Alice Thomson

Profile: Full name: Alice Thomson Area of interest: Politics Journals/Organisation: The Times Email: alice.thomson@thetimes.co.uk Personal website: Website: www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Alice-Thomson | www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alicethomson Blog: Representation: Capel and Land Networks:

Biography: About: Alice Thomson is an Associate Editor of The Times and author of THE SINGING LINE, in which she retraces the steps of her great-grandfather who constructed the first trans-Australian telegraph cable Education: Studied journalism at London's City Polytechnic Career: The Times: trainee then foreign correspondent, feature writer and political correspondent. Moved to The Telegraph in 1997 as columnist, leader writer, also restaurant reviews and political interviews. Re-joined The Times in 2008 as political columnist Current position/role: Political columnist, Interviewer (usually with Rachel Sylvester) Other roles/Main role: Author Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: Broadcast media: Video: BBC Redio 4 - Woman's hour: Alice Thomson and Polly Toynbee assess Tony Blair’s legacy for women (audio), May 2007 Controversy/Criticism: Iain Dale's Diary: Cristina Odone & Alice Thomson in Catfight, February 2006 Awards/Honours: Scoops: Other: Married to journalist Edward Heathcoat-Amory; Great-great-granddaughter of Alice and Charles Todd - see South Australian History

Books & Debate: The Singing Line (New York: Doubleday, 1999) 42397204 OCLC Latest work: Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

The Times Column name: Remit/Info: Section: Role: Columnist Pen-name: Email: alice.thomson@thetimes.co.uk Website: www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Alice-Thomson Commissioning editor: Day published: Wednesday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length:

Articles: 2011 Is our educational Berlin Wall crumbling? - There are signs that the damaging divide between state and private schools may be closing - 5th October 2011 Send developers into towns, not the country - The new planning laws threaten to suck the life out of our ailing urban centres - 28th September Now Scots have turned into rays of sunshine - Are they happier north of the Border because there are no super-rich lording it over them? - 21st September The rich should moan less and give a bit more - Europe’s wealthy are pleading to pay more tax. Why aren’t Britons doing the same? - 14th September Search for common ground, not a battlefield - Conservatives should stand for the countryside and new homes. They’re not incompatible - 7th September The looting continues – in the countryside - Pylons, wind farms and new builds may generate growth for the coalition but will cost it dearly in votes - 31st August Good parenting starts in school, not at home - Support the best teachers and they will give us the mothers and fathers that we need - 17th August Norway makes prison work – even for Breivik - The Utøya killer’s jail might sound soft, but reoffending is far lower than in Britain - 27th July No more Mr Nasty Guy – or we’ll fire you - The press, police, MPs and bankers won’t regain our trust unless they learn to be nice - 20th July Jail the old and put prisoners in a care home - The elderly are getting restive about their place in society. The coalition should take heed - 13th July Q: Who’s ahead of the game and never U-turns? - A: The Prince of Wales. Everyone is on his back, but his value is hugely underestimated - 6th July Question: What happens if you scrap testing? - Answer: Grades drop, as Wales found to its cost. England mustn’t make the same mistake - 29th June Sans eyes, sans teeth, sans hope of decent care - Reports of abysmal treatment of the elderly are stacking up, so why is there no action? - 22nd June Take this test to find out if you’re a Tory - When teachers and doctors ballot to strike over their pensions, how do you react? - 15th June Anxious mum syndrome stifles a generation - Josephine Hart and Margaret Thatcher were great role models. Where are their like today? - 8th June Jailing so many mothers is a crime in itself - Most female offenders are not violent and locking them up makes their children suffer - 1st June Image isn’t the problem, Ken. Your policies are - The Justice Secretary is right about rape. But he’s wrong about cutting jail sentences - 25th May Only cuts can save the international aid budget - In an era of savings DfID cannot be allowed to avoid the scrutiny that others have faced - 18th May Meet Alex Salmond, next year’s Nick Clegg - The SNP leader is riding high, but independence might mean this is as good as it gets - 11th May We need teachers who are in a different class - It’s quality in the classroom that will improve education, not tinkering with structures - 27th April Drop the flow charts and start mopping brows - When I spent time in hospital with my sick child I learnt that only quality of care matters - 20th April Vince’s mansion tax hits the heart of England - The Business Secretary just doesn’t understand our lifelong obsession with property - 30th March It’s a crime to think Midsomer is rural reality - Forget cream teas and cress sandwiches. In the countryside they’re on the breadline - 16th March Go North West, young man, for NHS reform - Doctors in Cumbria will show No 10’s media man how to convince a reluctant public - 9th March We’ve disabled a generation through kindness - Mollycoddled children have learnt at last that being indulged doesn’t make them happy - 2nd March Women, don’t be a Sarah or a Jacqui. Believe in yourself - Women are good at business. Businesses want women. So why so few female directors? - 23rd February To succeed at 18, children need inspiration at 11 - Throwing underqualified pupils into university won’t do. They need help to map their futures - 9th February Don’t sneer at ‘part-time’. It’s our salvation - Germany thrives on flexible working. We can too if we manage to bury our prejudices - 2nd February No, fathers have it easier and mothers suffer - The modern pressures on women with families are becoming intolerable - 26th January It’s the strikers and cheats who must wake up - Forget your Alarm Clock Heroes, Mr Clegg. It is not work that divides goodies from baddies - 12th January How to avoid the hated VAT rise: don’t shop - By concentrating on life’s essentials, we can make our homes zero-rated zones - 5th January

Articles: 2010 Curtain up on the battle of the generations - Alas, poor students, say the over-45s. But tuition fee fury could be just the beginning - 15th December A Victorian lesson in climbing the ladder - We should focus on schools, not parents, if we want to make Britain socially mobile - 8th December Small businesses: a rescue remedy for Britain - With only a bit of help from government, little companies could turn this country round - 1st December Age has not wearied the Tory elder statesmen - Lord Young is condemned but the coalition needs a generation that knows its way around - 24th November After Downton, a new soap opera – Middleton - The royal engagement is the Boden breakthrough, a middle-class fairytale at long last - 17th November The mentally ill deserve a new kind of asylum - Prison is the wrong place for the vulnerable. But care in the community doesn’t help either - 10th November Our prejudice against adoption hurts children - Race isn’t the only hurdle that stops us matching vulnerable infants with desperate families - 3rd November This is easy. When jobs go there’ll be real anger - The Tories must worry about the middle classes who have more to lose than pocket money - 6th October Cowabunga! Here’s compensation for the cuts - There’s pain ahead. But freeing people from petty rules would be popular – and cheap - 29th September Support honest toilers, not the prodigal sons - Patronise the middle classes if you must. But don’t equate them with spongers and criminals - 22nd September We need technicians, not middle managers - A more practical school system could help children currently labelled as having special needs - 15th September Lib Dem dreams of power turn to a nightmare - As their party conference approaches, there is no upside for the junior coalition partners - 8th September Sex is so last century. Give us money instead - The public are less interested in MPs’ extramarital affairs than in their financial ones - 2nd September Parties must abandon the sordid dash for cash - Put away the begging bowls: MPs waste too much time sucking up to rich donors - 25th August Touch of magic that could cut the benefits bill - Slashing payments won’t work. The unemployed need fairy jobmothers to turn their lives round - 18th August Don’t overpay gifted teachers. Pay off the duds - Before a new generation of educators can be inspired, the bed-blockers must go - 14th July Stop sticking the vulnerable in holding pens - Violent criminals are freed after half their sentences and the wrong people stay in jail - 7th July How to cut benefit costs – offer the sick a job - People on invalidity allowance will struggle to find work unless employers get an incentive - 2nd July A bit of austerity will do our children good - Parents may suffer in hard times but youngsters can learn about self-reliance and freedom Too many forms to fill in? Welcome to our world, MPs - We’ve put up with bureaucracy and incompetence for years. And Hon Members whinge when they’re £100 short - 16th June Thanks, immigrants, but times have changed - The Age of Austerity means Britain will have to harden its attitude to foreign labour - 9th June We’re all scroungers – and it can’t carry on - The deficit will never be slashed unless everyone stops demanding perks from the State - 2nd June Hammered: the savers who did the right thing - Capital gains tax doesn’t hit the super-rich, it hurts the backbone of Tory support - 26th May Let’s take the tarpaulin off the House of Lords - Blair left the Upper House looking like a building site. A short-term fix won’t finish the job - 19th May My tale of the naked and the not-dead-yet - Election fever has a flavour all of its own away far away from the media glare and the three big barking dogs - 7th May (with Austin Mitchell) The hard-working poor deserve better - Gordon Brown can comfort Tiara but in 13 years he has done precious little for her mother - 5th May The rural vote is being left to rot - Wake up and smell the bluebells – the countryside is just as important as the town - 28th April X Factor-style democracy has banished apathy - Simon Cowell has taught a new generation about politics - 21st April Did anyone see what’s happened to crime? - Tony Blair was elected to be tough on it. But now the public has lost faith in the police - 14th April NHS workers need thanks, not English lessons - Foreign health service staff provide the kind of care that Britons think beneath them - 7th April Running the country shouldn’t be child’s play - Do we really want sleep-deprived parents taking decisions that affect 60 million of us? - 25th March We mustn’t divorce ourselves from marriage - Scared politicians shy away from promoting it, but this special institution endures - 17th March Cameron must listen to Rooster and wake up - The antihero of the play Jerusalem stands for all we loathe about interfering politicians - 3rd March More sex education please, we’re British - We have the highest rate of STDs and abortions for under 21s in Europe. We need to talk about it - 24th February Cherie Blair is the very model of a modern baroness - Ignore the inevitable protests – Mrs Blair understands the lot of modern women and would be a great asset to the Lords - 10th February Failing out-of-hours care almost killed my baby - In parts of the country one doctor is responsible for 300,000 people at night. I know just how dangerous that can be - 3rd February In a burka you’re cutting me off as well as you - A ban would go too far, but covering the face makes normal human contact impossible. It is not right for 21st-century life - 27th January Labour has no cure for its binge hangover - Blair wooed young voters with liberal drinking laws. Now Brown is failing to clear up the mess - 20th January Freeze out the elderly: is this official policy? - Party leaders flaunt their vote-winning child-friendly credentials, but ignore those at the other end of the spectrum - 13th January Avatar, not Ed, will make the case on climate - James Cameron’s blockbuster will persuade far more people to go green than all the hot air pumped out in Copenhagen - 6th January

Articles: 2009 A toxic childhood won’t be cured in school - The Schools Secretary is appalled at the materialism of our children. He should blame the parents, who can always say no - 18th December I don’t care about BA strikes - It’s the embarrassment of it being our national airline that hurts - 15th December Royal Institution doesn’t like scientists anymore - The people the RI think will push the boundaries in the 21st century are managers — people who are hot at fundraising - 9th December Class warrior ready for one last battle - Brown is preparing to paint the Tories as friends of the rich. But his tactics are an admission of defeat - 2nd December Bankers think it’s all over. Time to think again - Financiers think they are indispensable to Britain. But times have changed. They face opposition at home and abroad - 25th November Wanted: female candidate, pretty, no opinions - We are the EU and half our voters are female, we’re proud of our equality laws - 18th November I was wrong to sneer. The lottery is a winner - We haven’t gone to hell in a handcart. We’re all richer for the billions spent on good causes, and there’s no harm in dreaming . . . - 16th November Buggies: infuriating and dangerous - I am lucky that my children are not all digitally challenged - 11th November This is about the Tories taking power - David Cameron’s all-female shortlists are a way to boost the Conservative Party talent pool - 22nd October MPs are taken to the cleaners - Two opposing views on the expenses scandal that has left Westminster in chaos on its first days back - 14th October (with Austin Mitchell) Potassium in water? I lost an eyebrow - Why are we trying to stop explosions in school labs? They’re the best way to learn science - 6th October Sarah Brown’s terrible mistake - A woman’s place is not two steps behind her man - 30th September Hard lessons still unlearnt a year on - The City is back in the money and thinks it is saving the nation. It must not be allowed to forget - 25th September The dinner lady was right - The guidelines that led to her removal are ridiculous - 23rd September Why X Factor could decide the next election - Forget manufactured focus groups, the parties believe that the talent show is a better guide to what voters like and dislike - 5th September Marrowgate shows true country grit - Sabotage in agricultural shows? Why, it’s a tradition - 2nd September Teach girls to be lawyers and mothers - The idea that women don't aim high is outdated. As one terrible tragedy has shown, balance is all - 30th July Australia's not all about surf and sun - It’s fantastic that a schoolboy decided that he’d had enough of bars and headed into the Blue Mountains - 16th July Tutors steal children’s time and our money - We mustn’t institutionalise a middle-class obsession - 1st July You can't win by banning competition - Children love competing. Merging good and bad schools means no one can fail - or come top - 25th June Meddling Prince is right to speak out - The Royal Family is at its best when it is protecting our heritage and championing causes - 17th June Naked truth doesn't always make things clear - We watch fascinated as bankers, MPs and even poets are stripped before us. But we are losing sight of the bigger picture - 27th May The romance of railway travel is well and truly over - Never mind the fat controller, our trains are now run by the thin accountant - 25th May Blame the MPs, not the spouses - Being married to an MP is an awful role, even without the expenses scandal. Imagine the drudgery and the humiliations... - 15th May Joanna Lumley can even make the Lib Dems look sexy - Good old Patsy. Hurrah for Purdey. A heroine for Britain - 1st May After a year of no shopping, women are back - Michelle Obama led the way. Now ASOS sales have doubled - 28th April Enemy of the people? No, Tesco is a hero - Low prices, good products, staff that chat to the customers. Why knock this superstore success? - 22nd April Behind every great woman, is a prince - Our longest-serving consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, is one of the great male ‘professional wives’ - 15th April The recession has stolen our smiles - As families struggle with bills, the rot has set in with fewer dental visits and more extractions - 13th April Children click before they can think - IT communication for anyone under 18 is instinctive. They don't have to be taught - 26th March It's not against the rules... everyone does it - MPs who abuse allowances turn people off politics - 24th March Those who work and those who won't - Blaming immigrants for unemployment misses the point: the problem is people who are bone idle - 20th March Let's talk about the credit crunch, baby - Many parents shield their young ones from financial reality, but children can handle hardship and it can be fun too - 10th March Why wise men and women are absent - We urge every child to go to university, but hope none will stay. We have a peculiarly negative attitude to academic success - 9th March Made in the South but felt in the North - Everyone talks about a middle-class recession, but bankers are still doing very nicely thank you - 22nd January

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