Measures must be introduced to curb the spread of acid attacks on young women
Politicians need to decide whether new legislation is required to deal with this crime before it spreads.
Claudia Tomlinson
Website Claudia has a background in the public, charity and community sector. She writes for Left Foot Forward on health, inequality, domestic politics, Africa, the USA and Canada as special areas of interest.
The shocking death of Nigerian student in Durham Prison and the search for the truth
A Nigerian student, Boniface Umale, has died at Durham prison, shortly after his arrest. His death was only discovered when his visiting solicitor arrived at the jail to find arrangements being made for his cremation, according to Nigerian Watch.
Ed Miliband should listen to Len McCluskey’s real message
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, has warned Ed Miliband of the need to keep Labour firmly on the left, in order to avoid defeat at the next general election. Specifically, Miliband has been advised by McCluskey to purge the shadow cabinet of its remaining Blairites, in the form of Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander, and Liam Byrne.
Cameron needs to do more than attend the Stephen Lawrence memorial service to win the Black vote
When Conservative councillor John Cherry spoke openly about his fear of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children boarding weekly at a school in the West Sussex countryside, it was reminiscent of language that was not unusual in the 1980s and 1990s. The legacy of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, 20 years ago this month, was to trigger the Macpherson Inquiry, resulting in legislative reform that has driven out the worst such overt racist behaviour by those in public life.
The musical backdrop to the backlash against Thatcherism
From the late 1970s Thatcherism ushered in an unexpectedly rich dimension of music-based protest and activism that pulled together youth movements from the very communities she sought to destroy.
Why it’s right to extend hate crime legislation to members of subcultures
Hate crime is when someone is targeted because the assailant hates ‘what’ that person is or what the assailant perceives them to be.
In some quarters, there has been an expression of dismay that Manchester Police will now record criminal acts against subcultures as hate crimes, where there is evidence of this.
Why did Kenyans elect a human rights abuser?
The Kenyan general election has been narrowly won by Uhuru Kenyatta, a man facing trial at the International Criminal Court for his alleged part in the killing of over a thousand people following the general election in 2007. The question must therefore be asked: why would a nation someone who stands accused of such crimes against humanity?
Are the South African police to blame for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp?
The South African police, and the government have a lot of injustices and failures that can be laid at their door, but the actions of Oscar Pistorius on Valentine’s Day is not one of them.
Why are South African police mimicking white supremacists?
The sickening killing of 27 year old Mido Macia in South Africa this week brought to mind the white supremacist murders in the US which amounted to ‘lynchings’. This, together with the recent high profile rape and murder of Anene Booysen – and even the Oscar Pistorius case – point to a latent violence in the country that the government seems reluctant to tackle.
How far back should retrospective government apologies go?
Now that Enda Kenny has apologised to the victims of the Magdalene laundries scandal in Ireland, Claudia Tomlinson asks how far back retrospective government apologies should go.