Zoe Williams



Profile:
Full name: Zoe Williams

Area of interest: Society, culture, politics

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/zoewilliams

Blog:

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/zoesqwilliams



Biography:
About: http://www.clivejames.com/articles/zoe-williams - CliveJames.com biography

Education: Lincoln College, Oxford: Modern History

Career: Previously wrote on entertainmant for the London Evening Standard

Current position/role: The Guardian: Columnist and feature writer and interviewer (as well as her regular Wednesday column she writes the 'Ant-natal' column and 'Radio Head' column on a Friday, and also contributes occasional comment and features in the Food & Drink and Fashion & Beauty sections)


 * also writes/has written for: New Statesman, Marie Claire, Now Magazine, First, Radio Times, Grazia

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities: Supporter of the British Humanist Association (Wiki info)

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Write Words.org: Zoe Williams Interview July 2006

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * To truly understand what the point is of Melanie Phillips (discussing Melanie Phillips' appearance on BBC Radio 4's The moral maze), The Guardian, 26th October 2007
 * The readers' editor on... how we might have gained Boris a few extra votes - Siobhain Butterworth, The Guardian, 12th May 2008 (response to some reader complaints about article on Boris Johnson on the day of the London Mayoral election), 2008

Awards/Honours: Nominated for Journalist of the Year in the Stonewall Awards, 2007

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Observations on modern culture, society and politics from a 'humanist' standpoint

Section: Comment & debate

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk]

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/zoewilliams

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Wednesday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:


 * See also: Zoe Williams's Saturday sketch
 * contributes to shortcuts on "people, issues or curiosities setting the news agenda"



Articles: 2017

 * Homophobia is back – it’s no accident that nationalism is too - From China to the US, prejudice is a symptom of a politics that seeks to eliminate all human difference - 3rd July
 * Sorry, Prince Harry. There’s no such thing as a modern royal family - The prince’s desire to be himself is fair enough, but the monarchy is built on foundations of duty. Remove those and it crumbles - 26th June
 * Labour members built networks. Now Corbyn must too - The Labour leader needs to reimagine his party and embrace the different strands that support him - 19th June
 * This election reminds me: I can take the despair – it’s the hope I can’t stand - Defeatism was my comfort blanket. Then the hapless Theresa May had to come along and tear it off me, with her spectacularly self-sabotaging election campaign - 8th June
 * Defy the London Bridge terrorists, but know too that it’s OK to admit our fear - The business-as-usual mantra can be callous if it insists that grief and fear have to be kept hidden - 5th June
 * Social housing is good. But let’s make it beautiful too - The big parties speak only of practicalities. Perhaps they should try focusing on aesthetics for a change - 22nd May
 * Don’t rejoice in Brexit failings. We remoaners must shape the future - Celebrating your enemy’s hubris may be fun, but it’s also a distraction from building strong post-EU alliances - 15th May
 * Labour won’t be saved by talk at the top. But local action could do it - We’ve had enough of politicians clinging to their positions. The party can unite through the principles its grassroots members still share - 8th May
 * We want a great leader to save us. But people are where the power is - The focus on Jeremy Corbyn’s personal qualities is unrelenting. But this emphasis obscures what’s really broken in our political system - 24th April
 * The prime minister goes to the country on 8 June hoping to strengthen the Conservative majority. What happens next? - We need to cooperate, work with unfamiliar allies - 18th April
 * Keep on marching. Most protests do work … eventually - From CND to Iraq, many leftwing campaigns have filtered into popular opinion, even if they didn’t immediately affect policy. We should have more faith in them - 10th April
 * Superhero films need a liberal reboot. Batgirl to the rescue - Joss Whedon has been lined up to direct a Batgirl movie. He could reconnect the genre with the fight for justice against corporate evil - 3rd April
 * Want to know why centre politics is stuck in the mud? Watch Comic Relief - Both seem jaded and intent on avoiding the hard questions. No surprise, then, that both are struggling and require reinvention - 27th March
 * George Osborne’s new role means we may find ourselves agreeing with him - In our post-Brexit landscape, the former chancellor at the Evening Standard will be a rare voice speaking up for the much-scorned ‘metropolitan elite’ - 20th March
 * Cuts are a feminist issue. So what would a suffragette do? - It is hard to find a suitable response to what is no longer simply austerity but the willed destruction of social generosity - 13th March
 * Brexit is Theresa May’s Falklands war: a weapon of mass distraction - Behind a smokescreen of bogus patriotism, ideologically driven cuts to the NHS and all our public services are unpicking the bonds of nationhood - 7th March
 * Enough navel-gazing. It’s time Labour got back to work - Factional divides must now be put aside if the party is to devise the radical policy platform Jeremy Corbyn promised - 27th February
 * In Paul Nuttall, Ukip’s hypocrisy is finally being revealed - With its leader’s untruths over Hillsborough now exposed, the party’s claim to champion the common man is falling apart - 21st February
 * Then the Daily Mail came for Gary Lineker, and we said: ‘Enough!’ - The Daily Mail is using scare tactics to undermine any case for decency – solidarity is the only answer - 13th February
 * Britain has values. We can’t cosy up to a nation that scorns them - Reality is dawning fast. Neither leavers nor remainers voted for the political mess we are in, or this shameful alliance with Trump - 30th January
 * Memo to Piers Morgan: Why do we march? It’s not just protest, it’s about love - From Greenham Common to Trump, what brings so many strangers together is the joy of demonstrating they aren’t alone - 23rd January
 * Our democracy is broken: here's a utopian idea for fixing it - Pessimism reigns, but the introduction of citizens’ juries could help us to reconnect with politicians and fall back in love with politics - 9th January



Articles: 2016

 * Our secret weapon against the populist right in 2017 is hope - Political misery stands before us, but there is cause for optimism. Now is the time to ask for more - 26th December
 * I wouldn’t swear an oath to British values – not all of them are good - Sajid Javid’s stupid oath proposal uses the principles of equality as garb for a divisive authoritarianism - 19th December
 * Here’s a thought: let’s devolve the issue of immigration - Politicians only offer ill-informed bluster on the subject. How much more fruitful the conversation might be if we let local communities shape their own policies - 12th December
 * In their ruthless flight from liberalism, Tories have left decency behind - From what we can discern about our promised new role in the world post Brexit, it seems a morality-free zone - 5th December
 * Forget Fidel Castro’s policies. What matters is that he was a dictator - We need not agonise over whether Cuba’s former leader was a hero or villain. His rule was an insult to the principles of the left - 28th November
 * An obsession with nostalgia offers us only political poison - Strictly, Bake Off and REM may be comforting, but they steer us into a future where we’re afraid to hope for anything better - 21st November
 * We can fix climate change, but only if we refuse to abandon hope - New discoveries are being made and solutions found, and each hopeful action will help stop the planet burning. Let’s defy the pessimists and the deniers - 13th November
 * the leavers’ tantrums - it’s time for us to build Brexit Britain'' - It’s not enough to point to looming catastrophes. We must also consider what could be improved when we leave the EU - 7th November
 * Division haunts the left. Richmond is our chance to lay it to rest - As the right bands together in the byelection triggered by Zac Goldsmith’s resignation, the left must overcome its old tribalism – or keep on losing - 31st October
 * Europe isn’t just about trade. It’s about humanity too - As the Calais refugee crisis makes clear, there’s more at stake in our EU negotiations than access to markets - 24th October
 * These aren’t hard Brexiters. They’re political extremists - Boris Johnson’s article shows how uncertain some cabinet members were prior to the vote. Yet now they act like fanatics - 17th October
 * Theresa May: a Tory saviour who offers no sense of hope - The PM seems to have read the Brexit vote as a yearning to return to the 1950s. But Britain’s problems require modern answers, and she has offered none - 3rd October
 * Labour can win on immigration – but not by channelling Enoch Powell - If migrants are seen as threat, as Rachel Reeves implied, then any number will be too high. But nor can the argument be won by blaming all woes on bankers and tax avoiders - 29th September
 * The human toll of austerity: a nation of unhappy homes - The number of relationships under strain is rising, mirroring deep political divisions across the country. The ‘social recession’ is in full swing - 24th September
 * After Jeremy Corbyn wins, Labour has to make up or break up - Even if a snap election is not called, the opposition does not have time for a fight to the death. They must rescue their remaining shared convictions - 19th September
 * Bridget Jones is a glorious emissary from a better age - Feckless, funny and sex-positive, Ms Jones shows us how punitive today’s politics has become - 12th September
 * The Greens have got it: alliances can work for Britain’s progressive parties - It may seem a radical suggestion, but putting aside party differences and learning to cooperate with each other may be crucial to beating the Tories - 5th September
 * Corbyn’s equality pledges seem genuine. Will women vote for them? - I’m baffled by the ‘Labour women’s conference’, but I welcome all-female shortlists in parliament and a gender audit of party policy - 1st September
 * Theresa May’s inequality audit seems clever, but it will backfire - The prime minister is trying to placate those who voted for Brexit, but will shy away from radical solutions. That will be an opportunity for her opponents - 29th August
 * Ever-lower interest rates have failed. It’s time to raise them - Spending has not been stimulated. Worse, low rates conflict with government messages about responsible saving for retirement - 15th August
 * Think the north and the poor caused Brexit? Think again - If we don’t explode the divisive myths, we’ll never truly understand why people voted as they did - 8th August
 * Owen Smith: decent bloke, good politics. But is that enough? - OK, he’s more Ed Miliband then Clement Attlee, but he might just be the leader Labour needs in its time of crisis - 18th July
 * Andrea Leadsom’s motherhood insult shows the power of the parenting myth - Parents don’t make better political leaders, yet even the childless Angela Merkel is framed as her nation’s mummy - 12th July
 * Labour’s differences don’t justify the party tearing itself apart - Jeremy Corbyn returned Labour to its principles and showed why we need it. The question is now how to win an election - 4th July
 * How will Boris Johnson’s departure change the Tory leadership contest? - Our writers discuss the effect on the runners and riders now that the favourite has quit the race - 30th June Jonathan Freedland, Mary Dejevsky, and Mark Wallace
 * Is Michael Gove an idiot? His wife seems to think so - A leaked email from Sarah Vine, full of orders and instructions over a deal with Boris Johnson, reveals the rottenness of our politics - 29th June
 * Jeremy Corbyn has made his point. Now it’s time for Labour to move on - He has been a principled and decent leader, but the party needs new blood to channel the remain side’s anger into election victory - 26th June
 * Nigel Farage’s victory speech was a triumph of poor taste and ugliness - The Ukip leader said the country had voted to leave ‘without a single bullet being fired’. If he embodies the new politics, it will be boilingly unpleasant - 24th June
 * The Conservatives are giving us a masterclass in how not to govern - The business of governing the country has ground to a halt while the party jeopardises Europe’s stability with its squalid leadership battle - 20th June
 * If we cast all football fans as thugs, only the hooligans win - From Hillsborough to Marseille, supporters are stripped of their dignity by the same old mass misrepresentation that they’re all as bad as each other - 13th June
 * Even employers decry zero-hours contracts. So why are staff still being exploited? - Inequality and insecurity in the workplace are condemned by everyone from businesses to politicians – yet nothing changes, except to get worse - 9th June
 * Young people are being stiffed. They have to use their vote - High debts, zero hours: they are entering a world the old wouldn’t recognise. That’s why it’s crucial to register for the EU referendum - 5th June
 * The Green party may soon have two leaders. That truly would be radical - In rejecting the idea that parties need one charismatic force to helm them, Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley are putting progressive politics into action - 2nd June
 * So now pregnancy is a prize for women who lead a ‘good life’ - Urging obese and abused people to delay conception sends a message that some babies shouldn’t be born - 30th May
 * If robots are the future of work, where do humans fit in? - We need to rethink our view of jobs and leisure – and quickly, if we are to avoid becoming obsolete - 24th May
 * Unsafe sex threatens girls’ health worldwide. The prescription? Feminism - At the heart of every problematic sexual trend among young people is misogyny. We must approach world health through a feminist lens - 16th May
 * The elections proved our two flavours of politics are no longer enough - For the main parties, trying to win voters has become little more than a cynical game of positioning. Most of us are crying out for genuine choice with multiple options - 9th May
 * Do we want our children taught by humans or algorithms? - If Nicky Morgan won’t listen to teachers, parents need to take action to prevent our schools turning into joyless exam factories, starting with Tuesday’s boycott - 2nd May
 * Oh for the days when we merely tolerated the Queen - Pro-monarchism is back and it’s as flimsy as ever. I blame our politicians for creating a dignity vacuum - 25th April
 * We’re all casualties of this cruel arms race in primary school education - Too few places, too many tests, too much stress: but instead of fearing for our children’s futures, let’s fight back - 18th April
 * Forget about Labour’s heartland – it doesn’t exist - The party won’t get anywhere thinking there is a solid mass of voters out there who need persuading. We need to change the nature of the debate - 11th April
 * Your money and morality can’t lead separate lives - The right struggles to align its beliefs with how it spends and saves. But the left has problems too - 4th April
 * These Tory messages show us why faith has no place in politics - Both David Cameron’s Easter call to ‘Christian values’ and Zac Goldsmith’s election leaflet want people to vote with their tribes, not their minds - 28th March
 * Labour can humanise the debate about disability - Corbynite or not, MPs should collectively vocalise an opposition to the Tory survival of the fittest narrative - 21st March
 * The party’s over for young people, debt laden and risk-averse - With such grave financial prospects, it’s no wonder today’s under-25s prefer jogging to drinking. To have a sense of freedom now seems illogical - 14th March
 * Donald Trump has thrown caution to the wind. So must the left - Too often leftwingers find themselves stymied by their pedantic reserve. A bit of boldness would go a long way - 7th March
 * The real dinosaurs? Those who are still lobbying to keep Trident - While new blood revives the anti-nuclear campaign, its opponents’ arguments have become obsolete - 29th February 2016
 * You can’t sell freedom of movement to people who are insecure - Until the precariousness of life in Britain is addressed, toxic myths about migration will trump the truth - 22nd February
 * Just because an idea is American doesn’t make it a good one - Nicky Morgan’s determination to recruit in the US is symptomatic of a refusal to think for ourselves - 15th February
 * How do we work out who to believe on child sex abuse? - The pendulum of justice swings back and forth, as we grapple with our delusional faith in human goodness - 8th February
 * Labour has a unique opportunity – if we all work together - The left must somehow unite behind Jeremy Corbyn on the EU and Trident, or be forever diverted down paths to nowhere - 1st February
 * Forget ‘no pyjamas’, here are the five school-gate rules that matter - The Darlington school headteacher’s jimjam strictures won’t do. If your kids won’t let you near them, and you can’t get with the parental in-crowd, read on - 28th January
 * The Oscars whiteout is driven by racism – and greed - The Hollywood film industry has never tested the idea that a black actor could be more bankable than a white one - 24th January
 * The economics of the refugee crisis lay bare our moral bankruptcy - Raising special taxes and taking desperate people’s valuables are not the acts of a compassionate polity - 17th January
 * Labour’s disputes should not always be seen as chaos - Jeremy Corbyn was elected with a mandate for debate. But too often his party is reported through the prism of old media - 10th January
 * Health warnings can be bad for you. Risk brings us together - From baby boomers’ binge drinking to children’s play, the modern obsession with risk aversion only serves to fence off our empathy - 4th January



Articles: 2015

 * Justin Bieber is on to something: our bedrock is the NHS - Amid all the negativity, maybe it takes a fresh pair of eyes to appreciate the value of our health service - 28th December
 * Christmas – surely a prank played on middle-aged women - In taking on the emotional labour of the season, the sweating servants of the turkey reassure the rest of us that all is well - 21st December
 * There is no master plan. On the EU, David Cameron is flailing - A U-turn over EU migrants’ access to benefits exposes the ramshackle nature of our prime minister’s mind - 14th December
 * The new politics is a myth – battles are good for Labour’s soul - There is nothing irresponsible about the current divisions. It is right for the party to search for an identity it can coalesce around – and make it stronger - 7th December
 * We should not rationalize the tragedy of San Bernardino but we will. Again - We will, once again, purposely mistake the how and why of the San Bernardino shootings – the 355th mass shooting of the year – because it suits us - 3rd December
 * Even my Furby knows it: our love affair with shopping is over - Black Friday was a nonevent, and even children are bored with Christmas tat. Consumerism has finally eaten itself - 30th November
 * Admit the fear of terror. Only then can you empathise with the victims - Indiscriminate terror makes everyone a target. Yet a bravado kicks in that is unhelpful - 16th November
 * There’s plenty more space for humanity on this ‘tiny’ island - Reports of our booming population are predictably being used to spout bigotry on immigration. A lack of room is the least of Britain’s problems - 2nd November
 * Silencing Germaine Greer will let prejudice against trans people flourish - Ideas progress through argument – no-platforming only serves the status quo - 26th October
 * The in campaign should sell Europe as the Star Trek state - Those against Brexit are trading on fear, rather than presenting a bold vision of what Europe could be like - 12th October
 * You can print money, so long as it’s not for the people - Why do those who seem happy enough with quantitative easing recoil if it’s for social investment? Jeremy Corbyn’s idea of people’s QE is not so dangerous - 4th October
 * This RSPCA attack is a masterclass in how conservatives argue - If your opponents are resorting to Tea party tactics to hound you, reasoned argument won’t help win the day - 29th September
 * The unlikely saviour of the NHS: drug-resistant gonorrhoea - The epic challenges of the post-antibiotic age will take the debate beyond the well-worn issues of obesity and old age - 21st September
 * Jeremy Corbyn is redefining opposition – come what may - By ripping up the Westminster rulebook, Labour’s leader has a chance to reframe political certainties - 14th September
 * Can we at least try talking to young people about sex? - Sajid Javid wants legislation to tackle sex offences in universities. But the real problem lies deeper - 7th September
 * Our schools should be less like Singapore and more like Silicon Valley - Pitting teachers against each other and setting unrealistic goals doesn’t work. As the tech giants have shown, the best results come from cooperation, not competition - 31st August
 * Corbynomics must smash this cosy consensus on debt - Jeremy Corbyn needn’t be a messiah, just ready to say what’s wrong without being stifled by the fear of sounding radical - 17th August
 * Adult social care is not a problem – it is a human necessity - If we really love pensioners and the living wage, let’s find a way to pay the latter to those who care for the former - 10th August
 * With miscarriage, there are many routes to shame - Mark Zuckerberg is right to challenge the taboos surrounding pregnancy. But the pressure on women remains intense - 3rd August
 * If we know idealising thinness is silly, why do we keep on slating fat people? - Shoppers at the mall where Topshop’s unnaturally skinny mannequins sparked a social media furore earlier this week reflect on all the fuss - 1st August
 * A century later, why do we still kneel at the shrine of the Bloomsbury set? - Their ideals of sex and bohemia are attractive to TV producers, but they never made it into the real world - 27th July
 * Jeremy Corbyn has the one Blairesque trait the Blairites don’t get: optimism - His grassroots popularity has rattled his colleages, but the leadership frontrunner offers his own version of the hope that swept Labour to victory in 1997 - 20th July
 * Resistance is not enough – Britain needs a whole new political vision - The budget took us further down a vindictive, regressive path. But we don’t have to toe the government’s line – we need to decide how we want society to look - 13th July
 * The Tories’ message on social housing is that the state is for losers - Subsidised homes are being rebranded as not for decent people. This will set neighbour against neighbour - 5th July
 * Guillaume Tell opera rape outcry is over offence to music, not women - The main complaint about the rape scene is that it doesn’t sit well with a jaunty Rossini piece. But why, then, are graphic operatic murders acceptable? - 3rd July
 * The moral crusade against Greece must be opposed - The idea that Greece partly deserves its fate reflects an order in which wealth trumps democracy. We should fight a narrative that enfeebles us all - 28th June
 * Of course internship swapping is dodgy. But then so is working for free - Surely we should be asking why it’s the norm for parents to pay for their kids’ training, rather than worrying about a few people gaming a nepotistic system - 26th June
 * The 90s revival is happening. So no more trolls, backlashes and bullying then - The difference between 1995 and 2015 is similar to that between Chris Evans and Jeremy Clarkson: they both do the same job but where one is puckish, the other punches people in the face - 19th June
 * If we don’t raise a voice about sexism it will never go away - The fall of Tim Hunt may be sad, but my clash with Alex Salmond shows misogyny is all too common - 15th June
 * We don’t live to work, we work to live. Why don’t we say so? - Even in this supposed era of self-interest, admitting that there’s more to life than your job is still taboo - 9th June
 * The middle-class malaise that dare not speak its name - Living standards are in decline across society. But shame prevents the well-off from showing solidarity - 24th May
 * Worried about education? Get stuck in and change it - We need new tactics to challenge the Conservatives on their schools policy. Here’s where we should start - 18th May
 * Labour’s leader is not the problem. The party’s missing soul is - Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper or Chuka Umunna can’t save a party that is completely disconnected from its roots and values - 11th May
 * Goodbye, Nigel. What will Ukip do without you? - Nigel Farage failed to win in Thanet South and has stepped down as leader. But there’s no obvious replacement - 9th May
 * How the Tories dehumanise low-paid families – or should I say ‘benefit units’ - Forcing parents on the minimum wage to work more hours is removing their dignity - 27th April
 * All hail Uber! But what about the black cabs? - One can be elusive and expensive, the other turns a human moment to a rateable transaction. It’s not easy steering between black cabs and the taxi service app - 18th April
 * Will Nigel Farage turn out to be a mirage in South Thanet? - Support for Ukip may be weaker than expected even in Ramsgate, one of the key towns in its supposed heartland - 13th April
 * The Nicola Sturgeon memo: Westminster’s nasty machinations have been exposed - When credulity pushes past reality into believing any damned thing you want to believe, the system suffers as a whole. It’s time for a new politics - 6th April
 * A handy guide for pregnant women when dealing with idiots - Ever had a stranger manhandle your bump? Did a random person at a party decide to monitor your alcohol intake? Here’s how to cope with such behaviour - 3rd April
 * Housing: are we reaching a tipping point? - Poorly housed people are refusing to keep quiet: groups like the New Era families or Focus E15 mothers show that a source of shame is becoming a spur to action - 30th March
 * Who took the sex out of the sexual revolution? - Third-wave feminism has been complicit in returning women to neo-traditional ideals of domesticity and monogamy - 23rd March
 * Child rearing is too important to be left to the market - We know that early years intervention works better in the public sector. You can’t monetise everything - 16th March
 * Why the Greens aren’t despondent despite the derision - The Green party conference delegates are confident because their core beliefs are intact – something Labour could learn from - 9th March
 * Bring on the sin bin for politicians whose noise betrays contempt - The crude hand gestures used in the UK parliament convey derision for anyone who doesn’t ‘belong’ - 2nd March
 * Why Natalie Bennett should shrug off this ‘humiliation’ - The Green party leader’s mistake was to try to answer a question, rather than describe her vision. But that won’t deter anyone near voting for her - 25th February
 * Blame corporate greed, not the obese - If we called it ‘metabolic syndrome’, we’d be lining up to demand a cure. But that wouldn’t fit the Conservative mindset - 16th February
 * The strange new world of evidence-free government - When ministers’ priorities are cost-cutting and short-term PR wins, research into what actually works falls by the wayside – with disastrous consequences - 9th February
 * It’s time ministers realised that teachers really do want to teach - Education secretary Nicky Morgan is the latest to threaten draconian action. Does she think schools want to ruin our kids? - 2nd February
 * Stuart Broad has just swallowed the vindictive rhetoric on the feckless poor - The cricketer’s minimum wage tweet shows numeracy is not his strong point. But, like most people, he fails to realise that jobs often don’t pay enough to live on - 28th January
 * Syriza stood up to the money men – the UK left must do the same - Just imagine: if Labour wasn’t so in thrall to economic bodies and their predictions, we might have a radical left of our own - 27th January
 * Wolf Hall: a lesson in the triumph of low birth over hierarchy - We British have long had a cultural resistance to confronting our history. Hilary Mantel changed that - 19th January
 * Anxious Britain will find no succour in a TV election debate - The nation is sick with worry about wages, food, debt and job security. Why tune in to watch politicians blaming each other? - 12th January



Articles: 2014

 * I’ll drink to landlord freedom and pubs staying in business - Severing the ties between individual pubs and the large pub companies was a welcome move – the big players no longer hold all the cards - 31st December
 * These days, money buys you a better class of citizenship - Natalie Engel is too poor to be allowed to keep her family together in the UK. It's an assault on the very idea of Britishness - 15th December
 * As children starve, where’s the state? - The food bank row has wider implications. Our rights are being stolen from us and we want them back - 10th December
 * Does Britain really want to be the country nobody would migrate to? - When net migration falls, David Cameron can take the credit: for making Britain poor, hostile and pessimistic - 1st December
 * Swamp or success: your school is being racially profiled - Ofsted's rush to tackle extremism in education is symptomatic of a political frenzy born of hatred - 23rd November
 * At least the last cold war was a clash of ideologies – now there are no big ideas - The standoff between Russia and the west feels at times like a petulant Twitter spat. Except, as Gorbachev reminds us, it’s still deadly serious - 9th November
 * Richard Branson's space tourism shows what today's obscene inequality looks like - When rich people burn huge sums of money on fun, it wakes us up to the excesses of the free market - 3rd November
 * These Stasi-style outrages show just how low Britain’s spies will stoop - Revelations of never-ending surveillance suggest that police and MI5 consider radical views criminal in themselves - 28th October
 * The tasteless Halloween costume and four other stories you're bound to read - It's an annual occurrence but, with an Ebola costume or a child safety scare, Halloween still finds its way into the news - 22nd October
 * The entire schools inspection culture is the problem - Ofsted is a corporate concept driven by competition and measurement. But children are not robots - 20th October
 * Freezing women’s eggs? The tech industry isn’t modern, it’s Neanderthal - It claims to be the ‘new frontier’, working to ‘new rules’, but the culture is too often old school misogyny - 16th October
 * Foreigners taking all the best housing? Sounds familiar - The complaints of the super-rich mirror those of the poor. Both raise the question: what makes a nation? - 14th October
 * Fed up with growth-focused politics? For real change, look left - Polls, not ideas, separate Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage. It’s time to recognise the progressive narrative can be a game-changer - 6th October
 * So Brooks Newmark sent some explicit pictures – why should he resign? - I would have given anything to see the Tory MP leave, but not for his sexual conduct. Even the 50s would be less judgmental - 29th September
 * The battle between capital and labour is still raging on film - Pride, Billy Elliott and Brassed Off see the crushing of unions for what it was – a new phase in a war that never really went away - 22nd September
 * Prisoner suicides: the dire cost of Tory tough-guy posturing on crime - Overcrowding, understaffing and lack of care have implications far beyond the walls of our cruel jails - 15th September
 * Free school meals should be for those who need them, not those who don't - This £1bn universal benefit is a punch in the face for the million people who need food banks - 3rd September
 * Aldi, what's wrong with the word 'slut'? - By taking a Roald Dahl book that contained the term off its shelves the supermarket is bowing to a taboo that should not exist - 28th August
 * The genius of Kate Bush in an age of subjugation - Too often in pop music we're sold a male version of female creativity. But Bush is the real thing - 24th August
 * Whose fault is poverty? The election blame game is on - In claiming there are half a million problem families, the government is discrediting those who need help while ignoring the causes - 18th August
 * Mark Simmonds' story is not about him, but a broken housing market - We need to find a radical solution to this inflated market, in which even the top 1% can't afford to house their children in the capital - 13th August
 * A depressingly British tale of friends in high places - From Ofsted and the BBC to the Lords, there's a strong whiff of cronyism. When will we have the courage to challenge it? - 4th August
 * This phoney cabinet reshuffle will keep things just the same - A Tory push to promote women and diversity is disingenuous. Identikit people with identikit views is what they want - 14th July
 * Welcome to London – the most toxic town on the planet - Oxford Street's more polluted than Beijing and the sky's alive with cranes. Just what kind of city is Boris Johnson creating? - 9th July
 * Rolf Harris's pantomime act should never have fooled us - His childlike persona helped project a finely honed image of naivety. We must learn to look beneath the surface - 2nd July
 * To target Greenpeace's flying director is to miss the point - It's easy to set green against green, but the charity's problems run wider and deeper than one person's travel plans - 25th June
 * Wilshaw and Gove blame the feckless parents – as long as they're poor - Heaping fines and opprobrium on those families who are already struggling is poisoning relationships and entrenching divisions - 17th June
 * How I became a convert to the cult of Marina Abramović - 'The grandmother of performance art' had people openly weeping at New York's MoMA. Zoe Williams spent a whole day in her presence at her long-anticipated London show. Did she break down? - 14th June
 * Watching hungry kids is an ugly form of entertainment - So Channel 4's Breadline Kids are the 'innocent' victims. But what about the working adults trapped in a cycle of poverty? - 11th June
 * Let's not savage Kirstie Allsopp for having a view on motherhood - Until we allow women the freedom that we give to men, they will continue to receive vitriol simply for speaking out - 4th June
 * Green party support is surging – but the media prefer to talk about Ukip - The Greens' successes go unrecorded by a trade whose worldview would rather have a few rogues to liven up things - 21st May
 * Miley Cyrus's fans grew up with her; now she's rebelled, they love her more - Society's prurience about young people is far weirder than anything Cyrus could do in her provocative stage show - 17th May
 * Zero-hour jobseekers? Britain's given up on employee rights - We have developed a system where poverty can be actively enforced by brutal employers on their powerless staff - 7th May
 * The rent racket: tenants are trapped in a game of Monopoly - Private landlords enjoy an absurd level of power over tenants. Yet they reject even minimal regulation - 30th April
 * Let's make industrial action bigger than striking teachers - Parents sympathise with teachers' grievances, so they need to work out a way to take complementary action - 23rd April
 * What the Birmingham schools probe can tell us about bog-standard comps - Whatever the results of the education department's investigation, pupils' education has been disrupted by the academy agenda - 16th April
 * Stop calling Tony Blair a war criminal. The left should be proud of his record - From Northern Ireland to the NHS, Blair left a real progressive blueprint. But the left has allowed it to be obliterated by Iraq - 9th April
 * Consumer confidence is back – but why isn't exactly clear - Shoppers are spending on Manchester's prosperous streets but are they driving the confidence recovery, or is it driving them? - 5th April
 * Stop forcing veg down our throats - Zoe Williams: Despite the failure of the five-a-day message, policymakers are determined to pursue an individual remedy for a collective ill - 2nd April
 * 24-hour childcare and the working parents conundrum - Brent council's new initiative is a worthy attempt to help parents forced into unsocial working hours, but is symptomatic of our inability to value family over economic activity - 29th March
 * The NHS fraud story would be terrible, if it were true - The evidence of fraud is weak but the damage is done: the health service is made to look like an impossible dream - 26th March
 * Assertive and female? Good luck trying to negotiate a better job offer - A US college's treatment of an academic is yet another example of how women fare when they try to assert themselves - 21st March
 * Martin Amis on the English: provocative and preposterous - Amis shows no interest in life in England now. He cannot distil or explain the national character, because he isn't listening - 19th March
 * Lie detectors are a hocus-pocus tool for our distrusting state - Buying voice risk analysis tools to root out benefit fraud is merely an authoritarian creation of suspicion for its own sake - 12th March
 * Forget Oscar Pistorius – what's really on trial here is misogyny - It is not just South Africa that has a case to answer when it comes to pathetic punishments for men's crimes against women - 5th March
 * PIE, the NCCL and Harriet Harman: why she was right not to apologise - The Daily Mail's attempt to destroy the deputy Labour leader's reputation is McCarthyite - 26th February
 * It's the cumulative impact of benefit cuts that is shocking - Disabled people are the worst hit of any group by myriad welfare changes that relentlessly reduce already meagre incomes - 19th February
 * Smoking in cars: the hidden agenda behind the ban - The MPs who can't bear to see children in smoky cars but are unmoved by their poverty are simply demonising poor parents - 12th February
 * There are very good reasons a foetus cannot be a victim of crime - Criminalising women who drink while pregnant would set a profoundly dangerous legal precedent. Support for the idea is driven by wild overestimates of foetal alcohol syndrome - 5th February
 * Our workplaces are about as family-friendly as a 19th-century mill - Maternity leave, sick pay, the minimum wage – the ability to claim these vital rights has been torched by our zero-hours economy - 29th January
 * Cost of living? What about the cost of being dead? - The spiralling price of funerals is a symptom of the triumph of the market and the accompanying poverty of civic life - 22nd January
 * Now there are handouts for massage parlour madams - Even in the sex industry, employers are treated as 'wealth creators' but young people as burdens - 7th January
 * From cash machines to courgettes, the poor will pay more - Lack of access to non-charging cashpoints is just one example of how the dice are loaded against poor people in a free market - 3rd January



Articles: 2013

 * New year is not the time for this exercise in dishonour - The ruling classes giving themselves rewards is a depressing sight. We need to start each year with hope for the future - 1st January
 * Could rationing hold the key to today's food crises? - The lesson from the 40s is that to fix a public health problem – whether obesity or hunger – you need big government - 24th December
 * A dog is still not just for Christmas - The slogan may be 35 years old, but visit a centre for unwanted dogs and it's apparent that the message remains as true as ever - 20th December
 * Why does Wonga even exist? It's a question no one on the left asks - Reining in payday loan firms is seen as the only 'realistic' way to tackle poverty. It's beyond depressing - 18th December
 * Make no mistake: Iain Duncan Smith wants the end of social security - Don't let the bluster, incompetence and misinformation obscure the Quiet Man's true, Tory purpose: destroying the welfare safety net - 11th December
 * How to stay monogamous, in six easy steps - A high court judge is anxious to prevent break-ups. This short course of study could save him a lot time - 7th December
 * It's not the caesarean but the adoption that is an act of violence - The sedation of a bipolar woman for a caesarean is a medical issue. It's what happened next to her baby that's truly alarming - 4th December
 * An internet firewall around childhood won't protect young people from sexual violence - Sexual violence predates the internet. Blaming technology is another way of ignoring young people's experiences - 27th November
 * Childcare – like life – is about so much more than economics - Miliband, Cameron and Clegg just don't get it: parents want options, and the recognition that there is more to life than money - 20th November
 * Want an energy revolution? Think beyond the Big Six - If ordinary people were in charge of the energy sector, it would drive the shift to renewables – and there would be far less waste - 13th November
 * MPs may live to regret this rash bid to neuter charities - The lobbying bill's attack on the right to campaign at a time of political disaffection could cause the biggest upset since 1651 - 7th November
 * How to make recidivism and costs rise? Privatise probation - Four big firms are set to get even richer. We will be paying much more for the service, and failures are inevitable - 30th October
 * It's not all immigrants who the Tories fear. It's the mobile poor - The real aim of recent policies is to segregate belonging according to income. The more you earn, the more rights you have - 24th October
 * Do stay-at-home mothers upset you? You may be a motherist - Women who choose to remain at home to look after their children face a torrent of prejudice. Here are four of the worst examples - 22nd October
 * The London housing bubble will gobble up our capital's civic space - Of course we need more homes in the south-east. But the pressure from foreign investors puts even town halls at risk - 17th October
 * Why pregnant women are warned about everything - There is a political subtext to the toxins-under-the-bed overinterpretation of research into food packaging and miscarriages - 15th October
 * Mail paves way for wider ownership - Popular capitalism was a 1980s buzz phrase. The privatisation boom giving rise to it was not only about liberating managers of former publicly owned enterprises from the dead hand of the state and providing fresh access to capital - 10th October
 * Hamzah Khan: sorrow and blame go hand in hand when a child is killed - When we hear about a case like Amanda Hutton's, it's natural to feel the need to find answers – even if the search is futile - 4th October
 * Next from science's Aladdin's lamp? Reversible menopause - As the possibilities of medicine become greater, it will fall on us to choose mortality rather than accept it - 3rd October
 * Why is God suddenly so big in the schools we all pay for? - The rush to academies has allowed faith-based education to grow hugely – and yet entirely bypass the democratic process - 26th September
 * Labour at Brighton: a party that dares to hope again - The hot topic at the Labour conference was how to reframe the political debate. Ed Miliband's confident speech was a good start, but are the rank and file entirely sure yet where the leadership is taking them? - 25th September
 * Your bank really isn't a venerable institution, is it? So ditch it - The banks' malpractice has become normalised, but if we still remain loyal to them it's no surprise they don't clean up their act - 19th September
 * MPs would rather hike up expenses than accept a pay rise - Leaving aside whether MPs are worth £74,000, those who say they would refuse it are engaging in cheap political point scoring - 13th September
 * Bedroom tax? It's not a policy but the product of a Bad Bullingdon Weekend - Did its devisers imagine a utopia without the UN, judicial review, and the state? They exist, and ultimately answer to voters -12th September
 * The early years educational underclass is a handy moralisers' myth - Iain Duncan Smith's thinktank finds dubious ways to lay the blame for poverty on the parents and children that suffer it - 5th September
 * This study of lovers failing to have sex in cold war Warsaw fired in me a perverse optimism - A book that changed me: Marek Hlasko's The Eighth Day of the Week helped me come to terms with all those questions about capitalism that have no answers - 28th August
 * David Cameron and the pantomime of the prime ministerial holiday - Don't buy into the sunny, relaxed photo-ops of the PM. This is the peak of the political performance season - 21st August
 * Fracking v renewables? This is dumb electioneering dressed up as policy - As a result Britain's energy future, an issue fraught with complexity, is presented as a mere binary choice - 15th August
 * The buy-to-let boom will bring no social benefits - First thoughts: With foreign landlords snapping up property in London, rents will continue to rise and shut more people out of the housing market - 9th August
 * Bigots like Ukip's Godfrey Bloom must not be tolerated - It's not enough to dismiss talk of 'Bongo Bongo land' as silly but amusing. The assumptions behind it need a sharp rebuttal - 8th August
 * The Jane Austen banknote victory shows young women are packing a punch - The fight with the Bank of England is just one example of how determined and lethal the new generation of feminists is. Mervyn Kings everywhere watch out - 24th July
 * Birth of future monarch has animated the unique lunacy of royal watching - Waiting for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's son to arrive has never had anything to do with its constitutional import - 23rd July
 * The pornification of Britain's high streets: why enough is enough - Magazines with naked women on the cover sit next to kids' comics in newsagents. Scantily clad models are draped across the nation's billboards - 17th July
 * Why women part-timers should be full-time ball-breakers - Sexism probably explains the low status of working mothers. But it's also their reluctance to assert what a blessing their hours are - 11th july
 * To Lord Freud, a food bank is an excuse for a free lunch - The welfare minister's attempt to link the rise in food banks to greed rather than poverty shows a withered meanness - 3rd July
 * Have liberals lost the argument on immigration? - five-minute video debate - David Goodhart, director of the Demos thinktank, discusses immigration with Guardian columnist Zoe Williams - 1st July
 * The battle to eliminate FGM is long, but it's one we must win - If cultural sensitivity is used as a junk drawer, to toss things into when they seem inconvenient, that's not good enough - 29th June
 * Are three-parent babies the first step towards a Blade Runner future? - Mitochondrial transfer isn't necessarily part of the pro-choice package. It has ethical implications worth thinking about - 28th June
 * On the spectrum of deceit, ministers have gone off the scale - Statistics have long been argued one way or the other, but this government twists them beyond reality to suit its ruthless agenda - 27th June
 * Jeremy Forrest is a creep, even if his pupil doesn't think so - If you won't undertake not to have sex with teenagers, then you shouldn't be teaching them. UK consent law has it about right - 21st June
 * Be true to yourself. Is this really the best the Guides can do for girls? - The motto embedded in the organisation's new oath is more likely to build insecure narcissism than help girls develop - 20th June
 * Weird weather might just wake feeble politicians up to climate change - Meteorologists are debating our role in bizarre weather events. We have the technology for change, but not the political will - 14th June
 * What's holding Britain down isn't benefits. It's low pay - Our brand of capitalism has become cannibalistic. The minimum wage isn't enough, and has become a profound drag on our economy - 13th June
 * Me-first parents do the rest of us an injustice - Like James Caan, I want the best for my children. But seeing people in power privileging their own just entrenches inequality - 6th June
 * We're all upset about Baby 59. So what else do we agree on? - The more we rely on very clear moral markers for our sense of ideological community, the fewer questions we can ask - 30th May
 * Why do these Tories think they can rule on marriage? - The antis in this week's vote think our sex lives are their business – yet Boris Johnson seems to escape without censure - 22nd May
 * NHS: Poles, paracetamol and the myth of health tourism - Migrants' cost to the NHS is far smaller proportionally than Britons because they are younger, less likely to be ill or to have started a family. The service is also not quite as good as in Poland, apparently - 18th May
 * We have to decide to listen to sexually abused children - The cost of ignoring the girls involved in the Oxford case is too high: why weren't they given this basic human respect? - 15th May
 * Online petitions start to click and kick - Twitter can turn celebrities into a weapons-grade Esther Rantzen - 11th May
 * Nigel Farage gives good telly, so Ukip trumps the Greens - It has almost as many councillors as Ukip and more MPs, so why does the media so consistently ignore the Green party? - 9th May
 * When prisoners mean profit, the numbers don't go down - Cracking down on Sky TV for inmates is easy. Solving the paradox of a privatised prison service is going to be a lot harder - 2nd May
 * This disability ruling reveals new depths of political dishonesty - Nobody said, in any of the parties' manifestos, that they would claw money back from the severely disabled - 25th April
 * Are you too white, rich, able-bodied and straight to be a feminist? - Being told to 'check your privilege' – as Helen Lewis was – is insidious. But there are times when you should do exactly that - 18th April
 * Politics is tribal again. But this time, let's not just roll over - It's like a brutal version of the 80s – but Britain's leaders won't be able to conjure up a third way out. In reality, we are the solution - 11th April
 * Don't get mad about the Mail's use of the Philpotts to tarnish the poor – get even - 330 years of widening inequality have built a Tory Narnia riven by distrust. It doesn't have to be like this - 3rd April
 * Tories want to relegate those on benefits to a world outside money - By making some people on benefits use vouchers instead of cash, Conservatives are creating a true underclass - 28th March
 * This hypno-birthing quackery shows profit has no place in healthcare - The credibility of people whom parents should be able to trust is being hijacked for what may be no more than snake-oil selling - 21st March
 * If we can't afford for people to be disabled, what's the plan? - Those with the greatest needs comprise 2% of the population yet are taking 15% of cuts. That's more than a loss of dignity - 13th March
 * Vicky Pryce: the key to the puzzle is revenge - It's hard to believe she could have been coerced by Chris Huhne but it's the timing that gives away her likely motive - 7th March
 * Let's build more homes – who wouldn't vote for that? - Politicians are trying to dodge it, but the way to heal our warped housing market is to invest for the public benefit again - 7th March
 * 10 reasons why it sucks to be rich - The shame … the discrimination … the anguish over having to fire domestic help to keep one's girlfriend happy. It's a daily trial - 6th March
 * Sex is in the spotlight, so let's talk about it properly - Our collective failure to articulate what is exploitative and what isn't means every sex claim becomes a carnival - 27th February
 * Heroin chic's gone, but the curse of the catwalk remains - Size zero may have made way for 'space farmers' at London Fashion Week, yet the exploitation of vulnerable girls continues - 21st February
 * When did being lowly paid become a criminal offence? - Increasingly, corporations and politicians treat the poor with distrust. That's why this week's ruling on workfare was important - 14th February
 * This Poundland ruling is a welcome blow to the Work Programme - It's invaluable that three judges have ruled in the Cait Reilly case against an appalling back-to-work system - 12th February
 * This obsession with outsourcing public services has created a shadow state - The winners are private equity and shareholders. The losers are the low-paid and the vulnerable. And in the end we all pay - 7th February
 * For failed asylum seekers, life on section 4 is a nightmare worse than Kafka - Whether the motivation is malicious or politically manipulative, government cannot continue to treat failed asylum seekers like this - 31st January
 * Our children's enemy is sexism, not sexualisation - Fear of sexualisation is used by conservatives to traduce liberal values and invade the privacy of teenagers - 24th January
 * Charities' silence on government policy is tantamount to collusion - Charities that surrender campaigning voices to safeguard government contracts leave us chasing the shadows of disaster - 23rd January
 * Only boycott for change, not to keep things the same - Consumer activism isn't always simple, but we shouldn't back away from any interest in how companies behave - 17th January
 * Higher MPs' salaries: for and against - As 69% of MPs say they are underpaid, Zoe Williams and Rupert Myers discuss whether their pay should be increased - 12th January
 * How to follow the public money in a privatised NHS - Without basic financial transparency from public service contractors we can say goodbye to democratic accountability - 10th January
 * Iain Duncan Smith's polemic is politics at its most cynical - How does the secretary of state's conceit, that in-work benefit claimants are essentially fraudsters, serve the public interest? - 3rd January



Articles: 2012

 * Cheer up. All this doom and gloom plays into the Tories' hands - If the idea that we're all screwed takes hold, the Conservatives will end up exploiting the fear they've created - 27th December
 * On abortion, both Britain and Ireland need to rediscover the spirit of 67 - We pander to the anti-abortion lobby, and are too willing to settle for a few scraps of reproductive rights - 20th December
 * The church has blown it. England's ticked that box - If it still nurses the dream of being the keeper of the nation's conscience, it's going to have to become more like the nation - 13th December
 * A seasonal warning on rape? Don't ask a Met policeman - There's nothing here to reduce sex crime or even any admission of officers' failure – just hyper-caution for the yet-to-be-raped - 6th December
 * Kate Middleton's pregnancy: 10 stories I don't want to read - From baby name suggestions to speculation about Pippa, there are some articles that should remain in the writer's imagination - 4th December
 * Work Programme: why I knew the figures would be awful - The idea that the way out of unemployment is via huge contracts for profit-driven enterprises invites them to game the system - 29th November
 * Children in Britain are going hungry – where are their defenders? - Charities are trying to grout the gaps left by government cuts, but they can't afford to upset their major funder - 22nd November
 * Schizophrenia shouldn't be a life sentence. But it will be - Patients used to be given only pills. They respond far better when asked about their lives – that's the bit that costs, though - 15th November
 * The debate about wealth must start with morals - We often end up arguing for equality on the basis of outcomes, rather than principle. But decent pay is only fair - 8th November
 * Who profits from being in care? It's not the children - Dumped in areas cheap enough for contractors to make a decent return, it's little wonder 'cared-for' children fail to thrive - 1st November
 * Our politicians are in crisis – you can tell by their rhetoric - Talk of U-turning, normal people, hard-working families and grown-up women reveals leaders bereft of real authority - 25th October
 * Watch out Westminster – council politics just got sexy - We may think we live in a centralised state, but decisions made by local authorities have real impact on our lives - 18th October
 * These push-button policies may sound bold. Far from it - Bizarre and unworkable announcements are a feature of the conference season. But they're surefire sign of insecurity - 11th October
 * Tweaking it all for the telly is infantilising our party conferences - The accent is on clarity, repetition and brevity; delegates are reduced to meat. There hardly seems room for politics - 4th October
 * Targeting families has nothing to do with fairness - All parents should be able to access support. Not because it is cost-effective, but because it's the right thing for society - 27th September
 * Forget the nanny state. This is mollycoddling business - The youth contract hands out sweeteners to train unpaid youngesters. When did employment become a social service? - 20th September
 * A Burberry-style profits warning is nothing to envy - The rich think their luxury lifestyles are coveted. But that's not the feeling that immodest spending evinces these days - 13th September
 * Atos is doing a good job – as the government's flakcatcher - Don't be surprised by the controversial company's Paralympic sponsorship. Outsourcing unpopular decisions is now policy - 6th September
 * The reason I won't be buying Fifty Shades of Grey loungewear - What do EL James' trilogy, Cosmopolitan and cosmetic surgery have in common? They seem to be about sex, when really they are about shopping - 16th August
 * Most people prefer a better bargaining tool than havoc - From the Gloucestershire cheese riots on, wrongly ascribing motives to rioters only intensifies their sense of impotence - 9th August
 * Just like cyclists, pedestrians must find a sense of self-righteousness - Those on bikes pack a political punch, yet far more people are killed on foot. It's time they organised and got angry - 1st August
 * Pro-wind. Anti-wind. It's all so depressingly irrelevant - Only in the UK could such a vital, urgent issue as renewables be driven by political expediency and local skirmishes - 26th July
 * The real 'problem' with these families is that they're poor - All the common sense in Louise Casey's grasp won't change the fact that this troubled policy is divisive and dishonest - 19th July
 * Maternity leave is a women's issue? Don't buy that line - Recent debate about the rights of pregnant workers has subverted a basic economic truth and endorsed discrimination - 11th July
 * Enough of these banking scandals. I'm moving my money - It's time to overcome the fear of being the idiot who did something faddish and look for a more ethical way to save - 5th July
 * A future without growth need not be dismal if we use Plan C - New economic analysis talks not of Westminster's fight over thinning turf but of change as something we do for ourselves - 28th June
 * Public sector outsourcing: finally, an unfairness we can do something about - Shareholders and CEOs are benefiting from the outsourcing boom. But done differently, society could look much fairer - 21st June
 * Fixating on risky gum health is just a way to shred the NHS - Characterising disease as a lifestyle outcome is an ideological push against the idea of shared responsiblity for our health - 14th June
 * The jubilee jobseekers show modern Britain at its worst - How can the government be paying firms whose desperate, jobless people work for nothing? It is all so inhuman - 6th June
 * This body-image death spiral ends at universal self-hatred - MPs' suggestion that five year-olds have lessons to stop them fixating on fat shows how warped our thinking is by narcissism - 31st May
 * What's the point of social mobility? It still leaves some in the gutter - Nick Clegg's desire to fast-stream clever kids out of deprivation leaving the rest facing shabby prospects is hardly communism - 24th May
 * So now we know whose fault the recession is. Ours - It's an egregious Tory narrative that blames the crisis on our individual 'debt-bingeing' while ignoring the true culprits - 17th May
 * Parental leave is good for growth. And that includes fathers - The sense of parental leave is self-evident, yet we continue to discuss it in ever-decreasing circles - 10th May
 * Markets can't magic up good teachers. Nor can bonuses - Monetising incentives in education in the name of social mobility assumes everything improves with a price on it. But it doesn't - 3rd May
 * You can't stop divorce, even if you are a family court judge - Sir Paul Coleridge is campaigning to save marriage, but he only sees the unions that end in court - 1st May
 * So you think the fight for the NHS is over? Wrong - Yes, the act's passed. But most staff were against the marketisation of the health service, and they're still out there running it - 26th April
 * On fracking and wind we are having the wrong debates - Discussion of climate change and the wider public interest has been jettisoned in the rush to lobby against alternatives - 19th April
 * Cuts are a coalition catechism. When will the left challenge it? - Labour must develop a coherent anti-austerity storyline. Modern politics is about creating a narrative and making it stick - 12th April
 * In this leaking frenzy, don't take scandals at face value - The budget, the NHS risk register, the riots report – the coalition seems badly news-managed. Or is all this noise a smokescreen? - 29th March
 * Ripping off young interns is routine, but it's still wrong - The Queen pays her interns, Keith Vaz does not – there is no political predictability about who will fleece new graduates - 22nd March
 * Drug users might give up if the warnings were plausible - The Guardian survey reveals that many people take drugs without suffering, but they are interested in evidence - 15th March
 * As feminists, united we fall apart – divided we may yet succeed - My International Women's Day thought? We should act more like a football team and less like synchronised swimmers - 8th March
 * On capitalism we lefties are clueless – it's not just a rightwing caricature - Emma Harrison and her ilk are free to reap the benefits of our shame at being smart with money and investment - 1st March
 * This Coriolanus-style fight to be London's mayor does nothing for politics - A vote for the London mayor could be between the true left and the true right. But they'd rather squabble over our wallets - 23rd February
 * False optimism alone won't find jobs - With a deficit of two million vacancies, no amount of Work Programme intervention is likely to fill the jobs gap - 16th February
 * Ignore the soporific jargon. Privatisation is a race to the bottom - The outsourcing of state services always leads to workers being paid less. Instead our leaders call it an 'efficiency saving' - 9th February
 * Fred Goodwin's disgrace may not feel great but it's a good place to start - Of course the stripping of Goodwin's knighthood leaves a hangover, but if it's the beginning of accountability, it's worth it - 2nd February
 * Who do we fear more – the dogs or their owners? - Scaremongering about pets being used as weapons is displaced prejudice against (usually) young men with staffs and bull terriers - 26th January
 * Who pays the Tesco CEO's wages of £6.9m a year? We do - When low supermarket wages are supplemented by state benefits, it allows obscene profits to be made at taxpayers' expense - 19th January
 * Migration caps aren't about protecting British workers - Reduce net migration if you must, but don't expect it to improve the lot of the lowest skilled and lowest paid - 12th January
 * What Ed Miliband needs to do now: panel verdict - The panel: How can Ed Miliband convince voters he's not directionless, as Maurice Glasman suggests? Our panel has a few ideas - 6th January
 * Labour has been hiding behind child poverty for far too long - In this harshly political age the left has to stop using child poverty as a way of avoiding a debate on income redistribution - 5th January



Articles: 2011

 * Disability assessment may be a farce, but it's not French - There's no point blaming foreigners for the failure of our government's procurement policies. Profit is the real problem - 29th December
 * Does the stolen Barbara Hepworth show that caring makes us weak? -The stolen sculpture raises the fear that 1,000 people who want a good society are no match for one person who doesn't care - 22nd December
 * Obesity is about poverty and cheap food, not a lack of moral fibre - It's more palatable to blame diabetes on lifestyle than accept the fact that on a penny-per-calorie basis, a Big Mac is simply cheaper - 15th December
 * No alternative to cutting disabled and ill people's benefits. Really? - Targeting people with terminal illness might be so awful as to be a tactical manoeuvre. It's hard for campaigners to tell - 8th December
 * Processed pork – the taste that dare not speak its name - It's pink gunk so cheap it doesn't even have an anatomical name, but processed pork is beyond delicious - 3rd December
 * Hoarding for the apocalypse? I really wouldn't blame you - It takes more than an autumn statement to make me panic. But with an inept George Osborne in charge, I may start soon - 1st November
 * First rule of being a minister: never take the blame for cuts - Faced with an onslaught of experts, the tactics are clear – skew the figures, dangle red herrings, and let Lib Dems take the flak - 24th November
 * Jobs are a feminist issue. So are legal aid, tax and pensions - Women are hardest hit by the coalition's austerity drive. When policy leads to poverty, we all have a duty to fight back - 17th November
 * Women-hating is all over the internet – believe me, I know - We need to engage with these misogynist bullies, not ban them - 10th November
 * Don't blame the young when the jobs have vanished - Gove's proselytising about 'mastering your destiny' is absurd advice to school leavers whose chances have been scuppered - 3rd November
 * Instead of harrying migrants and the elderly, why not just build homes? - All suggestions to solve Britain's major housing crisis seem to have significant, even terrifying, downsides. Except one - 27th October
 * Expenses for egg donors, or profit? Depends on whether you have ovaries - Egg donation is not like getting gum balls out of a slot machine. Reasonable compensation could be 10 times the £750 on offer - 20th October
 * The Lords failed to go rogue on the NHS. But they might - Although peers didn't vote to derail the bill their response did offer a show of teeth – unlike the small game-hunting Commons - 13th October
 * People like Rory Weal can't be leftwing on planet Mail - The Mail's treatment of Rory Weal is cunning, perpetuating the idea that money rules you out of the social justice debate - 28th September
 * You can't have hypersexed, drunk adults and sweet kids - Talk of shielding children from alcohol advertising and sexualisation is a diversion from tackling the problems themselves - 22nd September
 * Is it lefty to ask why our tax pays private CEOs millions? - Westminster's faith in the efficiency of firms taking over public services has led to vast rewards for a few at the cost of the rest - 15th September
 * Are the parents really to blame? Q&A with Zoe Williams - The Guardian writer debates the riots and how children are brought up with readers from 12 noon on Monday - 12th September
 * Evicted from Labour: any sense of justice for tenants - It's not just Tory councils abdicating basic duties as landlords. Being related to a rioter is now seen as a crime on the left too - 8th September
 * Marie Stopes: a turbo-Darwinist ranter, but right about birth control - Her views were never the influential thing about her: it was in her clinic that her real social impact was taking hold - 3rd September
 * Abortion advice from Nadine Dorries is classic backstreet politics - The campaign to put abortion counselling in the hands of faith-based groups is grubby and mendacious - 1st September
 * luck for the luckless caught up in the riot crackdown'' - When sentencing rules are changed in a rush, it's not only the scofflaws who suffer before the courts - 25th August
 * riots: This vigilantism is the very embodiment of 'big society''' - Folk taking to the streets with doner knives is what happens if communities are encouraged to fill in the gaps left by the state - 11th August
 * UK riots: the psychology of looting'' - The shocking acts of looting may not be political, but they nevertheless say something about the beaten-down lives of the rioters - 10th August
 * charities while Serco profits isn't a plan with legs'' - For all the 'big society' talk, philanthrocapitalism often looks a lot more like capitalism than it does philanthropy - 4th August
 * is accused, but it's the maid's word on trial'' - The presumption of innocence is extended to defendants but any past infraction can be used to torpedo Diallo's credibility - 27th July
 * make paupers and foreigners fight over a crust?'' - Maurice Glasman would ban immigration to drive wages up. But it can't be 'banned', and there are better ways to raise wages - 21st July
 * minister: you can't cut away and be family friendly'' - A few coalition initiatives to promote family life pale against falling wages and benefits, rising costs and services being axed - 14th July
 * David Beckham, I called my daughter Harper first'' - Until yesterday, my daughter had a name with a literary resonance. But Harper Beckham has changed all that - 12th July
 * alone is pricey, but all households have their cost'' - Status has come before preference for too long: those who'd prefer to live solo or communally are pushed into pairing off - 7th July
 * a feminist rejoice in the likes of Beyoncé or Lagarde?'' - Powerful women help society muddle towards equality – even if the R&B star is marriage-fixated and the IMF chief is a neoliberal - 30th June
 * we can't afford legal aid? Look at the costs without it'' - Social justice in Britain is expensive – and yes, we need to save money. But the cuts in this bill will end up costing a fortune - 23rd June
 * how a chick flick won over a feminist'' - I don't care that Bridesmaids features bridesmaids, nor that it is ultimately uncritical of the American nuptial hyper-consumption - 19th June
 * game of British Bulldog feels like the Thatcher era'' - The possibility of strikes in the public sector has seen the old tropes of left and right re-emerge with stunning speed and force - 16th June
 * a real titan philanthropist – and close your hedge fund'' - At the Ark Gala Ball an obscenely rich clique will raise millions for charity: hardly compensation for the inequality they create - 9th June
 * gossip culture's victims the celebs – or the gossipers?'' - The obsession with celebrities has normalised their self-absorption. It's surely no coincidence that narcissism is on the rise - 2nd June
 * this twisted 'big society' it has become harder to help'' - Charity workers helping those in need could soon qualify as being in need themselves - 26th May
 * I smell a rat. Let's start denying this deficit properly'' - Canada's 90s 'bloodbath budget' was held up as a model by Tories. But the parallel is a false one, and the war on debt phoney - 19th May
 * reason mothers work – and Tories try to stop them'' - Benefit cuts, childcare costs and marriage tax breaks are forcing families back into a single breadwinner model - 12th May
 * Princess Di and Osama bin Laden have so much in common'' - The US might finally have nailed Bin Laden, but can't kill off our love of a good old conspiracy theory - 5th May
 * Tesco riot is no surprise given people's powerlessness'' - Planning law is so loaded against local communities fighting supermarkets, it's amazing Bristol-style disturbances are so rare - 28th April
 * the maths is in, it's clear: tuition fees don't add up'' - Either the coalition didn't do the numbers properly or its policy was designed to drag university access back to postwar levels - 21st April
 * people to cough up for charity? Put on some Lycra'' - It would be unthinkable to simply ask friends to donate to a good cause. But modesty evaporates in the London Marathon - 14th April
 * bauble of an immigration cap should be sent back home'' - The coalition may gain a shortlived uplift from this sop to the right, but where's the data on its likely economic effect? - 7th April
 * Miliband, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded vote-winner?'' - It could be a political ploy, or maybe Ed Miliband has given into the pressures that assail unmarried parents - 31st March
 * 'neutral' budget's first principle is to attack equality'' - Osborne's measures aren't overtly sexist, regionalist, or classist, but the subtext is taking from the poorest to mollify the middle - 24th March
 * policy on child support is worthy of a budget airline'' - Charging single parents for using the Child Support Agency is twisted logic. Why should the victims pay? - 17th March
 * the tests that deceive, not the people claiming benefits'' - Mental illness fluctuates. A one-off assessment of fitness to work is not only inadequate, it's making people's conditions worse - 10th March
 * it comes to car insurers scamming us, men and women are all equal'' - Despite the vexatious spectacle of feminism apparently backfiring, it's good to see an insurance sales ruse get the boot - 3rd March
 * was the 'safe' NHS a Tory lie, or are they just clueless?'' - David Cameron's claims may well be sincerely meant. His government seems to have no idea what effect it actually has - 24th February
 * is quietly shoved off the agenda again'' - The high court has quashed a practical way to protect women in need of an early termination. Ideology has trumped clinical need - 17th February 2011
 * Iain Duncan Smith's rot about marriage disguises a tired old taboo'' - The guff Duncan Smith talks about commitment shows what really drives him: painting cohabiting couples as an aberration - 10th February
 * can be uncertain. But checking it is surely odd'' - Boots will not normalise DNA testing – the trust that keeps couples together makes most investigations obsolete - 3rd February
 * as you earn: PAYE for those who make peanuts'' - Market values in the tax system mean people get help in proportion to the business they bring in, not the help they need - 27th January
 * government talks about empathy while cutting the cuddles already there'' - Graham Allen's early years report makes the loathsome leap that the poor are worse at parenting while failing to see why that may be - 20th January
 * wonder women are depressed – just look at the case of Miriam O'Reilly'' - Given the prejudice and drop in status we can expect as we grow older, widespread distress looks a rational response - 13th January
 * gym is a genius con we should be ashamed to fall for'' - This dressing up of vanity in the sackcloth of good health obscures the basic fact that exercise won't make us thin – just hungry - 6th January



Articles: 2010

 * at Elton's news. And that homophobia is dying'' - Those who deride the Furnish-Johns on their baby because of age and lifestyle are outnumbered by those who don't - 30th December
 * Hoey: loved by her constituents, hated by foxes'' - There is still a pervasive loyalty towards good MPs who aren't on the make, who have done a good job for a long time - 23rd December
 * deserve it because I want it the most. Come on, Sugar!'' - It's absurd that desire is so trumpeted over ability as a criterion for success, but even The Apprentice boss has fallen for the idea - 22nd December
 * prisons work. No, I am not a Michael Howard clone'' - Imprisonment divides conservatives like Michael Howard and Kenneth Clarke. But few get that success is about rehab, not punishment - 16th December
 * Then join the ranks of the undeserving ill'' - The distress it treats is real and pressing. But all round the country IVF is being relegated to the level of tattoo removal - 9th December
 * fair pay review won't make any CEO's pips squeak'' - The idea that balanced public sector salaries will inspire FTSE 100 chiefs to follow suit is as likely as a doughnut-eating shark - 2nd December
 * missed the obvious target for reform – Ofsted'' - The inspectorate's disdain for teachers is shaping policy. But those in the classroom believe those who can't teach, inspect - 25th November
 * his engagement to Kate Middleton, the furnace of Prince William's divine right has been put out'' - Hats off to royal William and commoner Kate. Their wedding will be a nail in the coffin of an obnoxious hierarchy - 18th November
 * is spreading like nits in the coalition's playground'' - In David Cameron's brave new horizon-shifting world, targets are milestones and euphemism is policy. The West Wing it isn't - 11th November
 * prisoners vote, to remind politicians they are human'' - Universal suffrage should mean just that. And as a community, inmates should not be excluded from civic responsibility - 4th November
 * alcohol is not a crime, even for prisoners on parole'' - It might be persuasive for drivers in South Dakota – but breath-testing to stop violence in London is a non-starter - 28th October
 * talk of 'benefit cheats' is not only stigmatising, it is slanderous, too'' - The cost of government error dwarfs that of public fraud – surely HMRC's top priority must be to get its sums right - 21st October
 * has the Chilean miners' rescue left me this euphoric?'' - The feverish media coverage and product placement should jar. But there it is – a flash of global joy - 14th October
 * has changed but our urge to protest is undimmed'' - Demonstrations may not achieve much, but from the Iraq war to the G20, taking to the streets has an inimitable energy - 6th October
 * perfect Facebook nerds did start a revolution – in advertising'' - Funny thing about Mark Zuckerberg's radical buddies and their purity of purpose: they sure have generated a lot of money - 30th September
 * wealth, not brains, that makes divorce so poisonous'' - It is not 'intelligent' couples who prolong separations, as a judge has claimed, but the adverserial family courts - 23rd September
 * special needs is a con, is it? It's not a very clever one'' - Special needs does not open a treasure chest to school funding - 16th September
 * sex is bad. But a few A-levels don't make it worse'' - From Jennifer Thompson to Belle de Jour, attitudes about breeding and education have polluted the prostitution debate - 9th September
 * thinking won't bring equality for disabled people'' - Many Britons believe the battle's been won. But the defeat of prejudice takes effort and doesn't move in a simple direction - 2nd September
 * sex with HIV is a crime, so is swimming with verrucas'' - A trial like that of German pop star Nadja Benaissa could happen here: the law isn't about public health, but pillorying promiscuity - 19th August
 * adverts don't deserve public money'' - From Protect and Survive to Heroin Screws You Up, these blame-shifting slogans only cover up policy failures - 12th August
 * are worth having, regardless of the outcome'' - Industrial action cannot be dismissed as 'old politics' – it keeps the mechanics and the muscle of conflict alive - 5th August
 * the burning, a raft of IVF horror stories to come'' - The abolition of the HFEA will leave a major policy vacuum in biotech ethics. Without intervention, it'll be filled by the Daily Mail - 29th July
 * Enid Blyton's potboilers alone'' - In expunging dated words, you strip out a book's personality – although perhaps some of the characters' names could go - 24th July
 * petty-minded will this coalition be? Here is the test'' - Child trust funds helped some of the poorest save. Scrapping their whole infrastructure would be an act of hooliganism - 22nd July
 * a suggestion: log off and write to your MP instead'' - Finding useful ideas on the Treasury's feedback website is like extracting oil from sand. There are better ways to have a say - 15th July
 * the Tories? That's a steep price for an internship'' - Unpaid work is supposed to be about students with vim and big ideas, not an industrial finishing school for the privileged - 8th July
 * costs more than Eton, does it? Perhaps some of them are better, too'' - Clarke's thesis of penal reform is flawed: the data is skewed, and there's no reference to or respect for the work of the service - 1st July
 * Lansley's prescription can only induce more perversity'' - Treating the NHS as if it were BP or JP Morgan is a surefire way of producing daft behaviour from sensible people - 10th June
 * avoidance? Sorry, you are far too poor to qualify'' - Wouldn't it be lovely if HMRC's overpayers and underpayers balanced each other? Sadly, errors always favour the rich - 3rd June
 * women, you've given birth to a healthy facet of modern life'' - To present older mothers as a social problem is savagely annoying. Quite simply, there is no best age to be pregnant - 27th May
 * course we love a medical scare. But it's got to ring true'' - Bogus headlines about phones giving you cancer are naff. If we're going to panic let's do it well, and keep disbelief suspended - 20th May
 * and famine'' - As the world is hit by a food crisis, the markets see nothing immoral in skimming off a profit - 13th May
 * underwear does not reveal sociopathic intent'' - Even Obama has vilified the low-slung trouser wearer. It's open season on young chaps with idiosyncratic apparel - 6th May
 * equal pay, sisters with solicitors must do it for themselves'' - The Birmingham case shows just how much Labour and the unions have let women down- 29th April
 * mention the war'' - The British nostalgia movement holds that any contemporary event can benefit from a WWII allusion - 21st April
 * great flu conspiracy'' - The idea of Big Pharma duping the WHO over swine flu is thrilling. The reality is more prosaic - 8th April
 * remedies for poor children are bizarre and dishonest'' - Michael Gove's Saturday schools brainwave is just the latest example of a politician keen to talk poverty but dodge reality - 1st April
 * by prenups? Then try a tightwads' partnership'' - So another super-rich couple is tormented by marriage law. But my idea might spare the poor darlings all this anguish - 25th March
 * Winslet's breakup isn't part of broken society, is it?'' - Instead of wheeling out spouses and obsessing over stable relationships, politicians should take note: to split is human - 18th March
 * dogs are fashion victims'' - For a well-adjusted pet, status dogs who hang out with teenagers beat nutty, Saturday-only labradors hands down - 11th March
 * don't execute killers, but demand a death-penalty-lite'' - For all the arguments on rehabilitation, the cases of Venables and Sutcliffe show we expect the state to take a life, somehow - 4th March
 * homeopathy row has nothing to do with placebos'' - Americans get heated about guns and abortion. Here, proselytisers build their identity on the efficacy of sugar pills - 25th February
 * mind the data. Teen parents simply must be bad'' - At last, a cross-party consensus. It's just a shame that it rests on such snobbery and sloppy use of statistics -18th February
 * real benefit cheats? The Stasi ranks of Hard Labour'' - The supergrass wheeze is just another example of coarse, wilfully ignorant rabble-rousing from the top ranks of government - 11th February
 * all of a sudden older people are sexy. It must be election time again'' - The politicisation of child-rearing and gender issues only points up the establishment's habitual neglect of grey voters - 4th February
 * greatest legacy? We're all Conservatives now'' - The latest social attitudes survey shows how New Labour's fabled meritocratic society has eroded our sympathy for the poor - 28th January
 * next for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?'' - At 34, Angelina Jolie is well into Mr He'll Do territory - 26th January
 * to medics: it's about emotions as well as tumours'' - The latest dust-up among breast cancer experts shines a light into the grey areas of the NHS's screening programme - 21st January
 * it turns out the Neanderthals weren't numbskulls, who can we look down on?'' - Archaeology is exploding the comforting myths and yardsticks against which we measure our supposed progress - 14th January
 * all for privacy. But I don't want to seem like a Luddite'' - Fancy a virtual strip search in the cause of security? Well, no one wants to appear cranky and old-fashioned - 7th January



Articles: 2009

 * families to nag in peace'' - Boomerang children can sleep soundly. When it comes to meddling, Whitehall hasn't a clue - 31st December
 * we still in the thick of it?'' - Our understanding of the media has moved on a lot since the US broadcast its first election debate in 1960 - 24th December
 * be honest: we are using fat kids as a political decoy'' - All these strategies about children's health boil down to one thing: harmony between state and commercial sectors - 17th December
 * Tiger? Why, bankers? Why? Because they can'' - In celebrity as in finance, where opportunity is constant, morality is constantly tested. But only one injures us all - 10th December
 * goggles, elf'n'safety? You really could make it up'' - In signing up to the great health and safety outrage brigade, Cameron is tutting with the dim and winking at the savvy - 3rd December
 * they can take my name. But it will be in vain'' - It is depressing when a company attaches our traits to a prosaic product – I don't, though, expect the Renault Zoe to boom - 26th November
 * Clapham Junction is that bad. The sun shone, but the roof still leaks'' - The wave of affluence has not touched this poor old station. It stands as a shabby testament to the failings of the third way - 19th November
 * all, who would search a Guardian for cheese?'' - Assumptions about class and honesty go a lot further than the aisles of Waitrose: a whole justice system has been warped - 12th November
 * is playing the altruistic antelope on universities'' - Mandelson's vision of the universities of the future looks like old-fashioned spin – to divert attention from the really big issue - 5th November
 * toddler watches whatever he likes'' - My two-year-old can watch as much TV as he likes – and I honestly don't care - 14th October
 * you fall for Swaddles organic swindle?'' - This week, Neil Stansfield was found guilty of selling food falsely labelled as organic. So what lesson should the consumer take from this? Simple – stop buying it - 26th September
 * these laws, Ortega has betrayed the women who fought for democracy'' - Nicaragua's abortion ban was a cynical move in a feverish election by a president desperate to pacify the religious right - 30th July
 * dogs should have traditional doggy names, like Spot or Rover'' - A survey has shown that nowadays dogs tend to have 'human' names such as Molly or Charlie. It's bad for them – and for us - 29th July
 * ageing world isn't a catastrophe. It's a triumph'' - We are healthier, living longer and birth rates are falling. Only the most blinkered of economists could fail to rejoice - 23rd July
 * flu: All you can do is have backbone and carry on'' - You can't preventatively avoid your existing offspring, you'd more likely want to look after them - 22nd July
 * Criminal Gossip Bureau can ruin your job prospects'' - Government agencies are making a mockery of individual privacy. And it could play into the hands of the Conservatives - 16th July
 * equality watchdog is a gift for the quangophobes'' - Trevor Phillips's super-charged army of fairness is mired in controversy. It is much too important to be allowed to fail - 9th July
 * carnivalesque thirst for justice lights up our brains'' - If a punitive desire for revenge can animate people, then we are no less ideological than we've ever been - 2nd July
 * outraged! Well, maybe not – please redact that thought'' - Focus the righteous anger on all the redactions and we might get somewhere - 19th June
 * fertility time bomb is just as much about men'' - The debate about when it's best to have children needs to be degendered, and treated like any other forward planning issue - 18th June
 * may fear it, but porn means passivity not protest'' - China's web crackdown is apparently rooted in fear of social unrest. Absurd: easier, surely, to control a society of atomised men? - 11th June
 * on, Cowell, that saxophonist deserves a share of the profits too'' - What Britain's Got Talent reveals is that reality TV is a busted model for contestants. Companies, of course, still rake it in - 4th June
 * betrayal of poetry? No, it's just some poets being daft'' - Another bad boy poet and a posh Vicky Pollard have not brought shame on academia – they need to get some perspective - 27th
 * price of a good state education'' - I've got a surprise for all those parents who used to pay or pray their way out of the local primary – but now find it rather attractive - 13th May
 * bit like Radio Five, only much more interesting'' - It is produced by inmates for inmates and never broadcasts beyond the confines of HMP Brixton. But Electric Radio - with its mix of music, interviews and frank accounts of prison life - last night won two Sony radio awards - 13th May
 * price of a good state education'' - I've got a surprise for all those parents who used to pay or pray their way out of the local primary – but now find it rather attractive - 13th May
 * Gogh, Emin, ears and graces'' - The tales of artists such as Vincent and Tracey oblige us to draft a new scale of cultural authenticity - 6th May
 * was wrong about Boris Johnson'' - A year on, it seems London's mayor isn't a bigot, or malicious, but his random ideas are reminiscent of a columnist in the wrong job - 1st May
 * all this fuss about a lotion that works?'' - Boots's fabled wonder face-cream is called Protect and Perfect. It sounds like your standard-issue, ASA-approved half-speak, but these words are actually true - 30th May
 * pill is a cheap, nasty way out of dealing with the real causes of obesity'' - It suits policymakers to offer the overweight a magic bullet: better than facing expensive stuff like economic hopelessness - 22nd April
 * breed or not to breed'' - Attenborough is probably right about population growth. But, as so often, we'll deal with it later - 15th April
 * your veg money'' - The new grant for all pregnant women would be better targeted at helping poor families - 8th April
 * vigilantes'' - Before police condemn an online pursuit of a rapist, they should put their own house in order - 1st April
 * ban Chris Moyles from saying 'gay' can only add to his fizz'' - Censuring certain words is pointless. Nor is there any law as powerful as public outrage, when the wrong values triumph - 25th March
 * yourself with cheap cider does not veto your right to fairness'' - Alcoholics and binge drinkers may have made poor life choices, but don't have to earn justice with good behaviour - 17th March
 * fix it till you feel it'' - The offer of therapy for the unemployed ignores the inconvenient fact that life isn't always fair - 11th March
 * you're a pint of mild'' - The BBC heavyweight's response to University Challenge-gate was commendably restrained - 4th March
 * give up on the movies'' - American cinema is now little more than trash directed at teenagers. I'd much prefer to watch TV - 25th February
 * we dig our way out of the recession?'' - Allotments are not the panacea the National Trust thinks they are, but nostalgia drives demand - 21st February
 * doesn't know best'' - The effect of an ad that overstates the dangers of cannabis is to discredit all public health advice - 18th February
 * one we marred earlier'' - It was a bleak day for our children when Anne Robinson ousted Blue Peter in the schedules - 11th February
 * service bickering'' - For all that Channel 4's contrived reality TV rows flout the remit, they at least spark a good debate - 4th February
 * Chelsy was wearing a lot of makeup - but not enough to hide the truth about her and Harry'' - 29th January
 * with the hoorays'' - Always wanted that chav-free break? Well, now you can have it. But I'd rather be with Britney - 28th January
 * the financial crisis be explained with a diagram? Because the experts are making no sense at all'' - 22nd January
 * is a job for the boys'' - It's up to men to counter modern risk culture and offer children some inspirational role models - 21st January
 * wouldn't happen to a man'' - Baroness Vadera makes an unwise comment - and suddenly she's 'Shrieky Shriti the ball-breaker'. And we all know why - 16th January (see: Crisis, what crisis? Minister apologises for green shoots of recovery forecast)
 * story of you. Yes, you'' - The latest census site's appeal is clear but using it as proof of social mobility is seriously misleading - 14th January
 * every cough mixture for itself in these times of ill'' - Benylin has shown itself close to the pulse of the nation with an advert that accepts it's just fine to take a sick day - 7th January



Articles: 2008

 * vest is full of holes'' - Making offenders wear tabards is proving petty and unworkable. Let the justice minister try one - 1st January 2009
 * Branson'' - How ludicrous for the Virgin boss to upbraid the NHS. Just imagine if his lot managed hospitals - 24th December 2008
 * thought that counts'' - Christmas gifts are about fixing a set cash value on relationships. With prices in flux, best buy a goat - 17th December 2008
 * was a Miaoist'' - If Oliver Postgate's works sang with leftwing ideals, most children's TV has a go at spreading fairness - 10th December 2008
 * to the people'' - Still not joined any Facebook groups? Don't even know what they are? Maybe it's time you did, because these online armies seem to have a hand in every major news story - 5th December 2008
 * useful Mr Woolas'' - The minister's bungling reveals him to be what Labour needs: someone to take the Prescott role - 3rd December 2008
 * taboo'' - It doesn't make you a eugenicist to speak up for the right to abort a foetus that may have Down's - 26th November 2008
 * of gravity'' - We know it takes toil to get fit, and yet the idea of upside-down yoga just seems too good to miss - 19th November 2008
 * off by tart-lit'' - Cute terminology and Belle de Jour ethics can't disguise the violence that fuels the sex industry - 13th November 2008
 * point about tipping'' - Restaurants should be forced to pass on their service charges to staff, or at least pay them more - 5th November 2008
 * the kids in shape'' - If 10-year-olds fixated on body image worry us, we need to address the adult culture they grow up in - 29th October 2008
 * lady Madonna'' - Even veteran pop icons can't avoid the usual stereotypes and slurs aimed at ageing women - 23rd October 2008
 * blush of youth'' - Squirming adolescent embarrassment is down to brain function - and it's probably just as well - 1st October 2008
 * no reason why the left can't have manners too'' - Etiquette is not simply an accessory of the rich, used to reinforce the status quo, but makes up the very fabric of society - 24th September 2008
 * by the stripes'' - Fashion Week shines a light on a uniquely bizarre industry that defies the basic rules of commerce - 17th September 2008
 * the family, the horses if we must. But not the killer'' - As the fire in Shropshire shows, we persist in investing some kind of noble intent in men who murder their families - 3rd September 2008
 * the unsayable'' - Second-youth rebels like Paxman and Shriver always bottle it when it comes to genuine taboos - 27th August 2008
 * 'There is nothing so disastrous I won't eat it''' - 21st August 2008
 * on boys, take it outside'' - US presidential debates promote the most crass politics. We might as well have them here too - 20th August 2008
 * isn't a matter of degree for others to dictate'' - If alcohol has made women vulnerable to crime, does it follow that the elderly or weak are equally culpable? - 13th August 2008
 * under siege? A sense of proportion, people, please'' - Michael Vaughan's tears portend no crisis in masculinity. This fuss is just a distraction from the real concern: fairness - 6th August 2008
 * Have we fallen out of love with our pets? - Cruelty to animals is on the rise, says the RSPCA — and our affluent, throwaway society is to blame. That, and the fact that both men and women now buy pets to parade their own hyper-sexuality - 31st July 2008
 * Your number is up, Carol - She has profited from red-toothed capitalism so Vorderman should now accept its crueller side - 30th July 2008
 * A modern mystery -The John Darwin canoe disappearance - 25th July 2008
 * The mother of all celebrity news - Motherhood closes down a celebrity's possibilities, yokes her back to the earth, makes you think of incontinence - 24th July 2008
 * A dog is not a weapon - Cynophobia is irrational. But if you worry a canine might take your hand off, check the owner first - 23rd July 2008
 * The chavs and the chav-nots - Yes, it's a hideous word, born of snobbery. But demands to ban the term just give it more power - 16th July 2008
 * Double trouble - Gordon Brown says he identifies with Heathcliff, the brooding romantic hero from Wuthering Heights. But which literary figures do his political peers most resemble? - 11th July 2008
 * Bored to tears - A blubbing bishop is too good to ignore, especially when most of what goes on at such things is so dull - 9th July 2008
 * Lessons for the godless - Fulminating against faith schools is pointless. Far better to identify the real reasons for their success - 3rd July 2008
 * Outraged, but lazy - When it comes to complaining, we lefties are put to shame by a vocal homophobic few - 25th June 2008
 * Persaud's disorder - As the doctor's case shows, honesty only exists when in balance with the fear of discovery - 20th June 2008
 * The names of the fathers - All this proposed law over birth certificates will do is make hard-pressed mothers feel miserable - 11th June 2008
 * Margaret Thatcher a style icon? Do me a favour - 5th June 2008
 * Let's face the music - It may be bloc voting, but the UK's disastrous score at Eurovision is a chilling sign that nobody likes us - 28th May 2008
 * Generation excess - The popularity of social networking means it will cease to matter whether the young value privacy - 21st May 2008
 * Rock Hudson no more - Celebrities are now so similar that any debate about their sexuality is largely beside the point - 14th May 2008
 * Fact, fiction and foetuses - A campaign to reduce the late-term abortion limit insults women - and the intelligence of us all - 7th May 2008
 * Be afraid. Be very afraid - Unbelievable as it may seem, Boris Johnson has a real chance of being elected London mayor today. Zoe Williams and other Londoners imagine what it would be like if this bigoted, lying, Old Etonian buffoon got his hands on our diverse and liberal capital - 1st May 2008
 * Storm in a teen cup -Miley Cyrus has no need to apologise for her Vanity Fair pose as it's essentially meaningless - 30th April 2008
 * Lapdancing's naked truths - It is a nonsense to deny there is a link between legal clubs and the sex industry's murkier side - 23rd April 2008
 * Eco-mom: here to save the world! - Middle-class mothers in the US are embracing environmental activism. But, says Zoe Williams, they have some pretty strange ideas about what it actually involves - 17th April 2008
 * Muddied sentiments - Glastonbury isn't about hippy ideals or guitar bands, so why make a big fuss over hip-hop? - 16th april 2008
 * Bulletproof but loaded - The prejudice masked in the word 'hoodie' is more sinister than the new protective top on sale - 9th April 2008
 * A very liberal lover - Nick Clegg's reply to the bedpost question should work in his favour. Shame about the mental imagery - 2nd April 2008
 * The boom in breast implants is less about male approval than the supremacy of the market - 26th March 2008
 * Cherchez la femme - In the popular imagination, French women are independent and yet sublimely feminine. And those in public life - from Sarkozy's new first lady to his socialist rival - reinforce the image. But there are good reasons why British women shouldn't aspire to be French - 25th March 2008
 * Food fixation is the real enemy - not Fray Bentos - If the outrage caused by Delia's tinned mince teaches us one thing, it is that we can think too much about what we eat - 19th March 2008
 * This po-faced rectitude - Creating a taboo around the word 'gay' does not stamp out its insulting usage in the classroom - 12th March 2008
 * 'Sorry, I binge responsibly'' - For all the piety and 24-hour licensing debates, booze culture is beyond government control - 5th March 2008
 * Off message on maternity - You just can't blame the NHS midwife shortage on mothers being too fat, too old or too feckless - 27th February 2008
 * A blow to equality - The Mills-McCartney case illustrates why a 50:50 divorce split isn't always best for women generally - 20th February 2008
 * The wheel of generosity - Clunky bikes and stiff deposits that will deter many seem a funny way to start a cycling scheme - 13th February 2008
 * Sermon for a carbon fast - The church should keep up its climate preaching. It is taken more seriously than politicians or media - 6th February 2008
 * Myths of the coping class - This voguish melodrama might abate when we realise that absurd house prices don't make us rich - 30th January 2008
 * Scrambled thinking - This cookery initiative reveals the gap between what is taught and what we expect of children - 23rd January 2008
 * Jamie's fowl sanctimony - Chef-polemicists should work on changing the law, instead of preaching to the less well-off - 16th January 2008
 * Writers can't carry it alone - The right to strike may be eroding to the point where only non-essential workers are allowed do it - 9th January 2008
 * The secret of getting on with your ex - 2nd January 2008



The Guardian:
Column name: 'Radio Head'

Remit/Info: "A critical ear on the aural gems of the last seven days"

Section: TV & radio

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/series/radiohead

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Wednesday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2009

 * Williams signs off'' - These are my final radio thoughts, and I've decided to mark the occasion with a round-up of all the things I've got wrong in the period between now and the last time I did a round-up of everything I'd got wrong - 15th July (Final column)
 * 4 on the financial crisis'' - From Today to Any Questions?, Radio 4 is loving the credit crunch - 8th July
 * Junction'' - I am not trying to kick festival culture, but new ideas don't flourish in mud and drugs. They happen in quiet studios, on modest budgets - 1st July
 * Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' - Anyone who thinks the show isn't the same without Humph, no it isn't. It has a dark new heart - 17th June
 * Asian Network'' - That's what's missing from other phone-ins: the triumph of good over evil - 10th June
 * World Tonight is too often swamped by ersatz controversies that shouldn't be controversial at all'' - 3rd June
 * all you Sony winners. You are not my family. You all do an incredibly good job'' - 13th May
 * Book at Bedtime is actually quite useful'' - 6th May
 * on the Resonance FM's Flickerman - a strange and exhilarating experience'' - 22nd April
 * kids love Fun Radio. It's basically just hours and hours of musical noise, really jolly, inoffensive, upbeat, jangly noise'' - 15th April
 * 4 changes anyway - this is Creme-Egg seasonality, unconnected to the exigencies of the actual seasons'' - 8th April
 * problems continue with the Radio 4 comedy juggernaut, and I think I have got to the bottom of them, or at least part-way. It is David Mitchell'' - 25th March
 * don't have esoteric taste - my problem is, I occupy a middle-ground that is not naff, but is pretty conservative'' - 18th March
 * Ripley Series'' - 11th March
 * Time Machine (Radio 3), The Archers and The Lady in the Van (Radio 4)'' - 25th February
 * the Radio 5 Live/Radio 4 war that continues to rage in her house'' - 18th February
 * Island Discs (Radio 4) and Ken Bruce (Radio 2)'' - 11th February
 * BBC's refusal to air the Gaza emergency appeal on TV meant that its radio coverage was the best aural appeal anyone could ever have devised'' - 29th January
 * 3, it cannot have escaped your notice, is celebrating bi- and tri-centenaries all over the place'' - 21st January
 * the radio stations should have duelled over who was allowed to celebrate 50 years of Motown'' - 14th January

<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

Articles: 2008

 * not enjoying guest editors during the festive season'' - 31st December 2008
 * Today programme (Radio 4)'' - 17th December 2008
 * I'm celebrating advent by listing all the times I have been wrong throughout the year'' - 3rd December 2008
 * do not find many competitions on intellectual radio'' - 26th November 2008
 * For the Good Times: The Kris Kristofferson Story'' - 19th November 2008
 * 4 Stands Up'' - 5th November 2008
 * Brand is a cheap, snake-bite-and-black pub psycho, a Begbie with hair'' - 29th October 2008
 * Cerys Matthews' stint filling in for Stephen Merchant on BBC 6Music'' - 22nd October 2008
 * I get into a minicab and the driver is playing my station I think how fortunate that is'' - 8th October 2008
 * I love The Choice precisely because Michael Buerk is the sinner, sorry, I mean presenter'' - 1st October 2008
 * 105.4'' - 24th September 2008
 * Between Ourselves | Moral Maze'' - 10th September 2008
 * Twenty Minutes'' - 3rd September 2008
 * love Paul Merton for his ready wit; I could find charm in the sound of his breathing'' - 27th August 2008
 * don't know why I keep on about Denise Van Outen when, technically, I am in favour of her existence'' - 13th August 2008
 * Marc Riley | Radcliffe and Maconie'' - 6th August 2008
 * Weather on the radio - 30th July 2008
 * ...on Nick Ferrari at Breakfast - 16th July 2008
 * ...on The Al Read Show - 9th July 2008
 * Radio remains the main place people discover new music and the biggest driver of new purchases - 2nd July 2008
 *  I was talking to a producer on World Tonight (Radio 4, 10pm) about sound effects and on-location sounds... - 18th June 2008
 *  Zoe Williams objects to her boyfriend changing the radio statio - 11th June 2008
 *  What I do hold against the BBC, is this idea that they have to pay radio presenters a tonne to make up for what they would have earned if they'd been on the telly - 4th June 2008
 * ...on Feedback - 21st May 2008
 * ...on Jonathan Dimbleby's take on Charles Kennedy failing to turn up at Radio 4 - 14th May 2008
 * ...on In Our Time - 7th May 2008
 * ...on The Classic Serial - 23rd April 2008
 * ...CBeebies Radio - 16th April 2008
 * ...on On the Ropes - 9th April 2008
 * ...on Rudy's Rare Records - 21st March 2008
 * ...on Open Country - 14th March 2008
 * ...on Pick of the Week | Feedback | Money Box Live - 29th February 2008
 * Have you heard Denise and Johnny on Capital? - Air-headedness is no problem; Denise van Outen can do it standing on her air-head - 22nd February 2008
 * ...on Fighting Talk - 15th February 2008
 * Zoe Williams on Politically Charged - 1st February 2008
 * Garden quiz - It's just start-to-finish ill-conceived; plant characteristics aren't finite enough; gardeners don't agree enough. Great radio though - 25th January 2008
 * I said I would stop going on about Woman's Hour, and I meant it. - I just need to lodge one final complaint against Jane Garvey, and that's it - 18th January 2008
 * ...on her pregnant friend's aversion to Radio 4 - 4th January 2008

<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

The Guardian:
Column name: 'Antinatal' *this column ended 9th Oct 2009*

Remit/Info: "Charts the trials and tribulations of first-time motherhood"

Section: G2: Comment & features

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk mszoewilliams@yahoo.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/antinatalseries

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Friday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:

<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

Articles:

 * do some men not get birth-partner etiquette? No, it's not OK to stand in the delivery room downloading apps on to your iPhone'' - 31st July 2009
 * bad form to break the silence surrounding childbirth, but I'm going to'' - 24th July 2009
 * your friend's child's name for your own offspring is not cool'' - 17th July 2009
 * is not interested in his sibling growing in my tummy. Maybe I should tell him it's a puppy instead ...'' - 10th July 2009
 * like an epidural but can't face a shouting match with the midwife. Perhaps I'll try hypnotherapy instead'' - 3rd July 2009
 * have started boring passersby with tedious observations about T. I genuinely make myself sick'' - 26th June 2009
 * hates his car seat - on one recent trip he shouted 'out!' all the way to France'' - 19th June 2009
 * is too young to be reasoned with, but old enough to pull my hair. There's no solution to this problem'' - 12th June 2009
 * than two hours waiting in the maternity clinic and I just sit there, totally placid. What's wrong with me?'' - Naomi Wolf wrote of the obstetric profession that it had a "telling, subtle but distinctive lack of compassion", which you'd never know about if you didn't have a baby. At the time, some while off being pregnant - 29th May 2009
 * has developed a huge vocabulary of disobliging remarks. He can even say 'no' in French'' - 22nd May 2009
 * concerned by the dangerous subtexts of Thomas the Tank Engine. Blame my mother'' - 15th May 2009
 * six months' pregnant means looking after yourself - not getting knocked off your bike'' - 1st May 2009
 * fooled myself into thinking T would eat anything. Then came his frankfurter tantrum ...'' - It's been a week of firsts, all of them objectively bad firsts, but it's nice when they learn things - 24th April 2009
 * problem with getting pregnant for the second time is that it's just like the first time. Except nobody cares'' - 17th April 2009
 * do you do when your son has a tantrum in public? There's always some book with a crazy answer'' - 10th April 2009
 * seems to be adopting some of the dog's habits. Am I failing in my duties as a mum, or as a dog-owner?'' - 3rd April 2009
 * time around, I'm not buying parachutes for trousers or dwelling on remarks about the size of my bump'' - 27th March 2009
 * recap: I have just found out that I am pregnant again - 20 weeks pregnant. It is incredibly embarrassing'' - 20th March 2009
 * had no idea until I looked in the mirror at the gym. Unbelievably, I'm pregnant again - and 20 weeks in'' - 13th March 2009
 * can't work out if T isn't talking because he's a genius or because the shipping forecast is interfering with his learning'' - 6th March 2009
 * is not even two and I have already had more pointless discussions about schools than I care to remember'' - 27th February 2009
 * believe every childcare decision is made in the infant's best interests - I need to read the paper too'' - 20th February 2009
 * OK for insomniacs or the hung-over to moan about lack of sleep - but parents doing it sound like martyrs'' - 13th February 2009
 * you ring your sister to tell her about your sick baby, you don't expect sarcasm'' - 6th February 2009
 * can't stand crusading parents who feed their children tofu and rice cakes and think raisins are a naughty treat'' - 30th January 2009
 * course I am a full-time parent. I look after the kids all day on a Monday, not counting nap time'' - 23rd January 2009
 * hate parents who opt out of baby vaccinations. So why haven't I taken T to have all of his yet?'' - 16th January 2009
 * have no enthusiasm for children's television or children's books. They're seriously witless'' - I cannot muster any enthusiasm for those books that are just pictures of things, with its name written next to it - 9th January 2009
 * loves his father more than me. I'm sure I'll come into my own when he's older - I just hope it's not too late'' - 19th December 2008
 * baby has taken after me in one respect at least: overnight he seems to have become allergic to the bath'' - 12th December 2008
 * one of us thought that trying to go to a party together - on a weeknight - was a good idea?'' - 5th December 2008
 * a point when T's behaviour can turn me from pushover into raging bull. It's called pulling the animal's tail'' - 28th November 2008
 * have been on a bus with T three times: the first, he was about four weeks old'' - 21st November 2008
 * your child must have playdates. Whether they result in fights or telly-watching is anybody's guess'' - What they really mean is rendezvous. We don't even have our own word for it - 14th November 2008
 * won't do what my parents did ...'' - I won't frighten T with talk of nuclear war, or feed him ratatouille sandwiches - 7th November 2008
 * I meet someone who's pregnant, I always want to ask if it's their first - even if they're famous'' - 31st October 2008
 * now T's got shoes, or pre-shoes. But I can't get his feet into them. My fault for not buying him pre-pre-shoes'' - 24th October 2008
 * left my firstborn with a woman who has a serial-killer's name. Never again ... except if I'm going out for a meal'' - 17th october 2008
 * my baby is happy, I'm happy too. That's why I gladly swapped the pub for the playground'' - 10th October 2008
 * is possible to go shopping with small children in tow. But you do end up buying some very odd things'' - 3rd October 2008
 * T's birthday next week. But who should I invite to his party? And what should they give him?'' - 26th september 2008
 * I'm no fun anymore. The best I can do to make my baby laugh is to throw a tea towel over my head - 19th September 2008
 * The customs official at the airport stole my baby's dinner - Where else in the world would that be OK? - 12th September 2008
 * Babies have only three expressions - They could be unlocking the secrets of the universe for all we know - 5th September 2008
 * You think that taking a baby on holiday is hard work? Just wait until they hit the wrecking-ball stage - 29th August 2008
 * Don't believe all the myths about post-pregnancy weight loss. Just have a custard slice and wait it out - 22nd August 2008
 * Let's get one thing straight - looking pregnant and being fat are two totally different things - 15th August 2008
 * My hygiene rules have become so relaxed that I'm thinking of handing J-Cloths to visitors at the front door - 8th August 2008
 * I like to believe I am the best person to watch over my baby, but every time he falls over it suggests otherwise - 1st August 2008
 * Only-children are weird, but siblings can really screw you up. So what is the ideal number of kids to have? - 25th July 2008
 * The Well Baby Clinic is aptly named. If there's anything wrong with your child they can't do a thing to help - 27th June 2008
 * T has learned to crawl - It's as if I've been looking after a cushion and suddenly I'm in charge of a conger eel - 6th June 2008
 * I swore I wouldn't be an embarrassing mother. But the key to being a success in life is changing your mind, right? - 23rd May 2008
 * "Your tits will never be the same," people said to me. I'd hoped they were winding me up. Well, they weren't - 16th May 2008
 * There's so much advice out there - but what should I take seriously, and what is just middle-class nonsense? - 9th May 2008
 * I think Spot is feeling a bit unloved. Then again, who knows what's going on in his little doggie head? - 28th March 2008
 * I thought the father who forgot to put a nappy on his baby was bad enough, until I heard an even worse tale - 21st March 2008
 * When choosing your tot's transport, remember: a bigger baby buggy is not always a better baby buggy - 1st February 2008
 * I won't take T swimming or play peek-a-boo, but I am prepared to spend time fretting about his development - 25th January 2008
 * While my boyfriend exercises his freedom of movement, I'm left wondering if gender equality was all a sick joke - 18th January 2008
 * Nothing had prepared me for the agony of baby jabs. How am I going to face the baby abattoir again? - 11th January 2008
 * T and his dad look so alike... how am I ever going to know which one to nag and which one to breastfeed? - 4th January 2008
 * Here's one problem of motherhood I never could have foreseen: smile performance anxiety - 14th December 2007
 * Is having a baby the enemy of creativity? - Well, when I emerge from this cognitive fog, I'll let you know... - 9th November 2007
 * Time spent worrying about your baby is time totally wasted. If only I could follow my own advice... - 2nd November 2007
 * What do I do all day? - Well, I go up and down the stairs a lot, watch the baby a lot... oh, I can't remember what I do - 26th October 2007
 * I always thought mothers who didn't breastfeed were feckless - but now I realise why some reach for a bottle - 19th October 2007
 * Pineapples, sex and curries are all supposed to bring on labour, but there is an even more desperate method - 21st September 2007
 * I'm drinking coffee and suddenly that makes me an evil mum-to-be. What is wrong with these people? - 14th September 2007

<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

News & updates:
<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

References:
<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

Links:

 * New Statesman articles
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Williams