Two-fifths of lap dancers say that customers are rude or abusive towards them

Criminologist: 'It is as if he is telling us that we should get ready for the worst, that he is capable of anything'

Professor John Rex was a leading figure in British sociology, chairing departments at various universities and founding two, at Durham and Warwick. A leading scholar in the field of race or ethnic relations in the UK, he participated in comparative and collaborative studies on the topic in Europe and elsewhere and was well-known internationally for his work in this area, and as a theorist of social conflict.

A former boss once recommended to me hiring a young man he had met at dinner. My heart sank because I knew this man to be bumptious and not that bright. My boss assured me that I was mistaken. The youth was bold, visionary and going places. "Is that what you thought?" I sighed. "No, that is what he told me," he replied.

It is the time of the year when the great divide between the salaried and the self-employed is at its widest. For one group, there will be the usual pay-slip at the end of the month, while the other faces that painful moment of reckoning which is the tax deadline. And it is not just the employed's financial security which seems enviable, but the suspicion that they have a jollier time than we freelancers down at the end of Lonely Street: the chats they call "meetings", desk-to-desk flirting, those "team-building" weekends.

Mature students often worry that they're too old to make the grade, but their zeal and dedication can give them an edge over their younger peers

Gay marriage simply ought not to be a matter of political controversy in a civilised society in the 21st century.

A look at some of the most influential women on the world stage - female figures who have turned the tides and made history

It inspires devotion in its fans, is hailed as addictive viewing - and now television drama The Wire is to become the subject of a British university course.

It’s no secret that ‘WoW’ fans take their game of choice very seriously. But it’s not just part-time orcs and weekend mages who are passionate about the title’s importance. The sociologist William Sims Bainbridge has just published a book, ‘The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in aVirtual World’, which explores whether what happens in the Warcraft World could predict what happens in reality.

When I was a child, I had a nightmare about space; nothing I've ever read or seen since has recaptured the pitiless immensity of it. Until this novel. In the not-too-distant future, a spaceship is journeying through deep space carrying 100 would-be colonists – or rather, the ancestors of would-be colonists – for the voyage to the destined planet will take generations.