Tomorrow, on March 15th, we will reach the 6th anniversary of the war in Syria. At that point this brutal conflict will have lasted for longer than WWII. At least 250,000 people have been killed and 5 million more have been made refugees, half of them children.
Following International Women's Day it is important we take pride in how far we have come but also to recognise that more needs to be done. Women's life experiences are not better or worse than men's, but they are different, and that needs to be represented in Parliament and across industry.
The indisputable future impact of Brexit on the Scottish economy - on investment, jobs, and on Scottish society - cannot simply be wished away in obeisance to an EU referendum result that has only succeeded in kicking over a constitutional hornet's nest.
The SNP need to focus on protecting Scottish public services, Scottish education and the Scottish economy. Rather, they are fruitlessly chasing ambitions of an independent Scotland - one that, time and time again, the Scottish people have shown they do not want.
I have a little daughter who always counts the number of girl superheros on telly. Unfortunately, female action heros are still outnumbered in children's cartoons however in real life this is happily not the case.
With mounting pressure on the NHS from chronic cuts to funding and ever increasing demand on all sides, our safety net is starting to come apart at the seams. There has been much debate around both the implications of this and measures to be put in place to ease the pressure. One such measure is to modify the way we use other resources like pharmacies to redirect some of the flow.
In lumping every contestant together in the same tournament, The Jump are not bringing equality for their female skiers - they're taking from them of any chance to win anything of value. So, Channel 4, next year, let's make this show even more exciting. Split the men and women up. Raise the stakes.
Identifying risk factors and vulnerability have been fundamental to safeguarding for decades, yet when Prevent adopts this same approach to reduce the risk of radicalisation, its critics label it "Orwellian".
As if he could not go up in my estimations any more I saw an interview he did discussing his battle with depression. It was very honest and inspiring for so many others especially young men who tend to hold back about their emotions.
"Pardon me", says Professor Kelly as he closes his eyes and pauses, in an attempt perhaps to pretend none of this is happening. Meanwhile, their mother grabs the older child by the arm and unceremoniously yanks her onto the floor, before dragging her and the baby walker towards the door.
This time two years ago, I was training for my first marathon and having a meltdown. The problem wasn't physical (although there were plenty of aches, pains and a stress fracture, oh joy), and I wasn't unduly stressed about the mammoth run I was about to undertake.
Removing the counter-productive threat of criminal punishment against vulnerable women will help create an environment more conducive to reducing incidents of unplanned pregnancies and abortions - not least medically unsafe ones... In deciding how to cast their votes later today, MPs should consider all the countries that do not apply a criminal law to abortion. In states like Canada, parts of Australia, Sweden and Luxembourg decriminalisation has not led to any of the things its critics said it would. Even the United States has not been able to apply criminal penalties ever since a Supreme Court judgement in 1973. We need to repeal our 150-year-old laws criminalising abortion and focus on the evidence of what works in the modern context.
The 'difficult months' that you mentioned in the debate continue a lot longer than the first eighteen months after a parent dies - I hope the examples I have given from my own family have helped to illustrate that for you.
I empathise with 3000 Glasgow students who have signed a petition demanding Milo's removal from the election, whilst others argue that the election should be boycotted until he is removed from the ballot paper, but to do either would be a fundamental mistake as 'Martyr status' is exactly what this non-entity craves.
Michelle Thomas made international headlines in 2015 when a blog she wrote about the abuse she received on a date was read by more than 400,000 people. Here she vlogs for The Huffington Post UK on why women need to look out for one another and the power of sisterhood - especially when it comes to confidence.
Secret justice is no justice at all, anathema to long held principles of open British justice. But in this case, there is a particularly powerful need for transparency, given that the spooks have misled the ministers who in turn misled Parliament.
I am not an assortment of labels, or boxes, or tags. The stereotypes that you attach to me, consciously or subconsciously, the person you assume me to be simply upon seeing me, is more reflective of who you are, than who I am.
For a terrified child in the '70s there was nowhere to go and no one to tell. 40 years later, in a society only just about ready to hear the truth, you feel almost responsible for breaking your ageing parents' hearts. And so, another lesson learned. Parents are victims too.
I am an Irish woman, and I grew up with stories of girls who "got the boat to England". I heard whispers about girls who were "acting the tramp" who had to be careful before they ended up buying a ticket. It became a normalised thing for me: if you got pregnant and you had the money, that's how you would fix things. If you got pregnant and you didn't have it, then welcome to motherhood. How can this be the case? How can we continue to treat the women of our country in this way?
We learn new school runs and hitherto unknown neighbourhoods become focal points in our lives. Our weekends are punctuated by social events with families who were strangers to us until a few weeks ago.
So before telling stories about 'Jihadi brides' I wanted to present a raw tale of a girl simply searching for her own identity. A teenager who is seeking what every young person seeks at that age, love and affirmation.
Let's put a stop all the scaremongering. We ask Theresa May to guarantee unilaterally our rights to stay. Let's extend a hand to the losing side. There are no winners or losers. We have a uncertain road ahead. Change can be very daunting but often leads to better things. Let's be positive.