Melanie McDonagh



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Full name: Melanie McDonagh

Area of interest: Society and Culture

Journals: The Daily Telegraph, The Times

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Current position/role: columnist at The Telegraph and guest contributor at The Times


 * has written for: The Observer, Evening Standard, New Statesman and The Tablet

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Other activities: Trustee of the Bosnia Institute

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 * no regular column

Remit: Society, contemporary issues and social values

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Articles: 2010

 * shadows cast by unresolved traumas'' - The release of Dr Kelly’s post-mortem report may not serve its intended effect, which was to bring about the desired end to any modern trauma –closure - 23rd October
 * news Natasha Kaplinsky tells us'' - The figures show a lot of women in Britain doing a Natasha Kaplinsky - 17th October
 * is tossing away the decking vote'' - Cameron's caste regard a house as a rung on the property ladder. For normal people, a house is a home, even if it is a council home - 8th August
 * you for heaping ridicule on migrant curbs'' - If 72m Turks get the right to live and work anywhere in Europe, that will make a mockery of any UK immigration caps - 1st August
 * we truly care for others, that goes for Venables too'' - even if we accept that Venables deserved his punishment, we should also allow him, as the tenets of Christianity insist, the possibility of transcending his offence - 25th July
 * Abbott as a national treasure? No thanks'' - Once, Labour had women of a high calibre. Now they've got Diane Abbott - 14th June
 * separate worlds collided in Kensington'' - Mass immigration from the Muslim world has led to alienation, not 'vibrancy' - 7th June
 * Queen should take a cut like the rest of us'' - If it should appear that the Queen is hoping for extra funds when child tax credit is being cut, turning the lights out won't help - 1st June
 * Fergie's stupidity and self-denial that sum her up'' - Feminism and celebrity have been the Duchess of York's undoing - 24th May
 * and Fayed are in a class of their own'' - It's quite something what Mr Fayed achieved with Harrods - 10th May
 * the Greeks, the Irish are facing up to their plight'' - People here in Ireland are looking, with bewildered incomprehension, at what the Greeks are doing - 3rd May
 * papal gag is notable only for a lack of wit'' - This Foreign Office memo reflects something of the mood of embarrassment in political circles about the Pope’s visit - 26th April
 * woman laughed when I tried to book a ferry'' - At least by sea there's a hope of getting to London alive - but getting a ticket isn't easy - 19th April
 * lucky to have our Poles – and we feel for them'' - The Poles have got the skills and the work ethic which a worrying number of young Brits lack - 12th April
 * B&B is a private space, not a public one'' - Chris Grayling's comment on the B&B owner who turned away a homosexual couple is perfectly reasonable - 5th April
 * starter wife is for life'' - There is a case for regarding first spouses more tenderly than their successors, socially, financially and judicially - 4th April
 * for the elderly affects us all, and Labour would handle it best after the general election'' - The oldest are by far the richest – it would help if they paid for much-needed extra care - 30th March
 * it's foolhardy to bash the unions'' - Loathe them as we may, some strikes can be in the public's best interest - 22nd March
 * raffle for a human egg? It's hardly conceivable'' - The beauty of American fertility clinics is that you can specify what sort of egg you want - 15th March
 * better that teenagers get pregnant than 55-year-olds'' - Hilary Mantel has a point in commending the Romeo and Juliet approach to starting a family young - 1st March
 * is constantly in front of the children'' - Melanie McDonagh argues that there’s no escape from the raunch culture, no matter how hard you try - 27th February
 * Ford is a beauty who has failed to find a role'' - Anna Ford's hatchet job on Martin Amis tells us more about her than about him - 22nd February
 * Adams and Jesus cause a stir'' - It's always interesting to see a sinner sum up the sermon, writes Melanie McDonagh, anticipating a Channel 4 programme on the Holy Land - 15th February
 * men are begetting infertile sons'' - We normally give nature short shrift, but the modern approach to fertility could be storing up problems for the future - 8th February
 * gaffe does you no favours either, Anthony Julius'' - In his criticism of the Princess, it is notable how clearly Mr Julius is part of the governing class - 1st February
 * attack: Parents must trust their own instincts to keep a child safe'' - If most people who hurt children are not on police registers, the Home Secretary's latest proposal could do more harm than good - 25th January
 * does Sue, 59, qualify for IVF?'' - You really can't be a mother at almost any age, whatever fertility clinics offer - 18th January
 * Greenfield should have been sacked'' - The former director of the Royal Institution left it with crushing debt and no clear sense of purpose - 11th January
 * have been cleaned to within an inch of their lives'' - When you put any masterpiece from the National Gallery next to companion pieces from other, continental, galleries, the result is often just embarrassing - 4th January
 * now, pain later as we binge on sales'' - I spend more on servicing my credit cards than I do on my children. Most of that debt was incurred by running after bargains - 3rd January



Articles: 2009

 * inherits the people's crown'' - Seeing Prince William sleeping rough to help the homeless evoked a sense of déjà vu for anyone old enough to remember his mother - 27th December
 * readers need picture books, too'' - The best illustrations make you more affectionately disposed towards humankind, which is more than can be said of anything show-cased by Charles Saatchi - 26th December
 * real problem is rising crime, not self defence'' - We should be agonising over what has caused the rise in violent crime rather than how to deal with victims who fight back - 21st December
 * better or worse, the Nativity play is in our blood'' - Despite its uncompromising doctrine, the Christmas story is usually well regarded by parents of no discernible Christian faith - 14th December
 * Harman faces an inconvenient truth'' - Children are 40 per cent more likely to suffer mental health problems if they do not have contact with one parent, whatever Harriet Harman says - 9th December
 * vote we have many more referendums'' - Why is making decisions for the nation a right of the government and not one of the people - 30th November
 * if the archbishop tried evangelising Belle de Jour?'' - While Islam is making the running when it comes to reaching out to the unconverted, Anglicans and Catholics seem engaged in a zero-sum game - 23rd November
 * gang aren't a patch on Turnip Taliban'' - The Truss affair has become a standoff between people who would like their MP to be one of them and centralisers who want the party to look more like the people around Cameron - 16th November
 * Labour's immigration scaremongers fool anybody?'' - If unmanageable immigration is the new bogey, it?s a bit late for Labour to try to start worrying us with it - 9th November
 * chick makes feathers fly in rural Norfolk'' - The mystery here isn't that the constituency may deselect Elizabeth Truss, it's that it chose her to begin with - 2nd November
 * them pay for nepotism themselves'' - Why should the taxpayer fund MPs' wives to show up at the House of Commons a couple of days a week to go on the internet from ten ’til three - 26th October
 * Lite – a case of peer today, gone tomorrow'' - I yield to no one in my admiration for Anya Hindmarch as an accessories designer, but I can't see why it's necessary to drag the poor woman into the second chamber - 19th October
 * cartons are like sweets for grown-ups'' - Don't MPs have anything better to do than manically ban things? - 12th October
 * women really want is to be able to make a choice'' - There is a gulf between most women's actual aspirations and the aspirations the state has for us - 9th October
 * Emin's final outrageous act might be to turn into a Tory'' - If there’s one thing less edifying than bankers complaining about being overtaxed, it’s supposedly radical artists doing the same - 5th October
 * me the Catholic bashing'' - Tanya Gold's column about the pope in G2 earlier this week was hateful and wrong - 2nd October (writing in The Guardian)
 * Brown is missing the point on childcare'' - Whatever he said in his speech, Gordon Brown's Government has made life difficult for working mothers - 1st October
 * Brown was good, but Angela Merkel is the role model'' - Politicans' wives should not be worshipped simply because of who they have married - 1st October
 * Middleton puts family silver on show'' - Kate Middleton's mother's choice of dress was unwise - but not because of its length - 30th September
 * Polanski has not been hard done by'' - The thespian outcry over the arrest of the director Roman Polanski is not justified - 30th September
 * Brown is missing the point on childcare'' - Whatever he said in his speech, Gordon Brown's Government has made life difficult for working mothers - 30th September
 * discarded crutches prove that miracles can happen'' - The relics of St Thérèse of Liseux should not be dismissed as placebos or worse - 21st September
 * Warsi has highlighted the plight of one poor woman'' - At one time, a woman who walked off with a married man with four children would have had short shrift in the Tory party - 14th September
 * that mean trouble'' - The saying “Give a dog a bad name and hang him” has a new, contemporary twist - 13th September
 * is not the only reason men earn more than women'' - Plainly, there are jobs – heads of department, directors of financial institutions – that simply don’t lend themselves to job-sharing and family-friendly hours - 7th September
 * tests rob women of their hold over men'' - All of a sudden, with the advent of DNA paternity testing, the balance of power between the sexes has shifted - 30th August
 * needs a middle-class baby boom'' - A growing population is a blessing so long as everyone joins in - 28th August
 * lights in August are a perversion of the seasons'' - The capacity of local authorities to get the British wrong is remarkable - 24th August
 * Frump shows true girl power'' - Power isn’t like tennis: why should women be hived off into a separate little power category all of their own? - 23rd August
 * a glass of ginger beer to Enid Blyton'' - Enid Blyton will be featured in a BBC documentary this autumn. Let's hope it will acknowledge her talent for making children read - 21st August
 * a truly exotic holiday, it's got to be Hunstanton'' - There's an element of fashion about "staycations", of course. In a recession, it just feels wrong to be jetting off to Sardinia or St Tropez, which was just coming back into vogue before the downturn, or anywhere to which you can sail on a yacht (think Peter Mandelson) - 17th August
 * out for the fertility time bomb'' - Prof Bil Ledger's call for a fertility MOT for women at the age of 30 should be heeded - 10th August
 * because they're women, doesn't mean they're any good'' - If the women are good, I’m with them; if they’re not, I’m not - 3rd August
 * the ugly truth of war be Harry Patch's gift to us'' - We can still get a living take on the Second World War so get out there and badger them for stories - 27th July
 * there will be brothers and sisters again in China'' - The authorities in Shanghai have declared that "eligible couples" – viz, two only-children – will be allowed, indeed, encouraged, to have a second child - 26th July
 * on a Sunday ride roughshod over sensibilities'' - Sunday sailings on the Isle of Lewis show the intolerance of our times - 20th July
 * Brown, just like her friend Michelle Obama, is not elected'' - Why do we elevate the wives of world leaders - 13th July
 * revelations are embarrassing but hardly a security breach'' - The wife of Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, has discovered the self-revelatory fun of the internet - 6th July
 * hospital, you can't farm out religion as if it were catering'' - A doctor is to ask the BMA this week to confirm that health professionals have the right to discuss spiritual matters with patients - 29th June
 * pagans aren't a patch on pagans of the past'' - Modern pagans have got the wrong day and should be celebrating tomorrow on Midsummer Eve - 22nd June
 * Simply send the embryo back'' - The law treats embryos as commodities, not as people - 15th June
 * men are now the underdog sex'' - Why are we so surprised that more girls than boys are going to university - 8th June
 * refuseniks are getting a free ride'' - Unvaccinated children should not be admitted to state schools - 5th June
 * least Natasha could trust man's best friends'' - It is possible that dogs and cats felt some kind of sympathy for an abandoned child - 29th May
 * meanie justifies the 'envy''' - The great thinkers would be unimpressed by Anthony Steen's claim that we are jealous of his large house - 24th May
 * still believe in Sherlock Holmes, even in the age of DNA'' - 150 years after his birth, Conan Doyle lives on in his greatest creation - 22nd May
 * Day, May Day – give us another day off'' - Why is Britain so stingy with its public holidays - 4th May
 * three friends? Poor sod'' - can friendship can be categorised? - 1st May
 * sites that the greens tend to ignore'' - Our declining orchards ought to be a hot issue and it's time to make them blossom again - 24th April
 * country is exhausted with Labour, but help is on the way'' - This government has passed the point beyond which it has anything much to offer - 24th April
 * worrying and do something useful'' - If Britain really is in the grip of an anxiety epidemic, the solution is in our hands says - 13th April
 * the long fast, it’s time for food, glorious food'' - The really odd thing about the food traditions of Easter is that they don't include fish – Good Friday fasting apart, which for Roman Catholics and Orthodox, used to mean compulsory fish - 11th April
 * is a wonderful holiday destination if only you look'' - More people will holiday at home this year - but in general we don't appreciate our country - 10th April
 * have a sister? Then adopt one fast'' - The benefits of girl siblings are obvious - 3rd April 2009
 * up doc? Your assessment, for a start'' - Patients are to be given the chance to rate their GPs. That's fine by me - 2nd April
 * belief in climate change all in the mind or a fact of life?'' - Anyone who takes the view that environmentalism is a quasi-religion can feel vindicated by the case of Tom Nicholson - 20th March
 * bluffing about books is a civilised art'' - Lying and cheating are not normally admirable traits, but I'd make an exception in the case of literature - 6th March
 * death of handwriting impoverishes us'' - It is the most significant development since the working class stopped putting crosses instead of signatures, and I'd say it's a dehumanising trend - 27th February 2009
 * fun? Melanie McDonagh on the pros and cons of abstaining from food'' - A Roman Catholic journalist finds the Lenten fast a mixed blessing - 25th February
 * universities are in a first-class mess'' - There are too many dud degrees being awarded to dud students - 29th January
 * kind to your children - get rid of the TV'' - Big companies need to be stopped from targeting ever younger consumers - 22nd January
 * Dati has rejected all the pieties of giving birth'' - There is a lot to be said for the French Justice Minister's style of motherhood - 9th January



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