Stigmatising the unemployed

As I’ve written in earlier posts, the Tories stigmatised lone mothers in the 1990s, blaming them for the economy and portraying them as irresponsible, undeserving benefit cheats. Right now, they’re doing the exact same thing to people who are claiming state benefits – despite the fact that 93% of Housing Benefit claimants are in working

Drunk sluts get raped: Police and internet commenters in consensus

West Mercia police apologised for their video and poster campaign which urged women not to drink too much on nights out in order to not “leave yourself vulnerable to regretful sex or even rape.” The force also released a video featuring a female rape victim. During the video the victim says she wishes to make

Freedom – but only if it’s hushed up: Swingers’ orgy cancelled by Edinburgh hotel

According to the Daily Record, the Carlton Hotel on Northbridge, central Edinburgh, cancelled a swingers’ orgy when management realised it wasn’t just a masked ball. Now, I am doubtful if indeed it was an orgy and not any other type of social event, but whether or not it was true or not is irrelevant. The fact is,

The right to privacy and freedom of the press: where is the line?

I have been planning this post for a while, and the aftermath of Gawker’s outing of a Reddit user for posting photos of clothed underaged girls seems as good a time as any to make this. Lately, teens have been having their identities plastered all over the news for making offensive jokes. Firstly, reporters, merely