult culture.
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| Friday 30 May 2008 |
Cherie’s memoirs
‘are not awful’ shock!
Yes, the 400-page tome is full of gynaecological goo and bimbo-style twittering about getting her hair done. Yet Speaking for Myself is also a surprisingly endearing narrative on the incoherence of New Labour.
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| Thursday 15 May 2008 |
Abortion: 24 reasons to defend 24 weeks
A Tory MP has unveiled 20 reasons why the time limit for abortion should be lowered to 20 weeks. Here are 24 reasons why it should stay as it is.
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| Thursday 8 May 2008 |
Rule 11: Parents are allowed to get drunk on holiday
The mad reaction to the story of a mum and dad who got paralytic in Portugal reveals a snobbish and unforgiving attitude towards parents today.
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| Thursday 10 April 2008 |
Rule 10: school choice is a myth
The schizophrenic promotion/demonisation of parental choice in schooling leaves parents dejected, and kids no better educated.
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| Friday 28 March 2008 |
Untying the ‘ribbon culture’
A brilliant new book explores what the relentless rise of awareness-raising ribbons – kitsch fashion items that express the wearer’s fear of disease or empathy with victims – reveals about our morbid, narcissistic society.
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| Tuesday 11 March 2008 |
Rule 9: Concerns about older mothers are based on moralism, not medicine.
Let us challenge the ‘procreational ageism’ that labels teen mums as feckless Vicky Pollards and older mums as selfish career-obsessives.
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