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Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise generally and alarmingly. The trend seems to be driven by a combination of receding fears about Aids and receding fears about the health risks of the pill. People are moving back to oral contraception from barrier contraception. In most of the areas targeted, it was not teenage pregnancy which rose (although the latest figures do show a small rise after years of downward progress), but the prevalence of STDs.This is a worrying development, but it does not necessarily indicate that no contraception is being used. It looked bad for liberal sex education, didn’t it, when earlier in the month an economist at Nottingham University revealed that the Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy seemed to be increasing sexual activity among children? His report suggested that in a group of key areas that had been targeted in an attempt to curb teenage pregnancy by promoting contraception, the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases was rocketing.
For those committed to damage limitation, to educating children about their choices instead of pretending that under-age sexual activity does not occur, these statistics could be refuted with a certain amount of ease. Oh dear. Publishing is too white, too middle class and in danger of losing touch with new markets for books.

If publishers fail to appeal to the Black and Asian market, they will not get a share of the £32bn in disposable income available to these communities. That is serious money for a £1.55bn market that has seen a relatively slow growth in recent years and is desirous to expand into new markets. Publishers rely heavily on unpaid work experience and Oxbridge graduates for their pool of labour. That automatically discriminates in favour of those with the financial security to be able to work for free in a London based industry. In other words, it discriminates in favour of middle class and, consequently, predominantly white people.By relying on word of mouth, publishers limit their recruitment to a self-perpetuating class of people, dominated by the Oxbridge-educated, white upper middle classes.

That is shocking and makes a joke of equal opportunities policies.[Anyone who doubts the need for change] should imagine the world of publishing 30 years ago transposed to today: Who in their right mind would think a company owned, run and staffed by white, middle-aged, public school boys was a dynamic enterprise, setting the agenda for the 21st century?. “And Shakira.” Britney may not be much of a feminist role model, but she represents change.These women have a sisterhood women in the West would envy. As I left them, they were still sitting, talking on the Corniche, but they were also tuning in a small radio to hear the world news on the Arabic service of the BBC.k.butler independent.co.uk. The souks, although full of black abayas, also have shops selling satin lingerie that would not be out of place in Ann Summers.Wajiha al-Huwayder, a Saudi Arabian feminist, recently accused women in the Arab world of getting used to “laziness …

relying on someone else, and waiting for the men to bring loot and gifts”. Women in the Gulf states, she said, were not interested in change because that would require them to start making demands.The women I met were bustling with energy. If they ever channel it into real demands, whether for seats in the for-now, powerless parliaments or to rail against the strictures that keep them figuratively and physically veiled, they could be a formidable force.They already have the education. Noura is a trained nurse, her sister Sara, a spirited 20-year-old, wants to teach sport “I like very much, very much, Britney,” she confided. They are better educated than their mothers, and they are hungry to learn.They accept the face veil. But they complain about summer when temperatures can reach 50C.