Janet Street-Porter

A former editor of The Independent on Sunday, Janet Street-Porter is now the paper’s editor-at-large. As a journalist and broadcaster she has had an innovative and groundbreaking career in television, creating programmes for the BBC, Channel 4 and LWT, for which she has won a Bafta and the Prix Italia. She is also vice president of the Rambler’s Association.

Editor-At-Large: Forget class. It's your perks that define your status

It's time to redefine class. In modern Britain your social position has little to do with what your dad did for a living or where you went to school. As our opinion poll shows, voters are not as obsessed as Gordon Brown is with David Cameron's time at Eton – they don't think it makes a difference to his ability to run the country. In fact, the class system is just as rigid as ever, but these days it has subtly changed.

Recently by Janet Street-Porter

Editor-At-Large: If kids can't read or count, how do they get a job?

Sunday, 29 November 2009

Who's right? Last week, Ofsted, the body which monitors standards in education, delivered a blistering report which claimed that around a third of our schools are substandard, with lessons that did not "inspire, challenge and extend" pupils. Employers would seem to agree – the boss of Marks and Spencer echoed remarks made by Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco, who recently described educational standards as "woeful". Sir Stuart Rose told the CBI conference that school leavers "were not fit for work" – they "can't do reading, can't do arithmetic and can't do writing". The minister for schools, on the other hand, says kids are "better equipped than ever" for the world of work.

Editor-At-Large: The internet is no place to fight a general election

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Has the level of political debate really come to this? The next prime minister will probably be elected on the basis of the biscuit he nibbles. Winning an election is about cleverly targeting undecided voters, and you can guess what group the spin doctors have in their sights this time. In 1992 the Tories wooed the "pebbledash people" who'd bought their own council houses under Maggie Thatcher. In 1997 Tony Blair's team was obsessed with middle-class voters they tagged Mondeo Man and Worcester Woman. This time around it's mums.

Editor-At-Large: Nurses are not heroines. They are professionals

Sunday, 15 November 2009

There's been plenty of hand-wringing over the news that from 2013 all new nurses will have to spend three years studying for a degree to qualify. At present the majority train for two or three years and are awarded a diploma. Critics claim these higher standards mean that trainee nurses will spend time sitting in lectures when they could be learning practical skills on the job, and widespread concern has been expressed that the profession will attract the wrong kind of applicants, more concerned with their careers than carrying out menial tasks.

Editor-At-Large: What a bunch of whingers, and the women are worst

Sunday, 8 November 2009

They still don't get it, do they? MPs and their lucky relatives on the public payroll insist they're a special case. Thousands of families are facing a bleak Christmas with factories closing, shops going bust and factories operating on short time. But MPs live and breathe in a bubble where hardship is something they quantify differently from the rest of the country.

Editor-At-Large: Face it, Martin – Katie sells books, and you don't

Sunday, 1 November 2009

Martin Amis tells an audience he's based a character in his forthcoming novel State of England on the glamour model turned celebrity author Jordan/Katie Price. According to Amis, "she has no waist... an interesting face... but all we are really worshipping is two bags of silicone". Not just a repulsive comment, but a bit rich coming from the man who's spent thousands on improving his own dentistry.

Editor-At-Large: Nicole's sex roles betray women in the real world

Sunday, 25 October 2009

On the face of it, Nicole Kidman would seem to be a rum choice to be talking about violence against women. After all, she's been raped in one film (Dogville), and had kinky sex with Tom Cruise in another (Eyes Wide Shut). She had a bath with a rather young boy (in Birth) and shagged Billy Zane in Dead Calm, her Hollywood debut – all in the name of art, of course. But Nicole isn't just a highly successful actress who's managed her career so brilliantly she now earns over £7m a film; she's decided to do her bit for the less fortunate by becoming a "goodwill ambassador" for the UN Development Fund for Women.

Editor-At-Large: Tesco calls its big sites 'towns'. I call them monopolies

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Brave new world or corporate toytown? Residents of east London have watched as large swathes of the area have been torn down to accommodate the 2012 Olympics. While the prospect of new, world-class sporting facilities in a run-down and under-developed part of the city is an exciting one, we ought to be concerned about other aspects of this huge chunk of urban regeneration. Local people have lost their cherished allotments, small shops have been closed, and a whole range of family-run businesses forced to relocate. Run-down Georgian and Victorian property (which could have been restored to add a blend of architectural styles to the urban landscape) has been compulsorily purchased as developers rip down existing buildings to replace them with brand new housing. The things that residents want – independent shopkeepers, markets, libraries, theatres and playgrounds – are taking second place.

Editor-At-Large: A woman's place is on the platform

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Bright women should be in power, not simpering at their men

Editor-At-Large: Superwoman is now dolled up as the supermissus

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Forget WAGs: there is a new female royalty. They spend their time espousing worthy causes while dressing for maximum impact. They maximise every photo opportunity, they twitter and they blog; getting their man's message out is the name of the game, all in the name of PR. But, unlike their husbands, they've never stood for political office. In fact, they don't really have a proper job, in spite of being well educated and highly intelligent. Some might say they represent a giant step backwards for womankind. These leaders' wives are famous for being a Mrs – women with another man's name identifying them. I don't know about you, but this isn't what I've fought for in the name of equality.

Editor-At-Large: Harassed to death – why did no one listen?

Sunday, 27 September 2009

Her story is so distressing that it makes me wonder what kind of neighbours lived in her street. Couldn't anyone have saved her from herself? Why didn't a single person of authority – a social worker or a police officer – simply act kindly, as the coroner put it, sympathetically and "sit down and have a cup of tea" with Fiona Pilkington to find out what was going on in her head?

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