Joan Smith
Known for her human rights activism and writing on subjects such as atheism and feminism, Joan Smith is a columnist, critic and novelist. An Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a regular contributor to BBC radio, she has written five detective novels, two of which have been filmed by the BBC. Her latest novel, What Will Survive, was published in June 2007.
Joan Smith: Dave has fallen in with the wrong crowd
A promise made to secure the top job is coming back to haunt Cameron.
Recently by Joan Smith
Joan Smith: If Jamie Oliver can't change our eating habits, who can?
Sunday, 12 July 2009
It's the story with everything: food, health, class and one of the country's biggest celebrities. Four years ago, Jamie Oliver launched a hugely popular campaign to banish junk food from school dinners; out went burgers, chips and fizzy drinks, and in came jacket potatoes, fresh fruit and yogurt. Oliver's television series Jamie's School Dinners was widely praised, and the Government came up with a £627m healthy-eating initiative for schools. Take-up of school dinners, which fell below half the nation's schoolchildren as long ago as 1984, was expected to rise as parents seized the opportunity to improve their kids' health.
Joan Smith: Nothing 'great' about Biggs's train robbery crime
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Our writer argues that age and illness are not grounds for parole
Joan Smith: Just who does Prince Charles think he is?
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Whatever else, he's no town planner
Joan Smith: Frumpy outsmarts elegant in our warped politics
Sunday, 14 June 2009
It was red! It was shiny! It was short! Listening to the chorus of outrage about Caroline Flint's fashion shoot in a women's magazine, I began to wonder if the former Europe minister had posed looking as sultry as Dita von Teese. In fact, as someone sniffily pointed out, she wore chain-store clothing for the photographs, which were taken some time before she resigned, to accompany an interview about her life as a politician.
Joan Smith: We don't do female sacrifice any more, Prime Minister
Sunday, 7 June 2009
It was a bloodbath. Last week, like a wounded warrior trying to appease vengeful gods, Gordon Brown sacrificed one woman after another in a desperate attempt to save his own skin. By Friday evening, the stench of burning female flesh rose over Westminster as Margaret Beckett and Caroline Flint were added to the pyre, joining Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears and Beverley Hughes. The cull was drastic, reducing the number of women in the Cabinet from eight, when Tony Blair left office two years ago, to a feeble four. There are now more peers (seven) than women round the cabinet table and Brown need lose only one more to be in the same position as John Major in 1997. So much for a Prime Minister who portrays himself, morning, noon and night, as a politician committed to fairness and equal rights. I mean, pull the other one, mate.
Joan Smith: Padel has been bullied for her frank ambition
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Blimey, have you noticed how quickly people get on their high horse these days? A week ago, the great and the good leapt on their steeds and galloped after Ruth Padel, newly elected Oxford professor of poetry, forcing her to stand down after only nine days in the post.
Joan Smith: Invite Guantanamo inmates into US
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Obama needs a grand gesture to separate himself from Bush. He should offer shelter to detainees
Joan Smith: It's time India spoke up for Suu Kyi
Sunday, 17 May 2009
The human rights activist once lived in New Delhi. Now her childhood home should come to her aid
Joan Smith: Country life is not all sex and Labradors, Liz
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Elizabeth Hurley eats pets. Don't take my word for it: the piglet she hand-reared in the laundry of her country mansion last year is now in her freezer, she says, waiting to be roasted. The revelation appears in an article she's written for a glossy magazine, extolling the joys of country living, although it has to be said that Ms Hurley doesn't seem to have quite grasped some essentials.
Joan Smith and Sarah Sands: The Thatcher years: a giant leap for women or a big step back?
Sunday, 3 May 2009
The IoS columnists go head to head on the legacy of Britain's first female prime minister, who walked into Downing Street 30 years ago tomorrow
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Columnist Comments
• John Rentoul: Brown battles the forces of Murdoch
The News Corp dynasty didn't cause the PM's troubles, but it won't help him.
• Sarah Sands: For war poets 'de nos jours', look to the City
Many writers have avoided the City as a canvas because they don't approve of it.
• Alan Watkins: New Labour awaits a new messiah
Somebody will now have to invent a replacement for New Labour.
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1 Tim Lott: There is a solution to class-ridden Britain
2 Robert Fisk’s World: Lessons in justice and fairness from a no-nonsense historian
3 John Rentoul: Brown battles the forces of Murdoch
4 Alan Watkins: New Labour awaits a new messiah
5 Leading article: Keep calm and carry on
6 Crispin Black: The doubts about our mission that refuse to go away
7 Dom Joly: The unfathomable beauty of the Canadian Rockies
9 Melanie McDonagh: Soon there will be brothers and sisters again in China
Emailed
1 Tim Lott: There is a solution to class-ridden Britain
2 Robert Fisk’s World: Lessons in justice and fairness from a no-nonsense historian
3 Leading article: Keep calm and carry on
4 Alan Watkins: New Labour awaits a new messiah
5 Donald Macintyre: Will Israel finally bend to America's pressure for peace?
6 Charles Clarke: My party has been injured the most by expenses scandal
7 Steve Richards: Disaster falls but Brown is still safe
8 Simon Carr: Without the right contacts, you'll never get Graham Norton on the phone
9 Crispin Black: The doubts about our mission that refuse to go away
10 Brian Viner: 'Scottish grub, on the whole, is not one of the country's myriad charms'
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