Overview

Radical university politics led Joan Ruddock to abandon her PhD in genetics and take a job with Shelter. A life of campaigns and causes followed, as her personal commitment to equality and feminism deepened. An attempt at a more conventional life was derailed when Joan set up a local campaign against cruise missiles at Greenham Common. Her subsequent role as chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament brought both adulation and derision, surveillance by MI5, and a government attempt to get her sacked from her day job as a Citizen's Advice Bureau manager. After her election to the Commons in 1987, Joan held three consecutive shadow portfolios and, by 1997, was thought to be on the fast track to high office. Why, then, did Blair pass her over in his first round of appointments, leaving her 'going nowhere'? Clawing her way back, Joan was appointed a minister for women. With Harriet Harman, she pushed through a radical agenda, getting sacked for her pains a year later. Undaunted, she ran high-profile back-bench campaigns, from opposition to GMOs, championing Afghan women's rights and changing the hours of the Commons.Going Nowhere charts the course of a public and political career from early radicalism and success, through personal tragedy, to significant ministerial office and an ultimate return to the freedom of life on the back benches.

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9781849549974

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"""This is the memoir of a pioneer. A committed feminist at a time when women's lives were to change out of all recognition, Joan was a champion of the women's movement during her twenty-eight years in Parliament and a passionate environmentalist when the concept was scarcely recognised. Future generations who read this memoir will learn a great deal about how to make progressive change."" - Harriet Harman; ""From Pontypool to Privy Council, Joan Ruddock has proved to be bright, brave, determined, principled - and modest. All of that shines through in this perceptive, candid chronicle of her life and our times."" - Neil Kinnock"

This is the memoir of a pioneer. A committed feminist at a time when women's lives were to change out of all recognition, Joan was a champion of the women's movement during her twenty-eight years in Parliament and a passionate environmentalist when the concept was scarcely recognised. Future generations who read this memoir will learn a great deal about how to make progressive change. - Harriet Harman; From Pontypool to Privy Council, Joan Ruddock has proved to be bright, brave, determined, principled - and modest. All of that shines through in this perceptive, candid chronicle of her life and our times. - Neil Kinnock

Author Information

Dame Joan Ruddock was the Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. She won her seat in Parliament after many years as an equalities and anti-poverty campaigner, having already gained national prominence as chairperson of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the early 1980s.

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