It is simply unjust and, dare I say it, shameful, for us to be stuck in a situation in 2012 where we are allocating legislative seats in our second chamber for men only. Imagine the national and international reaction if these were seats for white people only.

Opponents of female ordination will no doubt see this as a victory for Christian traditionalism. That's no doubt true, but it's also a victory for bigotry, intolerance and small-mindedness, casting aside any chance of dragging the 500-year-old monolith a little closer to the modern world.

The UK is, according to this view, a thorn in the side of the rest of the member states, holding up progress towards an ever closer union and therefore responsible for the continuation of the economic and political crisis engulfing the continent.

In my opinion, Israel is a rogue state which commits war crimes. It is an aggressor state that has invaded Lebanon several times and holds a chunk of Syria illegally, but despite being the fourth most-heavily-armed country in the world has not won a war outright for 45 years, since 1967.

While the rockets targeting Israeli civilians - men, women, and children - do not carry as deadly a payload as that of the German bombs of World War II, their aim is equally sinister and illegitimate: to instill fear in the hearts of Israelis and undermine their right to live in a free and independent state.

Millions of Muslims the world over live in fear of sharia law. Many are standing up and fighting for human rights. If we truly believe in those rights - if we believe in a common humanity - we must stand up and fight with them.

Britain's membership of the EU is up for discussion - and it's liable to be a wretchedly stupid discussion.

At the end of a week when BP were fined $4.5 billion for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, attention should turn to avoiding the continuation of another waste of natural resources; human potential. Because every day thousands more barrels are being wasted by the promotion of a pursuit of happiness through synthetic means. Plugging this leak is a task for us all.

Beware analyses of mid-term by-elections (including this one, if you like). They are prone either to exaggerate or understate their meaning.

The three newest MPs in the Commons came together on Saturday to campaign for Labour ahead of the forthcoming Rotherham by-election. Corby by-elect...

Here's Barack Obama showing his 'not impressed' face with Olympic gold medallist McKayla Maroney, courtesy of the White House Flickr feed. Maro...

Independent candidates have won 12 of the 41 posts in the first elections for crime commissioners, with many shunning bigger political candidates in t...

It is now clear that the PCC elections are on track for the lowest turnout in British history. Yesterday many polling stations stood empty. And when we say, 'stood empty' that is - in few cases - the literal truth.

An in-depth investigation into dire voter turnout at the polls for police and crime commissioners is being launched by an elections watchdog. The E...

As low turnouts continue to be recorded across the country, Conservative MP Conor Burns has said that he believes the Tory Party will "regret" creatin...

The Police and Crime Commissioner elections have drawn shockingly low turnouts across the country and in some extreme cases, polling stations failed t...

While these low turnouts will be debated and analysed, one thing is clear: they should sound the death knell for the ludicrously shrill cries from some quarters of the Tory party and their supporters for greater restrictions on trade union ballots.

This weeks' protest outside the Irish Embassy in London over the death of Savita Halappanavar was a first for me. I've been to dozens of pro-choice protests before but this was the first time I've attended one with no sign whatsoever of a counter-protest. I guess it's hard to claim to be 'pro-life' when someone is actually dead.

David Cameron appears to have strong support from the British people for taking a tough line on the EU budget. It's far from being a black and white picture however.

They may not have received the blanket coverage of the US election, but the presidential election in Ecuador is in full swing. And it's weird. A bu...