Jenny McCartney



Profile:
Full name: Jenny McCartney

Areas of interest: Society, contemporary issues and social values; Cinema

Journals/Organisation: The Sunday Telegraph

Email: [mailto:jenny.mccartney@telegraph.co.uk jenny.mccartney@telegraph.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/jennymccartney

Blog: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/jennymccartney

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Education: Keble College, Oxford: English Literature

Career: Has written for the Sunday Telegraph since 2000: apart from her weekly column also writes cinema reviews/interviews

Current position/role: Columnist and Film Critic


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The Sunday Telegraph:
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Remit/Info: Society, contemporary issues and social values - "Writing on a wide range of issues, Jenny McCartney offers hard-hitting analysis of social and political concerns and a witty deconstruction of modern celebrity culture."

Section: Features / Comment

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Telegraph.co / Jenny McCartney

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Sunday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 850 words



Articles:

 * Stop the hounding of the Duchess of Cambridge - Press coverage of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge often resembles the chatter of a malicious aunt - 16th September 2012
 * British Christians must find a louder voice - Christians may not be persecuted in this country but the faith can safely be publicly ridiculed or denied - 9th September 2012
 * The power and glory of Ann Romney - Spousal support is increasingly important in elections both in Britain and in the US - 2nd September 2012
 * Whether you're a poltician or comedian, rape is seriously unfunny business - Saying ignorant or unfunny things about rape is becoming dangerously popular - 26th August 2012
 * Winnie Johnson's love was its own monument - The pain of the parents of Hindley and Brady’s victims remains unbearable to contemplate - 19th August 2012
 * Women with one-track minds - The super-successful sportswomen competing at the London Games are a reminder of the soaring glory of monotasking - 12th August 2012
 * London 2012 Olympics: Played from the heart - We will remember the Olympic personalities and admire the effort - 29th July 2012
 * A wounding blow to the public’s trust - Juries are notoriously reluctant to convict policemen for actions carried out in the line of duty - 22nd July 2012
 * John Terry and Anton Ferdinand: not a black and white case - Even Anton Ferdinand seemed uncomfortable that the case against John Terry had gone so far - 15th July 2012
 * School dinners: let children be the judge of their meals - The blog NeverSeconds, by nine-year-old primary school pupil Martha Payne about her school lunches, was hugely popular - 8th July 2012
 * I recall what Martin McGuinness lent his hand to - The handshake between the Queen and Martin McGuinness is the conclusion of a process in which McGuinness was swept in from a moral Siberia - 1st July 2012
 * Jimmy Carr and David Cameron feel the sharp end of tax - The comedian and the Prime Minister have touched on a point of fierce concern to the public - 24th June 2012
 * Carr was serious about tax avoidance - The comedian seems remarkably astute in financial matters. I doubt very much that he sleepwalked into the K2 scheme - 24th June 2012
 * Don’t let the state search my searches - The Communications Data Bill is an unnecessary intrusion into personal privacy - and won't stop paedophiles, as the Home Secretary claims - 17th June 2012
 * A shameful retreat by the British - As recent events have proved, 'don’t get involved' has become the mantra of our age - 10th June 2012
 * The unacceptable face of the net - Commenting on Rebecca Adlington's looks is a loser's sport - 3rd June 2012
 * Your posh guilt doesn’t help, Mr Clegg - We wonder what happened to social mobility, but hand-wringing over snobbery is a red herring - 27th May 2012
 * Ratko Mladic and a lesson from Srebrenica - The former Serb general's trial has brought to the fore agonising memories of the 1995 massacre - 20th May 2012
 * The Church has protected evil for too long - The longer Cardinal Seán Brady stays in place as Primate of All Ireland, the greater the damage inflicted on the reputation of the Catholic Church - 6th May 2012
 * I’m lost in the electro-smog - My children will be denied mobile phones for as long as possible, since I am still not convinced about the safety of mobile phones - 29th April 2012
 * Sometimes a hoodie just doesn’t fit the bill for a boss - Why are so many British youths blithely unconcerned about whether they are appealing to potential employers - 22nd April 2012
 * Self-dislike is the new vanity - The human race has always been obsessed by physical beauty, but never as relentlessly as today - 8th April 2012
 * The toxic treatment of Dr Drew - A 'peaceful Christmas' text and a prayer hardly amounts to standing on the ward with a sandwich-board roaring citations from the Old Testament - 1st April 2012
 * Comfort eating and drinking is costing us our lives - What starts as joyful excess flattens out into dulled habit, and finally slow self-destruction - 25th March 2012
 * The danger in defining harassment - David Cameron has committed Britain to passing legislation which will criminalise 'unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct' - 11th March
 * The first breath of a person - They can’t articulate it, but newborns bristle with the urge for life - 4th March 2012
 * Marie Colvin reminds us to turn from the mirror to the window - The late war reporter was not content with the narcissism that modern femininity is inclined to - 26th February 2012
 * The double standards of teenage sex - Although the age of consent is 16, the state colludes in pumping young teenagers full of contraceptive hormones - 12th February 2012
 * Our fathers are still being failed by the law - The new Government working party to address fathers' rights is long overdue - 5th February 2012
 * Lying, cheating, decent folk - There may be times when honesty is not the best policy, if it's trumped by other virtues - 29th January 2012
 * Genetic research: how many parents is too many? - Babies must not simply be viewed as end products - 22nd January 2012
 * Jean McConville: one of Belfast's stubborn ghosts - A mother of 10, she was 'disappeared' by the IRA in 1972. But she will not go away - 15th January 2012
 * The breast implant scandal strips away the glossy euphemisms of cosmetic surgery - PIP's rupturing implants have thrown a new light on the craving for a better, bustier you - 8th January 2012
 * Hard times bring harder hearts - As we grow more anxious about our own prospects, we are becoming less sympathetic to those less fortunate than ourselves - 11th December 2011
 * The 'Tram' video is horrible, but 'my Britain’ is not like that for most of us - Whatever else these snapshots of fury suggest, Britain is not an especially racist country - 4th December 2011
 * Here is the shopping forecast... - There's going to be a long cold spell in our pockets - 27th November 2011
 * Brett Ratner's 'fag' gag is hardly the worst of Hollywood homophobia - In Tinseltown, it still seems to be the love that dare not speak its name - 13th November 2011
 * Does Britain really hate its children? - Something seems to have gone seriously awry with our child-rearing culture - 6th November 2011
 * Burglars need to feel our fear - Ken Clarke's plans to give householders more leeway to confront intruders are welcome news - 30th October 2011
 * Think Britain hasn't dumbed down? Just watch Bullseye - An evening with Jim Bowen showed me just how far our intellectual standards have fallen - 22nd October 2011
 * These days, we all need a housewife to hand - The British housewife is on the way out - and more's the pity - 16th October 2011
 * What justice for Meredith Kercher? - Amid the media circus, her family are denied even the icy comfort of a resolution - 9th October 2011
 * Pity the children condemned to the care carousel - Thousands of children are trapped in a care and adoption system that needs a radical overhaul - 2nd October 2011
 * Bigging up the nation? Well, the best of British to you, Prime Minister - Let's advertise something we're really good at, like oddness. And crisps - 25th September 2011
 * We must not bring back the cane - Schoolchildren need discipline - but that does not mean a return to corporal punishment - 18th September 2011
 * While Galliano's outburst is publicly condemned, 'hate speech' becomes an online norm - In our curiously fractured society, moving from offline to online discourse is like ricocheting from Switzerland to the Wild West - 11th September 2011
 * Best of luck to Beyoncé - but we can't all be bumpylicious - Pregnancy used to be a chance to put your slightly swollen feet up. Now, it's a beauty parade - 4th September 2011
 * Without history, we have only ignorance - The failure of schools to teach history has helped create a wider crisis of identity - 28th August 2011
 * The phone hacking scandal has hacked at the pillars of society - Like a probing finger in a rickety house, the scandal finds rot wherever it pushes - 21st August 2011
 * UK riots show that high-end goods make poor gods - The riots had little to do with politics and an awful lot to do with acquisition - 14th August 2011
 * Rupert Murdoch and the misfiring custard pie - Jonnie Marbles's attack on Rupert Murdoch showed pranksters at their worst - 24th July 2011
 * Home birth? No thanks, hospital labour ward gets my vote - Birth is the worst possible area in which any health service can skimp - 17th July 2011
 * How the BBC's silence on immigration damaged the country - Mark Thompson's confession that the BBC shied away from subjects like immigration shows how an insidious culture of the unsayable took hold under Labour - 10th July 2011
 * Carolyn Bourne and Heidi Withers: Why families should never go nuclear - Carolyn Bourne made a grievous mistake in commencing hostilities with her future daughter-in-law before the couple even made it up the aisle - 3rd July 2011
 * Don’t get bugged by germs - Ignore the stories about killer dishwashers - it is the human condition to be wrapped in bacteria, dust and mould - 26th June 2011
 * Joanne Fraill: Gossiping her way into jail - For juror Joanne Fraill, a trial became a soap opera to be played out on Facebook - 19th June 2011
 * Don't primp children out of their innocence - The advent of Trendy Monkeys, a beauty and hairdressing salon for children in Essex, is not a welcome innovation - 12th June 2011
 * Why do the elderly so often bear the weight of neglect in our hospitals? - A new report from the Care Quality Commission shows an insidious contempt for the elderly in the health system - 29th May 2011
 * The Queen in Ireland: a majestic turning point - The Queen's tour of Ireland demonstrated exactly why it's a good idea to have a monarch as head of state - 22nd May 2011
 * Are 'Slut Walks' a backwards step? - Our hyper-sexualised society is sending out dangerously mixed signals to young people - 15th May 2011
 * Philip Mould and the curse of the poison pen - The internet is making anonymous abuse far easier and far more tempting - 8th May 2011
 * Don’t let the Union drift apart - The triumph of Alex Salmond and the SNP shows how the emotional glue that binds Britain together is dissolving - 7th May 2011
 * Royal wedding: Kate Middleton's lesson for British women - The story of Britain over the past decade has been a tale of three Kates - Moss, Price and Middleton - 1st May 2011
 * Are the parents poor, or just poor parents? - In some families the poverty seems to be of child-rearing instincts, rather than of material means - 17th April 2011
 * Please, Mr Clegg, spare us the sob story - If the Deputy Prime Minister wanted to be universally liked and admired, he shouldn't have gone into politics - 10th April 2011
 * Michael Gove has a point - we need to make reading a thrill - The best way for children to learn about the world is through classic works of literature - 3rd April 2011
 * Our less-than-grand old Duke of York - Prince Andrew should be stripped of his role as UK special envoy for trade before he stains the Royal family's reputation further - 13th March 2011
 * The ideal home can be a perfect prison - Modern women are feeling the pressure to have a glamorous home and lifestyle. But what's wrong with a bit of healthy chaos - 6th March 2011
 * Welfare reform should tackle the cheats at the top as well as the bottom - Greedy MPs and rapacious bankers are just as dishonest as welfare fraudsters and freeloaders - 20th February 2011
 * Beauty and the Beast' shows why we shouldn't take people at face value - The contrast between Susan Campbell Ducan and Sarah Burge is illuminating in the extreme - 13th February 2011
 * A slimmer Britain? Fat chance - Super-sizing might have become the British way of life, but we’re paying a steeper price every day - 6th February 2011
 * Those shouts will reverberate - Yelling can be 'emotional abuse’, which is now 'domestic violence’ - 30th January 2011
 * Islamophobia: Baroness Warsi waxes distinctly fuzzy - Baroness Warsi's speech on Islamophobia was packed with sanctimonious generalities - 23rd January 2011
 * It's shocking how normality can vanish in a flash - The Brisbane floods and the honeymoon murder in Mauritius show how precarious life really is - 16th January 2011
 * A soap opera like EastEnders is not the place to dramatise cot death - EastEnders crowbarred a sensitive issue into a cheap and melodramatic seasonal panto - 9th January 2011
 * My five-point plan for a happier Britain - Banning self-service tills and more men in hats will make Britain a better place - 26th December 2010
 * The problem with pester power - The woman who is suing McDonald's over the toys in Happy Meals has a point - 19th December 2010
 * Tuition fees demo: We protested, they ran riot - Reasonable, peaceful souls were in the majority at the protest march against the trebling of fees, but we were not in control - 12th December 2010
 * Michael Gove should give kids a sporting chance - Cutting sport in school now would be like scrapping the oven before Christmas - 5th December 2010
 * The EU has got too big for its boots - The European Union's ruling on giving British prisoners the vote is a blatant breach of our sovereignty - 28th November 2010
 * Ireland's had the party - now for the hangover - Jenny McCartney asks how this week's humiliation will affect the national psyche - 21st November 2010
 * Gordon Ramsay should put down the media megaphone - We are being beckoned in to watch his family crumble - 14th November 2010
 * Sorry, kids - the party's over - Tuition fees are an unfair burden on the younger generation - 7th November 2010
 * Is Cherie Blair's eBay habit a model of thrift or miserliness? - Cherie Blair's transactions on eBay can show us the dangers of living within our meanness - 31st October 2010
 * Lottery wins should be serious, not silly money - Many more lottery prizes of a modest million or two might make for a happier nation - 24th October 2010
 * Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper-Balls share a life - but can they share an office? - The Balls-Coopercouple may have failed in their bids to become shadow chancellor, but this competitive marriage will continue to fascinate us - 10th October 2010
 * Ed Miliband shows why ladies need gentlemen - The definition of a gentleman is being debated once again, and about time too - 3rd October 2010
 * This Commonwealth Games debacle wounds the pride of India - No one could be more furious than Indians themselves at the shambles of the Commonweatlth Games in Delhi - 26th September 2010
 * Papal visit: Is Richard Dawkins turning into Ian Paisley? - In his criticisms of the Pope, Richard Dawkins is sounding suspiciously familiar - 19th September 2010
 * Stuffing animals is just plain cruel - One of the most melancholy sights last week was that of Oshine, the vastly overweight orang-utan - 11th September 2010
 * We're all in the diary room now - We have seen the fastest shift in history in our approach to privacy - 11th September 2010
 * Are boys really the weaker sex? - Little girls already see themselves as academic front-runners, but often the rebel boy wins out in the end - 5th September 2010
 * Ignorant - and sadly typical - War veterans must wonder at the use we make of the freedom they fought for - 29th August 2010
 * Emimen and Rihanna's brutality chic is a bit beyond me - Why are Emimen and Rihanna romanticising domestic violence - 21st August 2010
 * Paris Hilton and the hair-raising cost of modern beauty - The lawsuit against Paris Hilton over her hair extensions shows how big a business artificial beauty has become - 15th August 2010
 * Iain Duncan Smith aims to dismantle the benefits trap - At long last, it really might be time to listen to the quiet man - 1st August 2010
 * Eamonn Holmes swims against a tide of teasing - When it comes to impressions of Eamonn Holmes, the problem's alimentary - 25th July 2010
 * Raoul Moat and the unacceptable face of Facebook - In David Cameron's clash with Facebook we can see the key cultural question of our time - 18th July 2010
 * Why does the world buy into Tony Blair? - It's hard to stomach the sight of the former prime minister jetting furiously around the world, picking up prizes - 3rd July 2010
 * The volcano claims another victim: General McChrystal - When the ash cloud threw the American commander and a journalist together it was bound to end badly - 26th June 2010
 * Whose bump is it anyway? - As a breath-test is proposed to find pregnant smokers, Jenny McCartney argues that if you want a life free from nanny-state intrusion you'd best sidestep babies altogether - 26th June 2010
 * The death of polite society - If we remove our taboos, the worst aspects of humanity are unleashed - 19th June 2010
 * Saville Inquiry: The only winners were the IRA - The Saville Inquiry will do little to dispel the shadow cast by Bloody Sunday - 13th June 2010
 * Aren’t you sick of therapy? - Sarah, Duchess of York's appearance on Oprah showed how the dreaded therapy-babble has spread like a virus across the world - 6th June 2010
 * Domestic heaven won't wait - Younger women talk of the wisdom of having children earlier - 30th May 2010
 * The New Posh takes charge - Whereas Old Posh was sneering and superior, New Posh is humble and thoughtful - 16th May 2010
 * General Election 2010: Why does Britain seem so silly? - Too much of the sweet stuff has left us in terrible shape - 9th May 2010 (General Election 2010)
 * Primark padded bikinis: leave our kids alone - As the row deepens over the sexualising of our children, Jenny McCartney sees signs of parents fighting back - 19th April 2010
 * The horrible bingo of growing old - Treating a child in the same way we treat our elderly would lead to criminal proceedings - 12th April 2009
 * The awful truth about 'happy endings' - The founder of Dignitas has revealed his profoundly shocking attitudes towards death - 5th April 2009
 * Is your life really better for being Twittered? - Famous people seem just as keen on Twitter as the rest of us - 29th March 2009
 * We're in a state of sexual confusion - The line has blurred between information and tacit encouragement - 29th March 2009
 * Northern Ireland: Disgust alone will not stop the killing - One lesson of the Troubles is that violence makes its own momentum - 15th March 2009


 * Julie Myerson, please leave us in the dark - Writers like Jake Myerson's compulsively indiscreet mother should not forget the value of privacy - 15th March 2009
 * Julie Myerson: Don't write your loved ones out of your life story - It might be fashionable to shine a bright light in family emotions, but some things are best left in the dark - 8th March 2009
 * Educational illusions will cost more than financial ones - Under Labour, our exam system has been turned into a hollow game of bluff. We're about to pay the price - 8th March 2009
 * Harriet Harman fails in the court of public opinion - The deputy Labour leader did herself no favours by attacking Sir Fred Goodwin's pension - 8th March 2009
 * My brain prefers to go for a gentle stroll - Can't Nicole Kidman just read a book? - 1st March 2009
 * The Slumdog Millionaire children take a message back to Mumbai - Real life in the slums of India, it seems, is no less dramatic than the films - 1st March 2009
 * Through her dignity in dying, Jade Goody shows us all how to live - By the courageous manner of her very public last days, the former Big Brother hate object has finally earned our respect - 22nd February 2009
 * Cocaine may not cost much but it certainly isn't cheap - The cocaine trade turns people into throwaway human containers. That alone should make it unacceptable - 22nd February 2009
 * The past has such comforting outlines - The return of Mad Men is making men yearn for a time when they could chain smoke in the office and openly ogle the trainee, but it's selective nostalgia - 15th February 2009
 * Court has left these parents in hell - A couple whose children were wrongly taken away from them are caught in a cat's cradle of paradoxes - 15th February 2009
 * Christian Bale's irresistible invective - There's something strangely fascinating about uncontrolled rage - 8th February 2009
 * Obama's hero is a zero at home - Tony Blair may be basking in Barack Obama's adulation but his reputation in Britain is on the rocks - 8th February 2009
 * Golliwog row: It's not what you say, it's where you say it - Carol Thatcher's remark was crude and foolish, but it has to be taken in context - 8th February 2009
 * Let's save our tears for victims, not terrorists - It is wrong and foolish to pretend that all those killed in the Northern Ireland Troubles are the same - 1st February 2009
 * America's self-belief makes us look battered and tired - US voters have once again shown their appetite for national reinvention - 25th January 2009
 * At some point in your thirties you stop being a teenager - Wendy Brown may have passed as a teenage cheerleader at 33, but at some point all of us have to accept we've grown up - 18th January 2009
 * Royal route through the minefield of race - I learnt through experience which words cause offence, but Prince Harry and his family are more sheltered - 18th January 2009
 * Passengers disrupt public transport - Disrespect for the travelling public is ingrained in the system - 12th January 2009
 * Give up the pipe dreams and recivilise Britain - We can’t ride with bulging wallets into dusty little towns in the Dordogne any more, says Jenny McCartney, so we'd better make the most of what we've got - 4th January 2009
 * Conor Cruise O’Brien: farewell to Ireland's restless conscience - The death last Thursday of Conor Cruise O’Brien, the Irishman with a rolling poem of a name, felt like the closing of a chapter in history - 21st December 2008
 * Craig Ewert suicide documentary shows the face of death by the light of mourning - The bereaved often find they are floundering alone, uncertain what they are allowed to feel - 14th December 2008
 * Let's eradicate parenting for profit - One of the saddest details to emerge from the Shannon Matthews trial were the little notes written to the girl's elder brother - 7th December 2008
 * Financial crisis means a thrifty Christmas - Now that self-preservation is uppermost in many people's minds, the desire to shop is fast withering - 30th November 2008
 * No convictions, but maybe some doubts - There is one near certainty about the new law on prostitution introduced by Jacqui Smith: it will be tricky to convict anyone under it - 23rd November 2008
 * Don't demonise the council? Why not? - one thing disturbed almost everyone shortly after they had absorbed as many details of the "Baby P" case as they could stand - 16th November 2008
 * Barack Obama: Even the best president ends up with blood on his hands - 9th November 2008
 * Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, we are not amused at the degrading of Andrew Sachs - 2nd November 2008
 * Must they know about sex at five? - One thing stumps me about the news that the Government is to provide compulsory "sex and relationships" lessons for children from the age of five: how much can there really be to say? - 26th October 2008
 * Hypocrisy leaves room for mercy - Few who read the story of Daniel James could experience anything but deepest compassion - 19th October 2008
 * Smacking children: a decision for parents - the chatisement of children, the capitalism of John Lennon and the secret love of hot water bottles - 12th October 2008
 * Quentin Tarantino should learn from the banker Frank McGarahan - on the lessons to be drawn from the banker murdered in Norwich for defending a homeless man - 5th October 2008
 * Sarah Brown's speech had no small print - When assessing a Prime Minister's competence, his wife is the last person one should listen to - 28th September 2008
 * Financial crisis: A peasant's eye view - 21st September 2008
 * Class structure is no excuse - An obsession with 'equality' keeps our children down - 14th September 2008
 * Domestic goddess, just imagine - Full-time motherhood has long been a unsung job, but its new heavily-glossed image is deceptive - 7th September 2008
 * Jade Goody faces up to reality - ...on Jade Goody, Richard and Judy, and Gary Glitter - 24th August 2008
 * Class warfare is just not classy - Jenny McCartney contemplates the underclass, defends Prince Charles, and sympathises with Peaches Geldof - 17th August 2008
 * Protesters cannot take it any more - British protesters in Beijing, celebrity pregnancy, and the minefield that is English spelling - 10th August 2008


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