Sir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, wrote a piece in The Times this weekend headlined "Ian Tomlinson is our Rodney King moment". A warning from such a figure of authority must be taken seriously.
Yes, women's rights have come far in past decades but the statistics show we still live in a man's world. Nowhere is that more apparent than in countries like India, where females are killed at birth and burned alive in dowry-related disputes, or in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving and virtually every aspect of their lives is controlled by men.
Away from the established centres of power, the world is changing fast. The first meeting of the G20 Foreign Ministers taking place today demonstrate again the need for Britain to continue to build new alliances. For the first time ever the G20 will be chaired by, and held in, Mexico: an indicative sign of the shift which enhances the status of fast-rising economies.
The world has a new global steering committee, the G20 group of developed and 'emerging' economies, which has committed itself publicly to supporting economic growth that reaches the poorest people, and doesn't destroy the environment in the process. At least, that's the talk, but according to a new survey by Oxfam, the walk isn't happening. That matters because the G20 countries are home to half the world's poor people, and account for a much greater chunk of its ecological footprint. Climate change is just the best-known consequence of such failings. Rising inequality also undermines political stability - ask the Occupy movement.