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Articles by Dawn Foster
Dawn Foster: a voice from the sharp end
Dawn Foster, who died suddenly at home in July, was so much more than a talented journalist. Raised in Newport, Wales, she was the rarest of public figures – a high-profile, working-class voice in Britain’s media landscape.
Speaking at Open Source Conferences: Benefits and Barriers
Description of icon when needed 5 Min Read Public speaking isn’t something that came naturally to me. Early in my career, I was absolutely terrified of speaking in front of other people, even in internal company meetings. But I knew that success would be out of reach if I didn’t get over my fears, so I started accepting every internal opportunity to speak or give presentations that I could find. My career really started taking off in 2006 and 2007 when I started blogging and speaking at events.
Review - I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs and apocalypse communism by A M Gittlitz
The X-Files, like many long-running shows, thrives on contrasts: the grounded medical doctor Dana Scully drafted in to constrain and tail her alien-fixated, conspiracy-obsessed FBI colleague Fox Mulder being the most obvious.
Boris Johnson’s Brexit will destroy peace in Ireland
Posted Tuesday 22nd September 2020 / Text By Dawn Foster Photography © Theo McInnes The PM‘s proposal to breach international law over Brexit threatens the very foundations of peace in Ireland writes Dawn Foster. Despite compromises made to quell backbench rebellion, the prime minister‘s proposal to breach international law over Brexit threatens the very foundations of peace in Ireland, writes Dawn Foster.
The Coronavirus crisis is exposing this government’s ineptitude
Posted Monday 16th March 2020 / Text By Dawn Foster Science is complex, but it is the government’s role to convey the information the public need in a manner that is understandable. So why aren’t they doing that? Science is complex, but it is the government’s role to convey the information the public need in a manner that is understandable. So why aren’t they doing that?
Jess Phillips: woman of the people, or just out for herself?
Posted Monday 20th January 2020 / Text By Dawn Foster The Labour leadership candidate markets herself as a bold and refreshing outsider, when in fact she embodies the status quo. The Labour leadership candidate markets herself as a bold and refreshing outsider, when in fact she embodies the status quo. If people insist in a self-congratulatory manner that “they just speak their mind”, it generally means that they are simply rude rather than plainly honest about their political opinions.
If Labour wants real change, it should elect a woman leader
Posted Thursday 9th January 2020 / Text By Dawn Foster Photography © Theo McInnes The PLP’s apparent decision to throw their weight behind a London-based male candidate feels dispiriting, if not surprising. Haven’t we been here before? The PLP’s apparent decision to throw their weight behind a London-based male candidate feels dispiriting, if not surprising. Haven’t we been here before?
The great myth of the British working class
Posted Tuesday 17th December 2019 / Text By Dawn Foster Treating the working class as homogenous, white, and uniquely motivated by very specific political ideologies is damaging, writes Dawn Foster. Treating the working class as homogenous, white, and uniquely motivated by very specific political ideologies is damaging, writes Dawn Foster. A few days after the election, the opportunists and remonstrators are in full flow.
Five easy ways to convince your nan and grandad to vote Labour
Posted Wednesday 7th June 2017 / Text By Dawn Foster When polls open, it's older voters - your nan and grandad - who'll vote Tory. So pick up the phone and call them, you might just change their mind. There’s a generational divide that has characterised this election: young people are turning up for Labour while the Tories are still the favourites with over 65s. If we have a chance of voting in a progressive government, that needs to change.
Coats out, votes out: how to survive the final push
Posted Friday 6th December 2019 / Text By Dawn Foster Photography © Theo McInnes With just days left to change the country, writer Dawn Foster shares her tips on making a difference (and looking good while doing it). With just days left to change the country, writer Dawn Foster shares her tips on making a difference (and looking good while doing it).
PRESCHOOL STORYTIME AT PORTAGE PUBLIC LIBRARY
On Oct. 16, Preschool Story Time at Portage Public Library featured "B for Backyard Bugs" but it could have been a "B for Boys" story time as all of the toddlers were boys. Pictured, from left, Stetson Wendt, 1, his mom Grace Wendt; along with friends Zane Schultz, 5; Mason Kohl, 3; Zeke Schultz, 3; mom Brittany Schultz and Zechariah Schultz, 1. There were books, songs, movement activities and a craft that had preschoolers turning shapes into the letter b and a ladybug.
All hail Coleen Rooney, the hero we need right now
Posted Wednesday 9th October 2019 / Text By Dawn Foster The slog of Brexit is too much to bear. A literary mystery with explosive consequences is the perfect tonic for these dark times – and we scarcely deserve Rooney’s work. The slog of Brexit is too much to bear. A literary mystery with explosive consequences is the perfect tonic for these dark times – and we scarcely deserve Rooney’s work. An unlikely national hero has emerged in famed footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney.
Why men are experts and women are confessional
Posted Thursday 12th September 2019 / Text By Dawn Foster Photography © Instagram / @carolinecalloway The Caroline Calloway story shows that young women are being forced to plunder their personal lives for content. It’s time we broke the pattern, argues Dawn Foster. The Caroline Calloway story shows that young women are being forced to plunder their personal lives for content. It’s time we broke the pattern, argues Dawn Foster. Where are the Yale plates?
The duel: is praying a waste of time?
Yes—Oliver Kamm: Religious liberty is precious. That much, I expect, is common ground between us. But this Jeffersonian principle shouldn’t prevent us from making moral judgments about different ways of living. Between prayer and a life of intemperate hedonism, I’ll always choose the latter. If you want to pray I’m not going to stop you, but I won’t respect your choice or the religious convictions that guide it.
Those living with disabilities face discrimination every day – we must be more vigilant
Posted Monday 5th August 2019 / Text By Dawn Foster Living with a chronic illness, Dawn Foster has seen first-hand how society discriminates against disabled people. She still faces prejudice on a regular basis. Living with a chronic illness, Dawn Foster has seen first-hand how society discriminates against disabled people. Despite arguing against it endlessly, she still faces prejudice on a regular basis. For a week now, I haven’t been home.
Opinion | Jeremy Hunt and the art of failing upward
Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, in London on Wednesday. (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg News) July 11 at 3:26 PM Dawn Foster is a staff writer for Jacobin magazine and columnist for the Guardian newspaper. Britain’s Conservative Party may not struggle with poverty of ambition amid the ranks of its elected Westminster politicians, but it has an absolute famine of talent.
Ostatni premier Zjednoczonego Królestwa
Boris Johnson. Fot. lbc.co.uk / Ed. KP 27 czerwca 201927 czerwca 2019 – Jest wielce prawdopodobne, że Boris Johnson zostanie nowym premierem Zjednoczonego Królestwa. Jeśli tak się stanie, to może być także ostatnim – pisze Dawn Foster. Po serii klęsk i upokorzeń podczas głosowań nad umową brexitową, w niesławie odchodzi ze stanowiska premierka Theresa May. Jej następca będzie miał tylko jedno zadanie – znaleźć konsensus w parlamencie i doprowadzić Brexit do końca.
Preschool Story Time signup to begin
Ekow Ampeh, the 3-year-old son of Jessica Malsack and Mustapha Ampeh of Portage, shows off the rainbow fish artwork he created at an April 30 Preschool Story Time at the Portage Public Library. The summer session begins at 9:30 a.m. June 12. Registration for the summer "Space Academy" story time begins on June 5. For more information, call 742-4959 ext. 211.
Jeremy Hardy (1961-2019)
Jeremy Hardy’s best quality was simply this: he was incredibly rude. That might seem an odd personality trait to pick, more so to consider it a positive one. He was also obscenely kind and warm-hearted, behaving with incredible charity and love to both people he knew and strangers, never showing off and barely mentioning any of the big acts of charity and mercy he was involved in or responsible for.
Governance by Finance
“Every crisis is an opportunity.” That slogan is often invoked in times of economic distress, and Europe is no exception — especially the eurozone, where ruling politicians and economic elites saw the post-2008 crisis as a chance to further entrench two neoliberal nostrums into economic policy: the belief that public deficit spending can only do harm, […]
Not a Black Friday Sale
It’s “Black Friday.” After spending a day eating leftovers and arguing politics with relatives, it’s time to shop till you drop and watch a CNBC Shark Tank marathon. Guy Rundle has a great essay in Jacobin on the origins and meaning of the day. In a society where profit is valued above all, it’s no wonder the wholesome veneer of Thanksgiving is collapsing under the pressure to exploit workers and reduce life to ridiculous spectacles of consumption. Of course, Jacobin isn’t an austerian publication.
The Midterms’ Winners, Losers, and Double-Losers
Our new issue hits the printer this week. Subscriptions are $10 off today if you follow this link . In the throes of an identity crisis and scrambling to recover ground lost in 2016, Democrats tried a wide array of tactics in this year’s midterm elections. Some tacked left, others tacked right. Both strategies yielded mixed results.
A letter to the men who abuse me online
Each morning, upon waking, I grind some coffee beans; fill a cafetiere; turn on the digital radio and feed the cat mewling and wrapping himself around my ankles. I pour a cup of coffee and open my email inbox, skim-reading a dozen or so messages telling me that I am a barely literate affront to humanity, that I should be raped and they’d be happy to do so, that I should stop writing, and violence might be the impetus needed to bring about that endgame.
The fundamental problem with ‘free speech’ & the UK media
It’s been a summer of extremes: of temperature and weather, as we see the effects of climate change in undeniable daily evidence, but also of political extremes, with the further polarisation of global politics.
Is this finally the end for Boris Johnson?
In the midst of the alternating pomp and protest of Donald Trump’s visit to Britain recently, a fair amount of speculation floated about that the president planned to meet Boris Johnson, the mop-haired dilettante, erstwhile Foreign Secretary, and permanent political asbestos. In a wide-ranging interview with The Sun, Trump praised Johnson, stating he believed he’d be a fantastic leader.
Trans women are women: Labour is on the right side of history
You reach crunch points in fights for progress: the repressive foes don’t fall immediately, but small flashpoints later reveal themselves as the torches that lit the path forward. The fight for trans rights is one such fight currently being played out culturally in Britain, and the fact that the Labour party has ruled that trans women can stand on all women shortlists is one small stroke of victory.
So what if millennials are having less sex than their parents?
Life is a daily living hell, and that’s why the fates have combined to give the media their ideal brain-numbing story, combining two surefire headline grabbers: sex and millennials. Millennials – those dreadful creatures born between the late ’80s and millennium – are both losing their virginity later than their parents, and then just not having sex as often.
So what if millennials are having less sex than their parents?
Posted Thursday 10th May 2018 / Text By Dawn Foster Recent research has shown that people born between the late ’80s and millennium are losing their virginity later than ever, as well as having less sex than previous generations. Given the rocketing rents and anxiety-inducing work hours, is anyone really surprised? Recent research has shown that people born between the late ’80s and millennium are losing their virginity later than ever, and having less sex than previous generations.
We're failing to hold the British media to account
You might have missed the small story at the bottom of the front page of The Times on Wednesday. With good reason: it’s placement, prominence and size was very different to the story it corrected, that spanned at least four front pages.
To tackle bigotry, Labour won’t take lessons from the right
It will be a comfort to any readers who oppose racism, to learn from conservative commentator and researcher Andrew Lilico that “racism isn’t “prevalent” anywhere on the UK mainstream political spectrum, left or right, except amongst Corbynistas”, the very concept of of political correctness being invented in the 1990s to deal with problems Labour experienced, while the Conservatives had no such issues and no need to engage with such ideas.
It's the Tories, not Corbyn, playing a dangerous game with Russia
It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely when the political news cycle slipped from a broadly stable drama to an outlandish melding of farcical comedy and sheer horror: perhaps with the advent of the rumours about David Cameron’s carnal history with a decapitated pig. The news carnival was firmly embedded in 2016, as the media and most politicians struggled to grapple with the result of the EU referendum and Donald Trump’s electoral victory.
Jeremy Corbyn is right to take on the tabloid press
Within minutes of the Labour Party releasing a short video of Jeremy Corbyn criticising the ongoing media circus around the baseless allegations that the party leader had been involved in Soviet spying during the Cold War, the media hysteria kicked in. That Corbyn pointed out social media proffered a direct challenge to media supremacy meant “change is coming” was not an observation that the balance of power away from media oligopolies and towards the demos, but a ‘threat’ to press freedom.
Why do political dynasties still dominate progressive parties?
Following American politics in the Trump era remains a constant drudgery of bizarre, ranting tweets, endless falsehoods flying out of the White House and political decisions that will transparently turn out to be calamitous for the majority of ordinary people. So no surprise that the media rush towards any shaft of light they spot in the hope that some new development can challenge Trump while the Democratic Party are struggling.
What it's like to live with epilepsy
An odd thing happened, when I was a child. Then it kept happening. At the end of the school day, from the age of four onwards, I’d sometimes notice as I sat cross-legged that everything around me, the teacher, the furniture, my fellow pupils had all changed size entirely. One day my surroundings would suddenly shift and tower above me, then a few days later I would find my own hands had grown to be the size of a car, while everything else in the classroom had shrunk.
What it's like to live with epilepsy
Posted Wednesday 24th January 2018 / Text By Dawn Foster Despite the seizures and episodes as a child, it took years for Dawn Foster's epilepsy to be diagnosed. Here she writes about life with a condition few people understand. Despite the seizures and episodes as a child, it took years for Dawn Foster's epilepsy to be properly diagnosed. Here she writes about life with a condition few people understand. An odd thing happened, when I was a child. Then it kept happening.
How a 700-year-old invention could change billions of lives-and unlock $3 trillion worldwide
In politics, it is incredibly rare to come across a simple, genuinely affordable, solution to a systemic problem. Particularly one that could benefit nearly a third of the world’s population. It is rarer still to find that this solution has the power to expand access to education across the globe, to increase productivity in developing countries and to help redress gender inequality.
Now more than ever, Britain needs to change the way it treats its homeless
It’s early in 2018, yet it seems one trend is already taking hold in Windsor: the bold return of feudalism. Any wedding involves mind-melding amounts of preparation, but only a royal wedding could demand the clearing of homeless people from the streets to avoid the glances of the massed crowds landing on a huddled rough sleeper.
This year I learnt... Despite the odds, Labour looks like a government in waiting
The big lesson of 2017 in politics is not so much that ‘nobody’s an expert any more’, but that politicians and much of the establishment have extremely limited parameters of prediction. For as long as I can remember, pundits and politicians have snootily scoffed at the idea that things could change unexpectedly – there was a certain formula within politics, and outliers and underdogs never won.
Is this game over for the British government?
In a Westminster pub a month before the country went to the polls to vote on Britain’s future membership of the EU, I asked a civil servant I knew what the government were planning to do about the Irish border in the event of the Leave campaign winning the referendum. The look on his face suggested I’d asked whether the prime minister was planning to confer human rights for all domestic pets. “Nothing!” he laughed. “Because it’s not going to happen.” But it did.
Ignore the Tories, today's budget offers nothing to young people
Try to calm yourself – it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Not Christmas, but the all-singing, all-dancing first ever Autumn Budget – replacing the traditional Spring Budget and Autumn statement, rolling the two financial announcements from the Chancellor of the Exchequer into one. In the days leading up to the budget, the Tories were briefing heavily on what might be included the statement, particularly for young people.
The bigoted British media is actively endangering trans people
In its idealised form, journalism is a courageous means by which to topple the powerful and expose injustice.
The bigoted British media is actively endangering trans people
Posted Saturday 11th November 2017 / Text By Dawn Foster Journalists obsessed with attacking the trans community are placing vulnerable people in danger and turning our media toxic, writes Dawn Foster. In todays Times Janice Turner penned a transphobic column, painting transgender people as predators and a threat to our children. Some journalists are obsessed with attacking the trans community, placing vulnerable people in danger while turning our media toxic, writes Dawn Foster.
How walking became a radical act of defiance
It’s a year to the day since millions of us woke up to the shock news that Donald Trump had won the United States presidential election, upending expectations from pollsters, the media and experts alike. Only four and a half months previously, Britain had voted to leave the European Union, confounding most opinion polls similarly. The news cycle since has been an endurance test: natural disasters and regular terror attacks, mass shootings and political upsets around the globe.
Populist Billionaires
Over the past few years, the liberal-left has looked on in horror at the rise of various populist right-wing movements creeping up around Europe and the United States. French National Front leader Marine Le Pen was one of the two finalists to become France’s next president. Islamophobe Geert Wilders at one point looked to be headed towards an unprecedentedly large share of the vote in the Netherlands. The United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the European Union.
Love is (still) a battlefield
In spite of the promises of apps such as Tinder and Happn, your chances of romance are likely to be determined by location and money A few months ago at a party, a guest confided in me, phone in hand, that the biggest change she’d seen in London since moving to a remote Scottish island was not sudden sprouting of skyscrapers and tower blocks. Instead it was her appreciation of the romantic possibilities.
Exclusive: Johann Hari apologises for Wikipedia sockpuppeting of Nick Cohen and Francis Wheen
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Hari, who is currently promoting Chasing The Scream, his new book on the war on drugs, made his offer in an interview for littleatoms.com. He admitted to Little Atoms' Neil Denny: “I did two things that were really awful things to do; one was when I interviewed people sometimes I would use material they had spoken elsewhere or written down and acted as if it had been said directly to me.
By Andrew Mueller Verified, Clare Dowdy Verified, Brendan Maton, Dawn Foster, Cristina Marconi Verified
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Little Atoms
Everything that’s wrong with housing (and how to fix it)
On the first, second and even third viewing, a short promotional video by property developers Redrow looks to be a clumsy spoof. A voiceover narrates the inner monologue of a tired, grumpy looking man in his 30s, bemoaning the hardship of life in London. A Nokia 5510, a model discontinued in 2001, appears on his desk, his bedside table, in his hand as a sign of his sacrifices.
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