In this extract from my book, Scapegoat: why we are failing disabled people (Portobello, 2011), on Holocaust Memorial Day, I am sharing my analysis of how the T4 Nazi killing machine was inspired by eugenics enthusiasts in the UK and the US. It’s a grim read, I’m afraid, but important to remember why so many…

Tomorrow Charlie Hebdo hits the newsstands. I hope I manage to buy a copy – not sure if I’ll be able to find it in London, but I’ll give it a try. We have to remember those who died  – journalists, police officers, among them a Muslim police officer, Jewish shoppers and others just trying…

In the Equality and Human Rights Commission Report, Hidden in Plain Sight, on which many of the Disability Hate Crime Network Co-ordinators served as expert advisors in a voluntary role in 2012, we pushed for and secured, with the help of allies, this core recommendation among the seven: • We have a better understanding of…

Rome speech on the Istanbul Convention and Diana Kader’s case, and others Speech delivered at Rome, at the Council of Europe conference on the Istanbul Convention, at the Italian Chamber of Deputies, on 19 September, 2014 The Istanbul Convention is a huge achievement. I wanted to use my experience as a social affairs journalist to…

Today marks the centenary celebrations of the Burston School Strike in rural Norfolk, the longest strike in British history. The trade union movement, rightly, supported the two teachers, Tom and Annie Higdon, who were sacked after a dispute with the area’s school management committee, supported by the local rector, who demanded deference and a comfortable…

I’m so pleased that Newsweek allowed me to write such a long piece on cyber-stalking, which you can read at :http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/how-law-standing-cyberstalking-264251.html. I’m also honoured that so many survivors of this crime talked to me about its aftermath – not only those mentioned and written about in the article, such as Leandra Ramm, who has done…