The ‘Grammar’ of Diversity
Learning by rote how to talk about and consult with different groups in society is like limiting yourself to conversing in a foreign language with a phrasebook. You’re likely to be stumped or get into...
View ArticleOf Carts and Horses
People talk a lot these days about “Equality and Diversity”. The expression just trips off the tongue. But does that pairing obscure what the two words mean individually, and how do the two relate? In...
View ArticlePolitical Correctness Gone Mad?
Talk about Human Rights is sometimes dismissed as ‘Political Correctness gone mad’ in certain quarters — mainly a particular section of the tabloid press. There are even some politicians who’d claim...
View ArticleHow do we know what we don’t know we don’t know?
Equality Impact Assessment relies crucially upon being able to predict the effects that a policy or service may have on different groups of people. The range of people and life circumstances we need to...
View ArticleNews: An Experiment for Now…
As an experiment I am going to explore the feasibility of bringing an occasional batch of news reports into the mix of editorial and interview content. I’m making no promises about regularity. A great...
View ArticleHalf an Hour with Paul Martin
It was only originally planned to be a ten minute interview and, if this were a Radio station, then there would have had to be an awful lot of him on the cutting room floor to fit the schedules. When...
View ArticleThe Men with Baby Bellies
The news that a number of transsexual men have had babies following their transition to manhood has hit the headlines both sides of the Atlantic recently, accompanied by a predictable mix of...
View ArticleNews: March 31st
In this week’s news sample, claims that the Government may be planning to opt out of parts of a UN Convention on the rights of disabled people and news of an extra £15 million committment to encourage...
View ArticleWhen Rights Conflict
The rights associated with religion or belief are an area where misunderstandings can easily arise. The commonest issue is the incorrect presumption that the Article 9 rights concerning a person’s...
View ArticleNews: EHRC Launches You Tube Channel
I’m not sure whether I can claim the original credit for the idea — people didn’t seem to have thought it before I made the suggestion at a consultation last year, and they quickly wrote it down....
View ArticleHalf an Hour with Calpernia Addams
Activist and rising media personality Calpernia Addams was in London for a showing of her short film “Casting Pearls” and a panel on media representation at the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. In this...
View ArticleInterview with Denise McDowell - Economic Migration
The inward migration of workers to Britain has always been a matter of contention — yet never more so than in recent years when the concepts of economic migrants, unlawful immigration and asyllum have...
View ArticleGender Dysphoria: A Mother’s Tale
What do you do when your child exhibits markedly gender-atypical play behaviour almost as soon as they can walk and tells you, by the time they are four years old, that there’s been a mistake? Susie is...
View ArticleNews: No Simple Business Case for Equal Opportunities
A report published last week by the Department of Work and Pensions has poured cold water on one of the most popular arguments for promoting equality at work. “The Business Case for Equal...
View ArticlePost Natal Illness
For many people the journey of pregnancy and motherhood is a delightful and rewarding experience. Yet, for Elaine Hanzak, this wasn’t the case. She developed baby blues, postnatal depression and...
View ArticleHalf an Hour with Sue Sanders
In the 1970’s school teachers could be dismissed if it became known that they were Gay or Lesbian. As a young teacher in those days Sue Sanders recalls that women were not even allowed to wear...
View ArticleEquality and Human Rights in Health
July 2008 sees the 60th anniversary of Britain’s National Health Service. Much has changed in that time of course. It’s a different world from the immediate post war era in which the idea of a...
View ArticleCllr Paul Fairweather - The Local Politician’s View
In Just Plain Sense it’s my aim to feature every side of the enormous conversation around Equality, Diversity and Human Rights in British society. There are plenty of people who can talk about first...
View ArticleAn Interview with Stephen Whittle OBE
A close family bereavement means that the schedule of recording and editing original interviews and other material for Just Plain Sense needs to be put on hold for a short while. During that time, and...
View ArticleAn Interview with Mark Rees
Next week things will be returning to normal with a series of episodes based on presentations from a recent Department of Health Mental Health conference that took place in Nottingham. For now,...
View Article
