Mary Dejevsky

One of the country’s most respected commentators on Russia, the EU and the US, Mary Dejevsky has worked as a foreign correspondent all over the world, including Washington, Paris and Moscow. She is now the chief editorial writer and a columnist at The Independent and regularly appears on radio and television.

Mary Dejevsky: Women MPs should be able to claim for childcare

If anything furnishes proof that public life in the 21st century remains essentially a male preserve, it is the periodic dispute about who pays the nanny. The latest victim is the chair of the Conservative Party, Caroline Spelman. The accusation against her is that in 1997, when first elected an MP, she used part of her parliamentary expenses allowance to pay her nanny. She ended the arrangement the following year, when the party's then chief whip said it could be open to "misinterpretation".

Recently by Mary Dejevsky

Mary Dejevsky: So, when will a woman be elected president?

Thursday, 5 June 2008

The first turning-point of this year's switchback campaign for the Democratic Party nomination was surely the moment when Hillary Clinton came close to tears on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. In a matter of seconds, she transformed herself in voters' perceptions from steely candidate to fragile female. According to the pollsters at the time, it delivered for her the women's vote that she had lost to Barack Obama in Iowa.

Mary Dejevsky: The unexpected legacy of natural disasters

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

On 26 April 1986, a mighty explosion tore the roof off reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. Three weeks later, with radioactive fall-out now affecting parts of Europe and North America, and large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia severely contaminated, the then Soviet leader called for an end to the official culture of secrecy. Within six years the Soviet Union was no more.

Mary Dejevsky: Surely people have a right to know if crimes are committed in their area

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Some 15 years ago, the house we had then was burgled. Our music system, I am proud to say, was too antiquated to warrant attention; ditto the television, although the culprits had clearly investigated – and rejected – the satellite box, mistaking it perhaps for a video recorder. We lost some jewellery, a laptop and my husband's passport. It was a big inconvenience, but far from the trauma suffered by targets of more serious burglary.

Mary Dejevsky: Time to lighten up, even if not to light up

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

You probably won't believe this, I hardly do myself. But you have to credit the evidence of your own eyes, and lungs. And the evidence of mine, over the past two weeks in France, is that the French – yes, those pesky, rebellious French – are marking the 40th anniversary of their stupendous 1968 revolt by meekly observing their new ban on smoking in public places.

Mary Dejevsky: A Eurovision win that is not 'mere' politics

Monday, 26 May 2008

Don't knock the Eurovision Song Contest. It is the perfect accompaniment to a rain-threatened, narrow-lanes plagued drive, such as the one we were engaged in at the time. It makes no demands; it presents no risks; it does not distract from the task in hand.

Advertiser Links