The man seeking to reset Britain’s ‘sexual culture’

The man seeking to reset Britain's 'sexual culture'

Whoah – I just read the latest from Reform UK HQ (anyone else picture them all in a smelly, dark bunker somewhere beneath Staines? Just me?) and just when you think they couldn't get more shocking, they somehow pull it off: this week, MP Danny Kruger said his party wants to "reset" Britain's sexual culture, should they win the next general election.

He told House magazine that the UK is "suffering from having a totally unregulated sexual economy", whatever that means – and part of it, he reckons, is due to "no fault" divorces and the pesky sexual revolution of the 1960s (you know, the one that transformed women's lives by introducing the pill in 1961 and partially decriminalised abortion and homosexuality in 1967). That sexual revolution. The one Danny Kruger now says he wants to "undo". 

Take a breath: Kruger is one of just eight Reform MPs, so his influence is pretty thin – not least because of the respect he lost when he defected from the Tory party, last year (he was once an aide to Boris Johnson). Still, it's pretty worrying that we are hearing voices like this in the mainstream: especially given the sweeping loss of women's rights to bodily autonomy stemming from the US.

We've seen what is happening there and can be under no illusions that the same could happen here, too. First, the US Supreme Court – backed by Donald Trump – overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, ending the nationwide right to abortion and affecting the lives of millions of women; and just this week, Republicans in Tennessee proposed a bill (House Bill 570) that would allow the death penalty for women who have an abortion, as well as charging women "involved in the homicide of her own unborn child".

It's not hard to extrapolate Kruger's sentiments: demonise a historic social movement that gave women freedom and liberation, bang on about how your party will support "incentives" for women to have more children as the UK's birth rate declines, and introduce a mainstream "pronatalist" ideology that effectively restricts women's rights and freedoms; take away "no-fault" divorces (a landmark ruling that only came into force in the UK in 2022, by the way), and tie it all up in a bow marked "traditional marriage".

Lamenting the level of divorce in the UK, Kruger also said this: "Marriage traditionally was the means by which sexual relations between men and women were regulated, and I think we are suffering from having a totally unregulated sexual economy." It's not difficult to read between the lines, is it? The real question is: do women want to return to the 1950s and their place "in the home"? Because that's clearly where Reform UK wants us... 

Click here to read more about what else they've said about women (warning: it isn't pretty). 

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You can write to me about anything you like – I'd love to hear from you. I'll feature some of the emails sent in, alongside guest pieces from writers who want to have their say. Send it straight to me at victoria.richards@independent.co.uk.

Or, if you want advice on love, work, family and relationships, email me at dearvix@independent.co.uk.

VIX'S PICKS

The truth about why Gen Z are buying Bibles

This is a bit of a different pick for this newsletter this week, but I found it absolutely fascinating: as sales of the Good Book double in five years, Helen Coffey investigates the growing trend of Gen Z turning to the Bible. But is it newfound religious fervour, performative reading – or a sign that young people are searching harder than ever for meaning in a chaotic world?

It's a trend that Reverend Pat Allerton, a vicar at St Peter's Church in Notting Hill, London, has observed first-hand. He's seen a steady growth in his church from people of all ages, "but definitely young adults. We've got a recent 20-year-old couple coming, a 21-year-old, 22-year-old, 23-year-old…" In his experience, the younger the person suddenly turning up at church, the less likely they are to have come from a Christian background. "These are people searching for something they've never had," Allerton muses.

It's the public reaction to the Bafta N-word incident that's the real problem

Like most Black people, I have been called the N-word too many times to count. How I react depends on which day you catch me on. And I don't think I've ever had the same reaction twice. Sometimes, I've laughed and thrown my hands in the air, and other times I've just thrown them. What I do know is that when you're dressed up at a prestigious black-tie event, you definitely would have your defences down, assuming that you were in a safe space. Given the two-hour delay between the live event and it going out on BBC One, couldn't John Davidson's remark simply have been bleeped out, or cut altogether from the broadcast?

The Tourette's campaigner who involuntarily shouted a racial slur at two Black Hollywood actors was unfortunate – but those who castigated him (and broadcasted the incident in the first place) really should know better, says Ava Vidal. Click here to read more...

Why ex-Prince Andrew's taxi photo is so dangerous for the royal family

This week, I wrote about the simple, yet brilliant stunt of hanging that taxi photo of ex-Prince Andrew, taken right after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office (Mountbatten-Windsor has since been released and has consistently denied any wrongdoing), in the Louvre.

The picture itself is a work of art: his mouth gaping open like Edvard Munch's The Scream, one eye red and wild and lowered in rage like Alexandre Cabanel's The Fallen Angel (which depicts, interestingly, the Devil after his fall from heaven – eyes emoji on that). But what I think is particularly interesting about it is the way it represents a seismic rift in the way we respond to the royals. We have moved from the age of deference to an epoch of irreverence – and I, for one, am all for it. Click here to read more…

Exclusive: A chat with Egypt's first female taxi drivers

This week, I spoke to the charity People 1st International, which has been working to transform the transport sector in a country traditionally dominated by men. They have seen a group of women step into a field where female participation has been limited, with the aim of breaking barriers and challenging gender stereotypes. I spoke to two of the women to find out what it has really been like…

Heba Wahby: 'I have learnt not to take matters personally'

"Working as a cab driver came as pure coincidence. I was job-seeking; I already had my private car and used it to run short errands for friends and family. When the job advert was placed on social media, it seemed like the right opportunity. The role seemed both exciting and challenging, working alongside male drivers. Most captains were very supportive and helped me during my induction, but regarding customers… well, I have learnt not to take matters personally. Setting boundaries has been vital."

Asmaa Hassan: 'Female drivers should not listen to others' opinions'

"Entering a male-dominated profession was quite challenging, but it is important to prove that female drivers are as capable and can achieve the same goals as men. Our employer is different from Uber and other companies in the market – and for me, it has been a very positive experience. Female drivers should not listen to others' opinions."

I have an embarrassing problem that I'm almost too ashamed to write about – it's very petty and small! But, at the same time, it's really, really getting to me – and I don't have anyone to talk to about it. The issue is with one of my closest and dearest friends. Because she keeps copying me!

I know, I sound like a teenager for writing this or for being bothered about it – we are in our forties, after all. But it's getting on my nerves so much that it's starting to affect our friendship. I am finding myself feeling reluctant to tell her anything about my life or even reply to her messages, because the inevitable always happens: she takes it on as her own. Some recent examples have been: her copying my haircut, her copying the exact same brand-new coat that I had coveted for ages and finally bought – and she even bought the same car as me after I bought it! In the same colour!

I've even noticed that she's started to copy some of my unique passions and interests, too – she's never been into film, really; but suddenly, she's dropping in things like, "Oh, I spent Saturday at the BFI", or is talking about an obscure film festival she wants to go to. She even invited me to a talk by one of *my* favourite directors! I don't get it – and I don't like it. Shouldn't she have grown out of this, by now? Aren't we a bit old to play copycat? Why can't she get her own interests and stop stealing mine? I feel like she's taking my identity away!

I'm going for the big boys this time: let's all get stuck into David Szalay's Booker-winning marvel, Flesh. And no, I'm not just picking it because part of it is set where I live (I even sent the blurb below around to my local neighbourhood WhatsApp group), but because I'm intrigued to discover exactly why it was awarded one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world in 2025 – and also because I've read a lot about its intrinsic themes of toxic male masculinity. Will you join me?

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.

As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London's elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

Who's to blame for your divorce?

The week before last, I asked whether you WFH – or would, if you could, following Nigel Farage coughing and spluttering his way through a refusal to allow people to work remotely (even though he does it himself, all the time!). 

Here's what you said:

Interestingly, 23 per cent of you said you were hybrid workers, and 14 per cent of you said you don't WFH – but you'd like to. Take that, Nige...

In our latest poll, click here to vote and tell me: would you support a reversal of 'no-fault' divorces?

To clarify, that would mean that if you want to get divorced, you'd have to go back to stating the reason for it – such as adultery, separation, or unreasonable behaviour – rather than citing a much more private and anonymous 'irretrievable breakdown'. In my view, reversing this decision would see a return to the 'blame game' for breakups, where one spouse gets to legally accuse the other of being responsible for the breakdown in the relationship. It's nasty, full of friction – and it certainly wouldn't help women.

One of my favourite regular readers, Mick O'Hare, got in touch to talk about that photo of Prince Andrew ('Hang it in the Louvre'). This is what he said:

Your piece yesterday about Andrew was fab. Couldn't agree more with everything you said. Death to age of deference, especially when it's offered to boorish, foul men like Mountbatten-Windsor and Trump.

One thing I'd take issue with, though, is putting Diego Maradona in the same bracket as Pelé, Ali and Michael Jordan. Maradona would probably have voted for Trump. He was a known drug-taker who was accused of domestic violence (a video was leaked in 2014, appearing to show Maradona hitting his then girlfriend, the former professional football player Rocio Oliva, who was three decades his junior). He was a truly obnoxious individual, according to his team-mates – and a sporting cheat. I'd suggest Tommie Smith and John Carlos's Black Power salute at the 1969 Mexico Olympics as a better piece of accidental art to hang in the Louvre (although, admittedly, it was less accidental and more planned); or Alice Coachman, the first Black woman to win an Olympic Gold medal (1948 High Jump in London); or Jesse Owens defying Hitler in 1936.

Anybody but Maradona!

And a reader named TotiCalling left this thoughtful note in response to the damning taxi snap of Andrew:

The picture in the taxi shows that he is shocked and without hope. If anything, it discourages other royal family members not to do what he did. Nobody is above the law. That is what I like about Britain.

THIS WEEK...

I'm suffering

From a horrible sickness bug that is apparently going round – I spent yesterday in bed, feeling dizzy and nauseous and hot. But I can't (and won't) complain too much... for over half-term I was fortunate enough to take my children away skiing in Morillon, in the Haute-Savoie region of the Alps.

It was like being in Narnia, at times: the pine forests, lightly dusted with snow; the fresh mountain air and the bowls of roast potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner (yep, you read that right!). We loved it, even if my son did hate skiing and preferred digging himself a snow hole to bury himself in. Have you been away? Please write in and tell me all about it!

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