It was Mrs. Thatcher that suggested that there is no such thing as society. The Tory government was still very fresh in our memories then. ~But whether the influx of New Labour women did lead to a new kind of politics I will leave for you to judge.

Some people have suggested that there is no such thing as society, though our recent electoral display of people power, perhaps puts the lie to that. Our pyramid of power may have Force at the top, but it has Consultation at its base.

We accept that Consultation in our society is an agreed and peaceful process, but the force that we are controlling is real. From bobbies to riot police, from army squaddies to the SAS, with clubs and guns, and missiles, we have a bunch of warriors who are prepared to fight and die.

All very male professions, of course. Battle usually is. Historically, men have always been better equipped for it, not just plundering aggressors but also terrified defenders, ordinary men prepared to die for their womenfolk. Women don't need lots of men to have lots more children, so they're protected. Men are more disposable. That's why women usually leave them to mess around with brute force. It's dangerous. A safer power lies in the network of opinion that society consults on the purpose and constraint of it's brutishness.

According to yesterdays Independent, the switch in women's votes alone would have ensured a change of government. "It was the women wot won it for Blair", they said - and not just voters but candidates. How long before all those new New Labour women in the corridors of Power get to be heard? Will it really lead to a new era  of Freedom of Information, networking and consultation.

In the Arabian peninsula before the time of Muhammad, tribal violence and brute force reigned supreme. Women were property, captured as war booty, and passed on from a father to a son along with the rest of his inheritance. Within a few years, the Prophet transformed the state of women from one of being property to one of individual freedom, with a right to own and inherit property themselves, a key to another essential arm of power - Economics.

He knew the power of force, and fought alongside the footsoldiers of his army in battle, but he never struck a woman. In their company, one of his favourite things, he listened and took advice.