Sample
Articles
My wide-ranging social affairs brief has meant that I've written for a variety of consumer magazines, newspaper and specialist titles, some of which are included below.
Please contact me if you are interested in seeing more articles.
Newspapers
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"Manjula Sood, who has just moved with her family to a predominantly white part of Leicester, is about to set her family on the path to racial integration." | Full article |
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"Like most teenage girls, my 17-year-old sister, Raana, enjoys shopping with her college friends. But for Raana, hanging out at the mall is more than a teenage rite of passage - it is a huge developmental milestone. Raana has fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited learning disability." | Full article |
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"Rita Patel does not shake hands with anybody - not even Nelson Mandela. In 25 years, the veteran community campaigner and social entrepreneur has refused handshakes with not only Mandela, but also Bill Clinton and Prince Charles." | Full article |
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"Stephen Bartley was one of Brighton's most notorious shoplifters. Stealing to feed his £500-a-day crack cocaine and heroin addiction, it seemed unlikely that he would ever break the cycle of drugs, crime and prison." | Full article |
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"The government has spent the last few years shifting its focus onto housing, but only now does the sector seem to be in the full glare of Whitehall's spotlight." | Full articles |
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"Rain, a wheelchair user with Asperger's syndrome, is in her 20s. This week she'll fly to the private island where she has a second home, host a party and go mountain climbing. Welcome to the online virtual world of Second Life, where you can fulfil your dreams regardless of physical or mental disability, age or ill health." | Full article |
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"Aged six, Trevor Phillips and his three white friends would play at each other's houses, but there was one home into which Phillips was never invited. "It came as a bit of a shock when I realised that one of the other boys had been into Dennis's house, but I'd never been. I knew instinctively the reason was that his parents didn't want a black person in their house." | Full article |
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"The only thing Sam remembers about her first punter is that he was worth four £10 bags of heroin." | Full article |
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"When the decision was reluctantly taken to put razor wire round a fire station in the East End of London, it was clear that relations between the brigade and the community had hit rock bottom." | Full article |
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"Around 60,000 people are expected to leave London over the next decade, driven out by soaring property prices that are making the capital an unaffordable place to live for many people who work there every day." | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 6 | Page 7 |
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"There is only one Sure Start centre along the East Lindsey coastal ribbon that covers 15 miles of rural Lincolnshire and is home to 580 children." | Full article |
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"Sue Gardner is justifiably proud of the neatly kept two-bedroom Marylebone flat which she shares with her 12-year-old son. Mrs Gardner's paintings are framed on the wall and she and her son have decorated the flat in bright colours. It is the first place they have called home for a long time." | Full article |
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"It could be the room of any 14-year-old girl. The bright yellow duvet has been thrown onto the bed, a towel dries over the chair and there are posters of Craig David, the latest pop sensation, on the walls. There are photographs of her family, while her clothes - a white sweat shirt, track suit trousers and a turquoise patterned top - are neatly folded. It's the sort of outfit girls wear out at the weekend. But she won't be going anywhere." | Full article |
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"The cluttered and narrow corridor, little more than a metre wide, is damp from the shower which has been crudely installed in the tiny space where the hall cupboard should be." | Page 1 |
: Counsel
of elders (Society cover story)
:
Race against time (interview with CRE chairman Trevor
Phillips)
:
Tenants lose in benefits fiasco
Consumer Magazines
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"They're not found huddled in sleeping bags and you rarely see them begging. Yet 400,000 people in this country do not have a home, and a quarter of them are women - the UK's hidden homeless." | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 |
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"Cara Henderson was just 15 when her boyfriend was stabbed to death in Glasgow for being a Catholic." | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
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"Not as brash as Leicester Square, not as seedy as Soho...The only sights that might make you uneasy are the roast ducks strung up in restaurant windows." | Page 1 | Page 2 |
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"Women are being smuggled into Britain's sex trade in vast numbers, and organised prostitution has escalated into a highly lucrative industry, generating £500m a year in London alone." | Page 1 |
: I
was a national statistic
:
The great fall of Chinatown
Specialist Press
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"When Seb Coe won it for Britain last year, his masterstroke was to emphasise the ‘lasting legacy' of the London Olympic bid." | Full article |
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"To Newham council it is the testing ground for an american-inspired mixed communities initiative … But will the impending £110m transformation convince tenants like Ray to stay in Canning town's area 3?" | Full article |
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"Graham Mcevoy is homeless, but he doesn't sleep on sofas or in doorways. He spends each night riding on London buses, keeping warm and catching a few hours' rest." | Full article |
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"To the passer-by, the moth-eaten mattress on the floor of the bin shed is just a piece of unwanted furniture left out for collection." | Full article |
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"Bill Pitt walked towards the man who had just finished a stretch for attempted murder. Scanning the room for sharp objects, he took a seat near the door and said his piece. In a matter of minutes, the ex-con was in tears." | Full article |
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"As a child growing up in the predominantly white south London suburb of Bromley, Amar Singh's family was often targeted by racists - so much so that the young Singh got to be on first name terms with the local beat officer." | Full article |
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"It is difficult not to be dazzled by the government's grand vision for housing development, if only for its jaw-droppingly ambitious promises." | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
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"The Children Bill - radical vision or onerous wish list?" | Page 1 |
Regenerate:
After 2012 
(Government Social Exclusion Unit): "An
eye to the East"
(Search, journal of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation): "Plans
of Engagement"
(Municipal
Journal magazine): "Is the joined up role working?"