• HOWEVER you choose to describe it there’s no doubt a war is being perpetrated against women.

The events of the last few days have raised the curtain. The Plymouth shootings have brought a new word to everyday language. Incel, basically describing an extreme hatred of women.

The families and friends of those shot in Devon are grieving for five people including a tiny child.

We’re now questioning how gun licences are being granted and so we should; but why aren’t we questioning the ongoing violence meted out to women and girls?

Domestic violence, acid attacks, revenge porn are just a few of the ways women are terrorised every day in our country. Yet we don’t classify misogyny as a hate crime, we don’t arrest people who bandy about the c*** word or other misogynistic expletives.

In reaction, government will produce another report, institute another review, which will produce another set of recommendations, that will fall by the wayside.

Sir Keir Starmer says he wants Britain to be the best place to be born in and the best place to grow old in. Perhaps a more pressing ambition would be for Britain to be the safest country in the world for women. Now that would be something to be proud of.

In Kabul women hold their breath and wonder how long it will take before the stonings start. How long before they are reduced to faceless shadows banished from their jobs; before those who dare to wear lipstick have it cleaned off with a razor.

As a world we stand by and watch the evisceration of women’s human rights in Afghanistan; hard-fought and hard-won. As the refugee crisis begins why aren’t we thinking “women and children first” as we prioritise refugee status.

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