Dawn Foster

“If you're in a meeting and a man talks loudly over you, rather than copying that behaviour and normalising it, what you could do is say 'Can everybody stop doing this and instead put up a hand when we talk?'”

“I want to know when my friends need help, as well as when they're happy; when they're vulnerable, as well as when they feel strong.”

“Human life is fragile, and the threat posed to individuals in politics cannot be overlooked.”

“Making it compulsory to show identification before voting risks compromising a basic human right by creating further barriers for people who may no longer have an acceptable form of ID, thanks to the often unpredictable and chaotic lifestyle homelessness can cause.”

“Fighting for equality is often misunderstood as simply being offered the same terms as men on paper. In may ways we already have that. What we don’t have is emancipation: the opportunity to be free of social and external shackles that perpetuate inequality and women’s lower position.”

“Whenever rent controls or increased tenants' rights are raised, naysayers wail that doing so will cause landlords to flee the rental market. Firstly, that is a canard: if a landlord charges £1000 for a room, and you tell him from now on he can only charge £900, he won't decide to instead earn nothing.”

“Tory housing policy is the epitome of tinkering with the deckchairs while the ship is listing.”

“Learning that Jeremy Corbyn had a fondness for cold beans, it's impossible not to think of him in 'The Young Ones.' Hippie, long-haired Neil?”

“No one joins the masons for the handshakes. It must be for the benefits it can bring.”

“Women, when they do break into power or succeed, can expect to have their lives scrutinised for clues to how they managed it exactly because these women are, alas, still exceptions to the rule.”

“Bullying leaves permanent psychological scarring and young people become adept at learning what hurts, verbally and psychologically. Looks, personality and status are all easy targets, and particularly difficult to change.”

“People never know what to do with women who write, especially about lust, in a way that isn't sanitised and held back.”

“Codes and signals are as important as explicit messages, and the two are linked. The bore pressing someone to tell them 'where they're really from' will see themselves as different to the aggressive stranger barking at someone to 'get back to their own country,' but the subconscious, if not explicit, message is the same.”

“While, legally, universal suffrage has been achieved for all undetained citizens over the age of 18, many people still find it difficult to vote in elections.”

“Women can be as destructive, possessive and prone to rage as men, it turns out: but discovering that is what terrifies them, while exhilarating women.”

“Passing a beggar who asks for money causes discomfort - and so it should. The act of facing and acknowledging human suffering and hardship on this scale ought to imprint itself on a society that has such glaring divides in income and comfort.”

“It should be obvious that banning begging or criminalising rough sleeping will do little to combat homelessness.”

“For years I avoided loose fruit and veg - an absolute minefield - simply because it was impossible to tell how much they would come to at the till.”

“Historically marginalised people - by gender, race or nationality - aren't willing to be silent any longer on the crimes of the past and the continuing misrepresentations of historians.”

“For homeless and formerly homeless people, losing their ID and then having to apply for and afford new ID is insurmountably difficult.”