The Wardman Wire

Four stories from today’s Independent.

Jack Straw’s hidden Inquests

(Not on the website)

A Labour backbench rebellion against Jack Straw’s latest attempt to reintroduce secret inquests (Ed: for the third time) is in prospect, lead by Andrew Dismore.

More strength to their elbow. Down with the despots.

Let victims of forced marriage pay their own way home

Revealed: Government’s ‘heartless’ treatment of forced marriage victims

British citizens who have been forced into marriages overseas are being asked to cover the costs of their repatriation to the UK, The Independent has learnt.

The victims, many of whom will have been through violent and traumatic ordeals by the time they reach British officials, are being asked to cover the cost of their flights back to the UK, either out of their own pocket or by finding a friend who is willing to pay for them.

Under guidelines distributed by the Forced Marriage Unit to civil servants and diplomats abroad, victims who cannot find enough cash are even being asked to take out a low interest loan which will only be given to them if they surrender their passport until the loan is fully repaid.

Killer Republicans

IRA’s darkest secrets to be revealed as archives are released

Some of the darkest secrets of the IRA and loyalist paramilitary killings during the Troubles in Northern Ireland are set to be revealed in the coming years as direct participants’ accounts, under lock and key in the US, are released.

The accounts were given to academic researchers from the prestigious Boston College on strict condition that they could only be released with the express permission of the ex-terrorists or in the event of their deaths.

The college’s Irish Institute has spent the last six years and millions of dollars paying researchers to interview the former IRA men and loyalists.

Two sets of accounts from the archive are set to be published early next year by Faber & Faber in a book provisionally entitled “Voices from the Grave”.

I’m wondering whether we are finally going to get an honest(ish) account of Gerry Adams’ and Martin McGuinness’ role in directing the IRA terror campaign.

More on Slugger, I expect, in due course.

Killer Heels

Helen Croydon: You won’t get me back into flatties

Apparently the killer heel is out. Or so declared one Sunday newspaper this weekend. As I tore it open to find out exactly why and who has decided that women’s favourite indulgence since fashion was invented is to be snatched from under our feet, so to speak, a friend caught the headline over my shoulder. She shrieked in horror that how on earth would she be able to seduce a man in flat shoes.

….

Next, someone will be telling me that hoarding boxes of shoes that I have never even worn, just so I can look at them, is not a fulfilling pursuit. I can’t help thinking that all this heel bashing is a conspiracy by men and women who are scared of the feminine power a stiletto can yield. If people want to put their podiatric welfare above sashaying hips, long legs, taut calf muscles, an inner pleasure that lasts all day and the ability to level up eye-to-eye with the men in the boardroom, that’s fine. But they shouldn’t try to stop the shoe-lover from enjoying her innocent pleasure: sex on legs.

I’m a fan of high heels, particularly when worn by Anita Anand.

I’m also now a fan of Helen Croydon, as she wrote about the delights of older men last month.