Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands enjoyed decade long tenures at the London Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, before becoming the first female editor of the Sunday Telegraph in 2005. Her topical weekly column looks at social and cultural issues.

Sarah Sands: Three cheers for the happy-mongers

The film director Mike Leigh is heralded as both a novelty and an inpatient for his new film Happy-Go-Lucky. His interviewer on Friday's Today programme, Sarah Montague, chided him gently. What was his Damascene conversion from the miserable and the absurd? Why move from the savage reality of Thatcher's Britain to this Teletubby world of well-intentioned primary teachers?

Recently by Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands: One bounced cheque and my bank goes to red alert

Sunday, 13 April 2008

At first, the phrase "the credit crunch" had an economic grandeur to it. It took place in high, shiny buildings. It meant that investment bankers did fewer deals and that some bonuses shrank, although not as many as one would have thought. The private-plane classes talked of clouds gathering. But it was all above our pay grade.

Sarah Sands: That's not 'spillover', Sir Alan. It's my home life

Sunday, 30 March 2008

The shadow of Katie Hopkins, last year's semi-finalist on The Apprentice, hangs over this year's female team. Katie Hopkins was ruthless, exhibitionist, radiated more energy than the sun and was as kindly as sulphur. She was a natural-born winner – and yet she bowed out because she could not square childcare with her absolute professional ambition. Sir Alan Sugar perceived this as weakness.

Sarah Sands: If we won't fight for the Gurkhas, what is worth fighting for?

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Labour's little Malthus, Hazel Blears, has warned that immigration is a voter issue. She has not yet used the taboo word "swamped" but it is implied.

Sarah Sands: Scarlett Keeling died at the roll of a dice. It's a perilous game

Sunday, 16 March 2008

Each human tragedy has its socio-economic dimension. The terrifying abduction of Shannon Matthews is coolly discussed as a portrait of a debased white working class, with its multiplicity of fathers and attendant social workers. When Madeleine McCann went missing we rapidly absorbed the context. The parents were doctors, ambitious, gym conscious, dressed in high street chic. The holiday destination, Mark Warner in Portugal, was family minded and middle class. The McCanns felt safe to leave their children in the room, because they were among their own people.

Sarah Sands: The brave wear a uniform, the coward wears a suit

Sunday, 9 March 2008

Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, once spoke of the difference between the war in Iraq and the mission in Afghanistan. He described the first as an unpopular war and the second as misunderstood. We "kicked the door in" in Iraq but came by invitation to Afghanistan. The fight against the Taliban is direct retribution for 11 September; the cause is just and vital.

Sarah Sands: Feminism is no match for a giddy pair of shoes

Sunday, 2 March 2008

Moral opponents of the Beijing Olympics reel off China's history of human rights abuses. This is a country where families dispose of their baby girls because of the one-child policy and grandmothers are still crippled by the old practice of foot binding. Their toes were broken and bound in infanthood in order to achieve adorable looking feet.

Sarah Sands: We could learn some lessons from 'The Choir'

Sunday, 24 February 2008

Once I stopped being a newspaper editor, I began to notice a discrepancy between the sorts of things journalists were interested in and what their readers liked. Journalists like crime and politics and sex. Readers care about gardening and, as it turns out, singing.

Sarah Sands: Knickers to those who say Simon Mann deserves it

Sunday, 17 February 2008

A delight of the London Fashion catwalk was Vivienne Westwood's Guantanamo orange knickers, bearing the cheeky slogan "Fair Trial, My Arse". George Bush's clumsy non sequitur that mild torture might prevent London bombings holds no water here.

Sarah Sands: Love thy neighbour, preaches Obama. So they do

Sunday, 10 February 2008

How many politicians would release a picture of themselves as a small child in order to boost their ratings?

Sarah Sands: Paxman: Prince Charles, but with the angst in his pants

Sunday, 27 January 2008

The question I have asked every BBC news journalist I know is: what was Jeremy Paxman's intention when he introduced the phrase "gusset anxiety" to the English language? The consensus view is 1) The email to Sir Stuart Rose may have been written with bitter humour but was sincerely and deeply felt. 2) Paxman is genuinely dismayed that the email was leaked. So is Sir Stuart, despite his public good humour.

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