Melanie Phillips (born June 4, 1951) is a British columnist and author. Her articles appear mainly in the Daily Mail newspaper and focus on political and social issues. She has previously written for The Guardian and other publications. Phillips is a regular panelist on the BBC Radio 4 programme, The Moral Maze and on BBC One's Question Time. is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A columnist is a journalist who produces a specific form of writing for publication called a column. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and the Internet. ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ... old Radio 4 logo BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... The Moral Maze is a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 in which four regular panelists discuss moral and ethical issues relating to a recent news story. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 1. ... Question Time is a topical debate television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. It is currently shown on BBC One at 22:35 on Thursdays, and typically features politicians from the three major political parties and other public figures who answer questions put to them by the...

Personal life, education, and career

Phillips was born into a Jewish family and educated at Putney High School, a girls' independent school in Putney, London, and later read English at St Anne's College, Oxford, before training as a journalist on the Evening Echo, a local newspaper in Hemel Hempstead, England.^{[citation needed]} After a short period at the New Society magazine, she joined The Guardian newspaper in 1977 and soon became its social services correspondent and social policy leader writer. After a stint as the paper's news editor, she started writing her own opinion column in 1987. As a writer for The Guardian in 1982 she defended the Labour Party at the time of the split with the Social Democratic Party. The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Putney High School is an independent all-girls school in Putney. ... An independent school is a school which is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operation and is instead operated by tuition charges, gifts, and perhaps the investment yield of an endowment. ... Putney is a district of south-west London in the London Borough of Wandsworth. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, South Africa, and the Middle East, among other areas), English linguistics (including English phonetics, phonology... and of the St Annes College College name St Annes College Named after St Anne Established 1879 Sister college New Hall, Cambridge Principal Tim Gardam JCR President Kui-Sang Sze Undergraduates 437 Graduates 187 Location of St Annes College within central Oxford , Homepage Boatclub St Annes... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of 81,143 at the 2001 Census. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... New Society was a left-of-centre British weekly political magazine that tended to focus on the social sciences. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Social Workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. ... This article is about the year 1987. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. ...

Leaving The Guardian, Phillips first took her opinion column to the Guardian sister-paper The Observer, and then to the Sunday Times, before starting to write regularly for the Daily Mail in 2001. She also occasionally writes for the Jewish Chronicle and other periodicals. Since 2003, she has maintained a blog. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ... The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. ... The Jewish Telegraph is a Jewish Newspaper in Britain. ...

She was awarded the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 1996. The Orwell Prize is an annual award given to writing which makes politics and political thought accessible. ...

She is married to Joshua Rozenberg, former legal affairs correspondent for the BBC, now Legal Editor of the Daily Telegraph.^[1] They have two children.^[1] For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...

Political views

The BBC has said that Phillips "is regarded as one of the [U.K.] media's leading right-wing voices",^[2] although she defines herself as a progressive and a defender of liberal democracy^[3] She began her career on the liberal left^[1] with the Guardian newspaper, and her gradual drift to the right of the political spectrum has been mirrored by her journalistic career: she now writes for the conservative Daily Mail. She has used her Daily Mail columns and her blog to criticise, amongst other issues, progressive teaching methods,^[4] scientism,^[5] Islamism,^[6] and anti-semitism; to defend Israel;^[7] to oppose equal partnership rights for homosexuals;^[8] and to support strict anti-drug policies.^[9] For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Progressivism (disambiguation). ... Liberal democracy is a form of government. ... The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. ... Scientism is a term mainly used as a pejorative[1][2][3] to accuse someone of holding that science has primacy over all other interpretations of life such as religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...

Israel

Phillips has described the paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" as a "particularly ripe example of the 'global Zionist conspiracy' libel" and expressed her astonishment at "the fundamental misrepresentations and distortions in the paper".^[10] For other uses of the term Israel lobby, see Israel lobby (disambiguation). ...

In a recent article, she criticised the membership and leadership of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in Britain, and specifically the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, accusing them of antisemitism because of remarks made by the Archbishop about the plight of Bethlehem Christians under Israeli occupation; another factor was an opinion poll showing that the majority of Anglicans were opposed to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The article ended with a condemnation of what she sees as the churches' failure to criticise the President of Iran's desire to "destroy Israel", and that "the churches in Britain are not only silent about the genocidal ravings emanating from Iran but are themselves helping pave the way for a second Holocaust".^[11] The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader and senior clergyman of the Church of England, recognized by convention as the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... For the English boxer, see Rowan Anthony Williams. ... Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism, also known as judeophobia) is prejudice and hostility toward Jews as a religious, racial, or ethnic group. ... This article is about the city in the West Bank. ... For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ...

She says the Palestinians are an "artificial" people who can be collectively punished for acts of terrorism by Islamist terrorists because they are "a terrorist population". She believes that while "individual Palestinians may deserve compassion, their cause amounts to Holocaust denial as a national project". [1]

Iraq Study Group

Phillips has described the members of the Iraq Study Group as being "as intellectually deficient as they are morally malodorous".^[12] She has also written that James Baker and Jimmy Carter are "the kept creatures of the Arab world" and that "they are intent on smoothing the path to Israel's destruction".^[13] Cover of the report The Iraq Study group (ISG), also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission,[1] was a ten-person bipartisan panel appointed on March 15, 2006, by the United States Congress, that was charged with assessing the situation in Iraq and the US-led Iraq War and making... James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagans first administration, Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1988 in the second Reagan administration, and Secretary of State in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. ... For other persons named Jimmy Carter, see Jimmy Carter (disambiguation). ...

Views on science

Evolution

Phillips argues that evolution is "merely a theory." She writes that it "does not explain the irreducible complexity of certain cells for example, which cannot have been formed by simple organisms coming together".^[14] She claims that it "does not explain human self-consciousness; it does not explain altruism; it does not explain how existence began".^[15] She has also defended the teaching of creationism in schools.^[15] This article is about evolution in biology. ... Irreducible complexity (IC) is an argument made by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or less complete predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring chance mutations. ... For the ethical doctrine, see Altruism (ethics). ... Creationism is a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed. ...

MMR vaccine

Despite a scientific consensus that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism,^[16] Phillips has repeatedly questioned the safety of the vaccine,^{[17][18][19][20]} insisting that "urgent questions about the vaccine’s safety remain unanswered."^[21] Science writer and physician Ben Goldacre has called Phillips "the MMR sceptic who just doesn't understand science".^[22] The MMR vaccine is a mixture of three live attenuated viruses, administered via injection for immunization against measles, mumps and rubella. ... Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior, all exhibited before a child is three years old. ... A science journalist is a journalist who specializes in writing about science topics, and thus excercises science journalism. ... For other uses, see Doctor. ... Ben Goldacres humourous byline photo Ben Goldacre is an London-based British journalist and doctor. ...

Global warming

Phillips has said of global warming that the current "warm spell is well within the normal cyclical fluctuations in temperature from century to century",^[23] that blaming "warming on mankind’s activities in producing carbon dioxide" is "utter garbage",^[24] and that global warming alarmism is like a "witch-hunt"^[25] and is “one of the greatest scientific scams of the modern age”.^[26] George Monbiot has accused her of "scientific illiteracy" and says she is aligned with a "denial industry" funded by oil and tobacco companies.^[27] Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earths near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... George Monbiot. ... Denialism describes the position of governments, business groups, interest groups, or individuals who reject propositions that are strongly supported by scientific or historical evidence and seek to influence policy processes and outcomes accordingly. ...

Accusations of "McCarthyism"

Phillips' vehement criticisms of liberal Jews who disagree with her position on Israel has been condemned by Jewish writers like Jonathan Freedland, Rabbi David Goldberg and Johann Hari. Freedland was horrified that Phillips called a group of liberal Jews called Independent Jewish Voices "Jews For Genocide", writing in the Jewish Chronicle: Image:Jonathanfreedland. ... Johann Hari (born January 21, 1979) is a British journalist and writer. ... Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) is an organization launched on February 5, 2007 by 150 prominent British Jews such as Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, historian Eric Hobsbawm, lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman, film director Mike Leigh, and actors Stephen Fry and Zoë Wanamaker. ...

"Now, as it happens, I have multiple criticisms of IJV... But even their most trenchant opponents must surely blanch at the notion that these critics of Israel and of Anglo-Jewish officialdom are somehow in favour of genocide — literally, eager to see the murder and eradication of the Jewish people... it is an absurdity, one that drains the word “genocide” of any meaning. For if Mike Leigh and Stephen Fry are for genocide, what word is left to describe, say, the Sudanese regime?"^[28]

Hari quoted the former editor of Ha'aretz, who called Phillips' behaviour "nascent McCarthyism" and further argued "it is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works."^[29] Phillips responded by accusing Hari of believing in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.^[30] Hari pointed out in response that he had worked undercover to expose Neo-Nazis and Islamic fundamentalists who believe in the Protocols and said her arguments are "beyond the boundaries of civilised disagreement".^[31] Haaretz (הארץ, The Land) is an Israeli newspaper, founded in 1919. ...

Aberystwyth University

Phillips has commented on what she sees as the politicisation of education, particulary at Aberystwyth University. In 2005, she claimed there was an "anti-Jewish witch-hunt going on in our seats of learning"^[32] with particular focus on Aberystwyth University, based upon a nameless student's testimony.

Again in 2008, Phillips attacked the University, based on the unsubstantiated accusations, again of one anonymous student, she wrote in her Spectator blog accusing Marie Breen Smyth of politically profiling students, and marking work down for expressing undesirable opinions ^[33], and comparing the University to the brainwashers of the Soviet Union: "The Soviet Union perfected the targeting of the young by propaganda (as in the picture above, proclaiming ‘Comrade Lenin cleanses the earth of filth’) to shape their minds and thus control society. Is it any wonder that so many of our young people are now consumed by hatred of America and Israel?"^[34]. These accusations were strenously refuted by Breen Smyth. Phillips also wrote to the Vice Chancellor of the university complaining that Dr Breen Smyth was a 'subversive' and shouldn't be allowed to teach. Breen Smyth attracted considerable support from other Aberystwyth students who posted their comments on Phillips' blog.

Books

Cover of the book All Must have Prizes

In All Must Have Prizes, first published in 1996, Phillips offered a detailed critique of the British education system, claiming that an egalitarian and non-competitive ethos had led to a catastrophic fall in standards. (The title comes from the description of the caucus-race in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.) Education in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the countries of the United Kingdom. ... The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll (), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... Alice in Wonderland is the widely known and used title for Alices Adventures in Wonderland, a book written by Lewis Carroll -- as well as several movie adaptations of the book -- and is also the setting for several short stories. ...

In 2003, she published The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement. As well as the history, the book also detailed the evolution of the various ideas that lay behind the movement. Suffragette with banner, Washington DC, 1918 The title of suffragette (also occasionally spelled suffraget) was given to members of the womens suffrage movement, originally in the United Kingdom. ...

Her latest book, Londonistan, was published in 2006. In it, Philips claims that radical Islamism has established London as a base of operations, blaming what she sees as the broader failures of multiculturalism, cultural relativism and appeasement in Britain. Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within (ISBN 1-59403-144-4) is a book by Melanie Phillips on the topic of the spread of Islamism in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. ... This article is about political Islam For the religion of Islam, see Islam. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of both cultural and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a particular social space. ... Cultural relativism is the principle that beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of his or her own culture. ... Appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance, usually at the sacrifice of principles. ...

• Londonistan: How Britain Is Creating a Terror State Within. Gibson Square Books Ltd, 2006. ISBN 1-903933-76-5.
• The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement and the Ideas Behind it. Little, Brown, 2003. ISBN 0-316-72533-1.
• America's Social Revolution. Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2001. ISBN 1-903386-15-2.
• The Sex-Change Society: Feminised Britain and the Neutered Male. Social Market Foundation, 1999. ISBN 1-874097-64-X.
• All Must Have Prizes. Warner, 1998. ISBN 0-7515-2274-0.
• Doctors' Dilemmas: Medical Ethics and Contemporary Science by Melanie Phillips & John Dawson. Harvester Press, 1985. ISBN 0-7108-0983-2.
• The Divided House: Women at Westminster. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1980. ISBN 0-283-98547-X.

Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within (ISBN 1-59403-144-4) is a book by Melanie Phillips on the topic of the spread of Islamism in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. ...

References

For other uses, see Guardian. ... is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Question Time is a topical debate television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. It is currently shown on BBC One at 22:35 on Thursdays, and typically features politicians from the three major political parties and other public figures who answer questions put to them by the... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 192nd day of the year (193rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 100th day of the year (101st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... George Monbiot. ... is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image:Jonathanfreedland. ... Founded in 1841, The Jewish Chronicle (affectionately known as The JC) is the United Kingdoms national Jewish newspaper. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Melanie Phillips

• Phillips' personal website
• Her blog at The Spectator
• The danger of Melanie Phillips, Jonathan Freedland, The Jewish Chronicle, 30 March 2007