Yesterday the Mail stated: "previously parents could use 'reasonable chastisement', while the new definition prohibits any force that causes 'reddening of the skin'." This is inexcusably wrong on the law: reddening of the skin is in fact the very example provided by the CPS of what is covered by the defence.

Cabinet documents from 1981 reveal that Margaret Thatcher agreed to allow Lord Heseltine to visit Liverpool in the wake of the Toxteth riots despite the Treasury calling for her to "abandon" the city.

I'm in two minds about the MSM's born-again Davosceptics. It's great that they're finally managing to remove the kool aid IV from their rectum, but some of us ignorant chav scum got there years ago. Ditto, it's all second order stuff. Back in the day Cast Iron Dave's arrogance, paper thin skin and snobbery were all useful clues to how he would ultimately govern, but now he is PM, we don't need clu...

By now, I assume, we’ve all read Helen Lewis-Hasteley’s skin-crawling round-up of the abuse and threats of sexual violence that women writers face on the net. The men who make these comments pose a clear and obvious danger to society. But we shouldn't hate them.

I am, I should think, about as centrist as Liberal Conspiracy writers get. I edit a business magazine. I reckon a successful left-wing government needs, at least, the acquiescence of the private sector. I feel no need to seize the means of production, and if it weren't for the fact that the full implications of the label make my skin crawl, I'd probably call my politics 'Blairite�...

Alistair Darling’s Back from the Brink is not just a compulsive read: it is an essential primer for anyone with aspirations to be Prime Minister or Chancellor. It’s not unlike the manual in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with ‘Don’t Panic’ emblazoned on the front. The glory of this book is that, unlike Mandelson’s bitch fest of self-congratulation, m...

Where some films opt for cheap torture-porn shocks, Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In ventures into far weirder territory.

The planned auction of a lion skin and head by the UK Independence Party is condemned by a conservation group, which describes it as "stupid and insensitive".

As he says: Raising the sails on the schooner, And that’s an extremely good way to die, drop the sails or lose all the skin on your hands while attempting to raise a sail. All those bits to the side are tools, tools created over generations of experience, to allow you to raise the sail

I think the main problem with accurately labelling Breivik is that as yet we haven't come up with a convincing catch-all term for the new far right, which on the surface eschews racism but which underneath is just as virulent in its hatred of those with brown skin as the fascists and neo-Nazis we're all familiar with. Scratch beneath Breivik's anti-racist façade and you find ...