A consultation on the definition of domestic violence is being launched by the government today. The main point of discussion is whether or not the definition should include the term ‘coercive control’. In addition to psychological abuse the government will be looking at widening the definition to include under-18s

The current definition of government definition of domestic violence is:

“any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse [psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional]4 between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.”

The family planning charity BPAS is preparing for the Christmas party season. The charity says women may find it harder to obtain the Morning After Pill over the season, instead BPAS are offering to post the pill. 

Women will have to fill in an online form, speak to a nurse and the content of their uterus is in the hands of the Royal Mail or courier.

As with all projects that allow women to take control of their reproductive rights this scheme has its critics. The campaign has been described as a ‘cynical marketing exercise’. Business Studies was not available at my school but I am at a loss here. How is giving away an expensive medication free to those a nurse has deemed suitable could be cynical or a marketing exercise. 

I didn’t notice it at first. Every time there’s a change in policy, or an opinion poll comes out, or a song reaches number 1 in the charts someone remarks on mothers and what Mumsnet thinks. So Gove and Cameron’s accusation of the unions plotting against mums kind of washed over me.

My brain has kind of filed this kind of mum discussion next to tirades ending in ‘won’t someone think of the children?’ These are stored next to the dull annoyance I feel every time I see  “That’s why mum’s go to Iceland”.  Unfair? Yes. Obviously we should be thinking of both mums and children and families. However as a single, childless woman it often seems I count for nothing.

Let’s save that point for another time.

Instead let’s focus on the crazed short-sightedness of Gove and Cameron. Gove’s claims that the unions, “want mothers to give up a day's work or pay for expensive childcare” is beyond bizarre.

Last week, just as the Movember moustaches began to take root (really, you haven’t shaved all month? Ok…I like your shadow moustache), a story came out in the news connecting the contraceptive pill to the rise in Western countries prostate cancer cases.

Newspapers and blogs reported that careless women had been taking their contraceptive pill and then peeing. Peeing everywhere. Contributing to a rise in the water’s oestrogen levels, water men drink. This in turn meant more men seemed to be developing prostate cancer. Well, you could you sci-fi it?