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: You mustn't make a profit out of a peat bog, Mr Osborne

Be vigilant – some of our most precious assets are at risk as a result of Mr Osborne wielding the axe. Natural habitats, unspoilt moor land, marshes, and forests are all going to be affected by drastic cuts in Defra's funding. The department's budget took one of the biggest hits: nearly 30 per cent will vanish over the next four years. There will be around 8,000 redundancies in the department and associated agencies. The future of key guardians of our natural assets, the Environment Agency and Natural England, is still "under review", which seems to indicate that more radical surgery is in the pipeline.

Recently by Janet Street-Porter

Editor-At-Large: Paying workers to give up their jobs is bad housekeeping

Sunday, 17 October 2010

If I get a nasty tax bill and have to cut back on my spending, there are obvious, if unpleasant, measures. Cut up credit cards. Set a daily cash budget and stick to it. Stop shopping, except for essentials. No frocks. Travel off-peak, shop for cheaper energy deals. Not exactly rocket science. To pay off debts you need a simple plan. Families are trimming their expenditure carefully as up to 600,000 public-sector workers face redundancy. So, we are told, is the Government.

Editor-At-Large: Dave, we don't have the time to build your Big Society

Sunday, 10 October 2010

The problem with Dave's Big Society concept is the basic assumption that we've got the time to get involved. Cameron's speech to his party conference last week reaffirmed his regularly stated passion for the idea of communities working together, for people power and so on – but the latest evidence is that we find ourselves with less "me" time than ever. That's the precious few hours when we're not working, running our homes, looking after our families and travelling to and from work. This diminishing downtime is when Dave thinks we'll be taking more community responsibility, running schools and getting involved in local services. He faces a hard task.

Editor-At-Large: These costly games are all about ego and do nothing for sport

Sunday, 3 October 2010

International sport has become the costly badge of entry to a premier league of nations. Today, an elaborately choreographed ceremony will take place in Delhi, marking the official opening of the Commonwealth Games. Hosting these events is the ultimate accolade for modern politicians. It means you're a top dog; your country can be taken seriously as a world power.

Janet Street-Porter: Stroppy machinists led the way, but it's still a man's world

Sunday, 19 September 2010

The cheery British film Made in Dagenham (opening 1 October) tells the true story of 187 female machinists who went on strike at the giant Ford motor factory in Dagenham in 1968, and how their brave action led to a ground-breaking piece of legislation. The trigger was management's decision to re-grade the women (who stitched upholstery in an unheated, poorly ventilated old factory) as unskilled workers, in order to save money.

Editor-At-Large: Is Rooney's Juicy Jeni so different from Belle de Jour?

Sunday, 12 September 2010

Sex worker or silly slapper? Wayne Rooney cheats on his wife and pays Jennifer Thompson for a series of brief encounters in a luxury hotel. She sells her story to a Sunday newspaper and gets pilloried. If Jennifer had been poor and uneducated, feminists would describe her as a victim, forced to flog her body to make ends meet. Another worker in an unregulated sex industry where women are routinely exploited.

Editor-At-Large: Blair's boastful journey makes me feel travel sick

Sunday, 5 September 2010

Once, we took journeys to work, school, get the shopping or claim benefit. Now a journey can take you to the top of the best-sellers' list, or a recording contract with Simon Cowell

Editor-At-Large: Baby boomers can't retire – they need the money

Sunday, 15 August 2010

Perhaps it was his basic command of English that resulted in a naked moment of truth, but when Fabio Capello described David Beckham as "a bit too old" to play in the national team he was only being honest. But telling someone – especially an iconic figure – that they are a bit past it, is, in our culture, the height of bad manners. If anyone ever implies that my years (63) mean I should be behaving in a certain fashion, I am extremely offended. Is this because I'm a baby boomer?

Editor-At-Large: Naomi's been crass, but what did we expect?

Sunday, 8 August 2010

In the case of Naomi Campbell, does an undisputed commitment to charitable causes balance glaring personality defects? A few years ago, when Kate Moss was crucified in the tabloids over cocaine use, I pointed out she was a supermodel, not a role model. The job of supermodels is to persuade us to buy a bit of whatever glamorous myth they are well rewarded for promoting.

Editor-At-Large: Say 'fat', and stop the nation eating itself to death

Sunday, 1 August 2010

If I call you fat, is it kind or cruel? A plain-speaking government health minister says describing the overweight as "obese" isn't direct enough to make them lose weight. According to Anne Milton, if a doctor uses the F-word, we're more likely to realise it's our responsibility to shed surplus poundage. She's expressing a personal view and not government policy, but this no-nonsense approach has found support in the medical profession. Obesity has become a meaningless word. It sounds as if you're suffering from a social disease, not a condition that's clogging up your arteries and hastening your date with a coffin. This modern blight isn't confined to the two-legged – a charity report claims half our dogs are obese and will suffer early deaths. We're killing our pets by overfeeding them, human-style.

Editor-At-Large: The disaffection that created Moat is what matters

Sunday, 18 July 2010

Crime has dropped to the lowest level for more than 30 years – so why do many of us feel unsafe? Although we think crime has fallen in our neighbourhood, two-thirds of us believe it has risen across the country as a whole. Could it be that anti-social behaviour, which rarely results in arrests or convictions, contributes to our feelings of unease? And is this worse than 10 years ago? Low-grade, threatening behaviour which may not get reported often blights the lives of people living in council flats and estates and there are numerous examples of mindless intimidation, where residents say they feel besieged, and claim the police don't do enough.

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