Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has launched a consultation to tackle violence against women and girls. There will be roadshows in 40 towns around the country, an online survey and an opportunity to respond to a consultation paper. One of the issues that will be discussed is the increasing sexualisation of teenage girls. She said that while some parents may see high-street chain stores selling Playboy t-shirts for 11-year-old girls as a "bit of fun", many other parents were concerned that their daughters were under pressure to appear sexually available at an increasingly younger age.

An Ipsos Mori poll commissioned to coincide with the launch shows that a clear majority of the public believe that it is never acceptable for a man to hit or slap his wife or girlfriend, and they would do something about it if they suspected that it had happened to a female friend, family member or neighbour. However two-fifths of the public believe that a woman should be held at least partly responsible for being sexually assaulted or raped if she was flirting heavily with the man before the attack.

Update: Jon Birch has done an asbojesus cartoon on this theme which could be a good discussion starter.