I have avoided certain topics such as this over the years, too afraid of the anger lying in my email inbox. But even upsetting truths need to be said.We legally allow the continued mutilation of baby boys.

While parliament is banning smacking of children, frets about intimate partner abuse, and seeks to ever more intrude in micromanaging all family life, it allows this practice to continue without question. Why are none of the institutions willing to consider framing circumcision as male genital mutilation?