Just like snails and porridge, fashion advisor at the TUC conference makes an uncomfortable combination. But nestled somewhere between redundancy pay and spending cuts came stilettos, and the damage high heels cause to women's health.

The blisters, the hard skin, the bunions, the knee problems, the hip problems and, of course, the lower back pain that is really very debilitating. Union leaders claimed some women including shop assistants and air stewardesses are required to wear high heels while men have no such dress code. There were calls for women to be allowed to wear sensible shoes in the workplace.

It's fine here, they say, or here, perhaps you need to be a bit more careful here. But women love their heels. They add glamour, height and style. Even super models doing community service at a sanitation department insist on them. And at conference today, few heeded the warnings.
I think it's up to women's choice but I am totally against dress code and so on.

It can be quite pretty on some people, and quite ugly on others, you know, it's just a matter of choice really.

I think you can't force women to wear things that's gonna harm their health.
Whatever people say, it's a health and safety issue, you get blisters and get all sorts of feet conditions from that. We can't pretend, because it sounds like a funny issue, that it's not a health and safety issue.

They are extremely painful, I can vouch for that.
They are called killer heels. What could sound more dangerous, perhaps coming between a woman and her shoes?