Former energy minister Dame Joan Ruddock appeared in one of the opening events of the Rye Arts Festival on Saturday September 15, as she gave an insight into her interesting life, in conversation with former Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster. Dame Joan was Minister of State for Energy from June 2009 to May 2010 and MP for Lewisham Deptford between June 1987 and March 2015.
Her path in the parliamentary world was not always easy. Dame Joan was educated at Pontypool Girls Grammar school (though she was quick to add that she does not agree now with grammar schools) and went on to Imperial College, London, to study Botany and Chemistry with a view to working in scientific research.
However, having met her first husband who developed her political interests, she changed her mind and turned more towards politics. She was chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from which she resigned in 1985. Under Gordon Brown she served briefly as Minister for Women. Together with Harriet Harman, (MP) as a formidable team they drove radical policies forward which would help women towards more equality in various areas. She stepped down a year later. What followed was a prominent career on the backbenches, where she ran a series of high-profile campaigns, including opposition to genetically modified organisms, championing education for young girls in Afghanistan and changing the hours of the Commons.
The conversation with Michael Foster was illuminating as well as sad when she talked about the death of both her husbands. No doubt people wondered how she arrived at the title of her book, Going Nowhere. She told us the story, at the time devastating but with time gone by she was able to smile about it. It was the Independent which cruelly said in an article about her, when Tony Blair overlooked her for a Ministry Post: “Joan Ruddock is going nowhere.” Looking back at all she has achieved in her Parliamentary life, many would disagree. The book is available in Rye Bookshop.
Image Credits: Heidi Foster .