Frank Furedi and Jennie Bristow highlight some of the current suspicions around adult-child relationships which worry so many of us. Over time it can affect our own behaviour. I am likely to usher my wife forward if a child falls over in the street, lest my picking up the child be misinterpreted. We need to address that. Adults – particularly men – should not routinely be seen as potential [...]

Children in poverty paid for the inheritance tax giveaway. Labour should be ashamed.

After 23 years working with offenders, almost all from disadvantaged backgrounds, I was keen - when I left the Home Office to join Barnardo's two years ago - to make the reduction of UK child poverty our campaigning priority.

Sensible people warned me against this and told me that people in Britain - and, crucially, the media [...]

There seems to be a general acceptance that today’s young people are a more unruly, criminal lot than ever before. The media feed us a constant stream of negative images: young people in hoodies lurking on street corners, ‘thugs’, ‘louts’ and ‘yobbos’ running amok in our communities.

We know this is an exaggerated picture, but it is hard not to be influenced. It can lead to knee-jerk political responses, such [...]

Having worked in the Home Office for more than 20 years, I thought I was reasonably aware of how we treat asylum-seekers. I had seen Home Secretaries struggle with the public and media pressure surrounding the growth in the number of refugees. And in truth, I sometimes thought that asylum-seekers' claims that they faced torture or death in their home countries might - understandably - be exaggerated. I now work [...]