The story of Joan Ruddock, born in the Welsh valleys, who came to lead one of Britain’s biggest protest movements, and went on to address the United Nations and become an MP and minister, is a remarkable one.
Radical university politics led Joan 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.
- ISBN13 9781785900389
- Publish Date 14 April 2016
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Biteback Publishing
- Format eBook
- Language English