My old college pal Sandra Parsons, in her Daily Mail column this week, mentioned that women had come a long way from the days when they were banned from certain clubs and restaurants for wearing trousers and I agree with her.
Though, interestingly, I'm told that when Daily Mail photographers are sent to take pictures of women of any age for a feature, the subjects are told they must wear skirts for the photo as it is something the editor insists on.
I don't know if this is true. But a good way to see if it might be is to look at the set up photos in the Mail (ie: not paparazzi shots or news pictures but ones where the subject is posing specifically for the paper) and see how many of the women in them are wearing skirts and how many are wearing trousers.
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I don't know if anything has annoyed me recently quite so much as a bullying, threatening, holier-than-thou piece of religious nutjobbery from uberCatholic Christine 'Odious' Odone in the Telegraph today.
If you haven't seen it - and I wouldn't recommend it - she joins in the debate on abortion spearheaded by the dizzyingly anti-intellectual Tory MP Nadine Dorries.
In a worrying development akin to America's inbred Christian lobby, she threatens any MP who doesn't vote the way she wants them to will lose their seat at the next election just like Dr Evan Harris, the seemingly popular atheist Lib-Dem who lost a majority at the last poll.
She infers it was because he was a non-believer, ignoring the fact that boundary changes and a pretty poor performance by Lib Dems in general may have contributed. He lost by 17 votes.
Now she says any MP who dares not to believe in exactly the same God as she does could be voted out by Christians. As if they are the only voters in Britain allowed to have a conscience.
It's not her exact words but basically she says to MPs, if you mess with Christian beliefs then you're out.
It is dangerous and nasty. It not only rules out atheists as having morals or principles but also Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and Jews.
Personally I will vote for the candidate I think will do a decent job, has principles with which I broadly agree and not whether or not they believe in God, Buddha, the tooth fairy or the Honey Monster (and I have only ever seen evidence of the existence of one of those and even then I suspect it was a bloke in a costume).
Likewise, Christian fundamentalists like Ms Odious are free to vote for anyone they want, even if the only qualification is they believe that the wine they are drinking really is the blood of some bloke who lived 2,000 years ago.
However, I also think it is a short step from threatening every MP in the country who doesn't adhere to the same medieval beliefs and antiquated views on giving women a choice in how they live their lives to shooting abortionists on their doorsteps using the bizarre argument that this is 'pro life'.
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I paid one of my rare visits to the burgeoning media mecca that is Shoreditch. Every time I go there I'm impressed, and not just with the Nathan Barleys playing fussball in the various ad, marketing, new technology and other start ups in the area.
This time I came back via the super duper new overground station which is immaculate and even runs. Unlike so much of the London Transport system. Of course it's been built for the Olympics but unlike Lord Coe, will continue to serve East London long after the games.
I know Shoreditch has this ultra-trendy image of skinny jeans and skinny lattes but for those of us old enough to remember what it used to be like - my uncle was born in a flat above Spitalfields Market, lived there his whole life and died there.
Not long after it was transformed from a grubby fruit and veg market where overnighting lorry drivers would be serviced by a parade of dodgy prostitutes to an upmarket collection of restaurants and art galleries.
Brick Lane now has a fabulous market yet still retains the curry houses and the Beigel Bake, still the best place in London for a beigel (which some of you may know as a bagel) just as it always has been.
Sometimes we look at these places as examples of the gentrification of working class districts which do little more than give the surface a coat of paint while ignoring the problems that lie beneath.
I'm sure there are still problems of poverty and community in this part of East London, just like the regeneration in cities all over the country, but it is still better than it was. And that's worth raising a £4.20 glass of wine in the Hoxton Grill for.
Lechaim...Solly
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