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.

Janet Street-Porter: Who will teach teenagers not to binge drink?

Last night a radio documentary highlighted the increasing number of children who get regularly drunk. Apart from the social disorder that results, increasing medical evidence shows they are damaging their livers, brains, and teeth.

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Editor-At-Large: Bankrupt Blighty – no dosh, and even less style

Sunday, 14 December 2008

I went to Paris last week for a friend's birthday. It's a good job I'd paid for the trip in advance. During my 48 hours outside bankrupt Britain, the pound keeled over to its lowest level since the euro was launched back in 1999. Shopping in Paris was a different experience: no massive closing-down sales on the chic boulevards of the Left Bank, and the 40 per cent discount day at Bon March� only applied to those with a French bank account. That's how much the sniffy frogs care about wooing tourists.

Janet Street-Porter: How do we stop men feeling so inadequate?

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

So, they're just like us. We obsess about our appearance and feel inadequate at work, but research proves men feel the same. Being in the company of women only heightens these male anxieties, and even a night out with their mates doesn't help. One in four men think they're useless at sex, blaming movies such as Sex and the City for increasing female expectations to unrealistic levels.

Editor-At-Large: Another hopeless mother slips through the net

Sunday, 7 December 2008

Found guilty of kidnapping her own daughter in an attempt to grab a huge ransom, she's been vilified, called lazy, sex mad, and a devious liar. Everyone has an opinion about Karen Matthews, the failed mother who seems to embody all that's wrong with our benefits culture. A pick-and-mix family, kids by a handful of men. Some kids with dads she can't even remember shagging. But is Karen the embodiment of evil? Last week another shocking example of motherhood was in court, Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell, the woman who abused her daughter Constance so badly the young girl turned her memories of a bleak childhood into a best-selling book, Ugly. Carmen claimed it was a pack of lies and sued her daughter for libel. She lost the case.

Janet Street-Porter: Mother does not always know best

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Memories of childhood are always subjective, and one of the most sensitive subjects for writers is the mother-daughter relationship. The final taboo is shattered if you dare to tell the world your mother was a nightmare to live with. We are conditioned to pretend that mum always knew best, that mum had our best interests at heart, and that mum loved us unconditionally. But for thousands of women, that's not true. I know, because a few years ago I wrote a book in which I dared to criticise my mother, provoking reactions, from shock to sympathy. I received hundreds of letters from women (and men) who said they had been cheered up just to know they were not the only people they knew who couldn't stand their mother.

Editor-At-Large: Let me put the wonder back into Woolies

Sunday, 30 November 2008

My first job was in Woolworths, Shepherd's Bush, west London. In spite of studying for loads of exams at school, I had to sit through a formal interview and pass the in-house intelligence test before I could sign on as a Saturday girl. My best piece of advice from a fellow worker: look busy at all times, especially when the supervisor walks in your direction.

Janet Street-Porter: This is nothing compared to the 1940s

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Christmas has come early for some citizens, according to the Chancellor. Now he's unveiled measures designed to stimulate the economy and get us spending again, one thing's clear – we're still not happy. Critics say he's foolhardy, that he's discriminating against the haves. We've become a nation of moaners. OK, high-street sales are slumping, and Marks and Spencer are contemplating another stupendous one-day sale. John Lewis is feeling the pinch, and organic vegetables are shunned as too costly.

Editor-At-Large: We are a nation of puritans now, not shopkeepers

Sunday, 23 November 2008

"Bloodbath on the high street", screamed a newspaper headline last week. It was not a horror film opening nationwide, but the day Woolworths – facing bankruptcy – was offered for sale for £1 and Marks and Spencer tried to woo back customers by offering 20 per cent off a range of merchandise. At this rate, should we expect every high street to consist of boarded-up shop fronts by the New Year? Yes, people have less money to spend, but some sections of the media seem determined to ramp up the current financial difficulties to the point where the once pleasurable act of spending is cast as the eleventh deadly sin.

Janet Street-Porter: Who can say now that mother always knows best?

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

What damage do you have to inflict on a child – and for how long – to be deemed an unfit mother?

Janet Street-Porter: Time to shake our civil servants from their feather beds

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Twenty thousand people received their P45s last week and the predicted figure for unemployment is two million by Christmas. You can bet that virtually none will be public servants.

Janet Street-Porter: I fear 'Healthy Towns' are just another fad

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

I broke my ankle at the start of the summer, and am trying to lose the weight I gained. My doctor in Yorkshire said I was "obese". This chap is what I'd call morbidly thin. Addicted to running, he spends lunchtime pounding over the moors, generally in pouring rain. He's definitely in the minority among the locals. There's nothing I don't know about losing weight – it's just a case of mind over matter. And so it is for the majority of us.

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