Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in British society, according to a report by MPs.
They are three times more likely to be unemployed and looking for a job than women generally and more than twice as likely to be economically inactive, the Women and Equalities Committee said.
Ministers must introduce a plan to tackle the inequalities before the end of the year, the MPs urged.
The government said it was committed to making Britain “work for everyone”. More
One in three female students in the UK has a mental health problem, a survey suggests.
This compared with about a fifth of male undergraduates, the YouGov survey of 1,061 students found.
Overall, some 27% of the students said they had a mental health problem. This rose to 45% among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
Universities UK said institutions were working hard to develop good services that linked in with the NHS. More
The president of the organisation that stages the Oscars has been re-elected after pledging to improve diversity.
Public relations executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs will serve as president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for a fourth one-year term.
In January, she promised “big changes” following an outcry when all of this year’s acting nominees were white. More
The Rio Olympics starts on 5 August and with that in mind we have chosen Tom Daley as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.
Tom, from Plymouth, was spotted by a coach, taking part in regular diving lessons, and was placed in a competitive squad in September 2002.
His first competition was the National Novice Championships in April 2003 where he won a medal in the 8/9 year old boys category. In September 2003, he took part in an invitational event where he won the 1 m, 3 m and platform events, and first made his mark on the wider audience. He won his age group at the British Championships in the 1 m springboard, the 3 m springboard, and platform in 2004, 2005, and 2006.
In June 2004, at the age of 10, Tom won the platform competition in the National Junior (under 18) group, making him the youngest winner of that event. In 2005 despite meet the qualification standard for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he was not selected for the England team because of his age.
Tom qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in the individual 10 metre dive competition and the 10 metre platform synchro competition finishing 8th and 7th respectively. He was the youngest in the Olympic team at 14 years old.
In 2007 he won the 2007 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality award. From this time he was considered a medal prospect for the 2012 Olympic Games where he was successful at winning the Bronze medal in the 10 metre platform competition. Following the 2012 Olympics Tom struggled to find his enthusiasm for the sport, however a move to London and a change of coach helped and he is now competing at his third Olympics in Rio.
On 2 December 2013, Tom released a YouTube video announcing that he had been in a relationship with American film screenwriter, director and producer Dustin Lance Black. On 1 October 2015, it was announced in The Times that they were engaged. The announcement read “The engagement is announced between Tom, son of Robert and Debra Daley of Plymouth, and Lance, son of Jeff Bisch of Philadelphia and Anne Bisch of Lake Providence.”
In 2014, Tom was number 3 on the World Pride Power list.
Find out more about Tom and his life here https://www.youtube.com/user/tvtomdaley
A police force criticised for decorating a patrol car in rainbow colours for a Pride event has gone one step further this year and emblazoned a van.
Sussex Police splashed some colour on a car in a show of support for last year’s Brighton Pride parade.
Responding to the criticisms, now it has decorated its “biggest vehicle”. More
The funeral of a Jamaican “pioneer” who co-founded what later became the Notting Hill Carnival has been held at Southwark Cathedral.
War veteran Sam King MBE settled in south London having arrived on the Empire Windrush in 1948 and became Southwark’s first black mayor.
His son, the Reverend Michael King, said his father was a “pioneer” who had been “a servant of the people”. More
Andrew Rees has become the first deaf man to swim the English Channel solo.
The Welshman, 48, who represented Great Britain’s deaf swimming team in the 1990s, completed the crossing shortly before midnight on Sunday.
He was supported by his boat, the Louise Jane, and raised over £6,000 for the current Great Britain Deaf Swimming team after his 15-hour marathon. More
Our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month in July 2014, Laura Mothersole, took part in the Pride march in London with Girl Guiding. All those who took part had an amazing day and really enjoyed themselves.
Disability Awareness Day is on 10 July and with this in mind we have chosen Blaine Harrison as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month. Blaine is a musician and songwriter who is best known as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Mystery Jets.
Blaine started playing instruments as a child. He experimented with drumming at the age of eight, as well as guitar and piano later on. In his early teens, Blaine found a love for listening to progressive rock instead of the commercial garage music preferred by his peers.
The Mystery Jets were formed in 2004 with Blaine, his Dad and his best friend when the boys were at school. More recently the line up has changed with Blaine’s Dad now in a background role. The band divide their time between working at home in London and touring internationally. The band are currently working on their fifth studio album.
Blaine was born with the disability spina bifida, which has affected his leg muscles since he was a child. In 2009 He became a patron of the Attitude is Everything Charity, who work with live music venues in the UK to make gigs accessible for people with disabilities.
Blaine was quoted in an interview with the BBC saying, “When we first got together as a band we decided that we wouldn’t make my disability an issue, the same way we didn’t make a big deal of my dad being in the band. We weren’t interested in gimmicks… We wanted people to read our lyrics and listen to our music.”
Blaine has found that playing live as someone with a physical impairment is sometimes hard work, seeing as many modern facilities still do not have the means to cater for disabled people. He has made it clear that Mystery Jets will only play in venues who have made an effort to cater for people with disabilities and refrain from playing in small, crowded pubs.
To find out more about the Mystery Jets and Blaine see here http://www.mysteryjets.com/
To find out more about Disability Awareness Day see here http://www.disabilityawarenessday.org.uk/index.shtml