Recent journalism
Ellie writes regularly for a range of publications. Some of her recent articles are below.
Sex education? Don't expect it from teachers
The Independent
6 May 2008
The NSPCC, which runs the Childline helpline for children to ring with their problems, has said that nearly 50 children a day call its helpline because they feel under pressure to have sex, and has called for schools to teach the emotional side of sex alongside the biological facts. I'm not sure that I would have been happy being taught about emotions by my teachers. I am friends with several teachers and their love lives are just as complex and emotional as anyone else's. Read more...
A hard pill to swallow
The Guardian
5 May 2008
The news isn't good for the morning-after pill. A constitutional court ruling in Chile recently banned the public health system from distributing free emergency contraception. In some parts of the US, there are legislative attempts to make access to the pill more difficult on the grounds that it is a abortion-inducing medicine. And while doctors in Italy who refused two women emergency contraception may face sanctions, there is no shortage of political an religious leaders supporting them. Read more...
Emergency Call
Progress Online
28 April 2008
At the moment pharmacists will usually only give emergency contraception to the person who needs it and at the point of needing it. So if a woman can’t get to the doctors or pharmacist after unprotected sex, neither can she ask her partner, friend or mother to go for her, and nor can she just go to her bathroom cabinet and use emergency supplies. Guarding emergency contraception in this way suggests that women are not able to work out when they need emergency contraception, and cannot answer a few simple questions to determine whether it is the right course of action. Read more...
Now it's Prezza's turn to show his feminine side
The Independent
21 April 2008
At the now-closed Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, there used to be a competition during the interval where audience members were given two seemingly unconnected subjects and asked to come up with a joke linking the two. George Bush and a McDonald's happy meal, for example, to which an answer might be that they are both full of crap and trying to take over the world. Not once though did they ever think of asking the audience to set their minds to John Prescott and Princess Diana, though if they had, a few similarities could have been drawn. Read more...
Knowledge is power
The Guardian
29 March 2008
Homebuyers now have their information packs - so what if you received a warts-and-all job information pack before starting a new job? Ellie Levenson canvasses support for Jips. John Ham left his job at a big campaigning charity last year after just nine months. "It was only once I had started to experience difficulties with the role that I found out several other people had either failed their probation period or left the organisation shortly after starting. And it was only then that I discovered my team had been receiving training before I arrived ... for being dysfunctional." Read more...
You haven't got mail
The Guardian
11 December 2007
Richard McCartney is the father of two children, aged 11 and 13, who attend a north London comprehensive. He separated from his wife in 2002, and has the children two nights a week. "From the first moment my eldest went to secondary school I didn't hear a peep from the school. It was as if I didn't exist. Towards the end of my son's first year, I emailed the form teacher asking if there were any events coming up, and finally spoke to the head of year, who said I should be getting information ... But still nothing came. I complained again, and again they said it would be fixed. I now have two children in the school and have still not had a single communication, apart from responses to my complaints." Read more...
There’s no business
Progress
1 September 2007
Some people, and they are wrong of course, say that journalism is showbusiness for ugly people. Journalists say that estate agency is showbusiness for ugly people. Estate agents say the law is showbusiness for ugly people. But the journalists, the estate agents and the lawyers all agree on one thing; politics is most definitely showbusiness for the ugliest of the ugly. And if that is the case then party conference is most certainly the ugly people’s Oscars. Read more...
Sex education? Don't expect it from teachers
The Independent
6 May 2008
The NSPCC, which runs the Childline helpline for children to ring with their problems, has said that nearly 50 children a day call its helpline because they feel under pressure to have sex, and has called for schools to teach the emotional side of sex alongside the biological facts. I'm not sure that I would have been happy being taught about emotions by my teachers. I am friends with several teachers and their love lives are just as complex and emotional as anyone else's. Read more...
A hard pill to swallow
The Guardian
5 May 2008
The news isn't good for the morning-after pill. A constitutional court ruling in Chile recently banned the public health system from distributing free emergency contraception. In some parts of the US, there are legislative attempts to make access to the pill more difficult on the grounds that it is a abortion-inducing medicine. And while doctors in Italy who refused two women emergency contraception may face sanctions, there is no shortage of political an religious leaders supporting them. Read more...
Emergency Call
Progress Online
28 April 2008
At the moment pharmacists will usually only give emergency contraception to the person who needs it and at the point of needing it. So if a woman can’t get to the doctors or pharmacist after unprotected sex, neither can she ask her partner, friend or mother to go for her, and nor can she just go to her bathroom cabinet and use emergency supplies. Guarding emergency contraception in this way suggests that women are not able to work out when they need emergency contraception, and cannot answer a few simple questions to determine whether it is the right course of action. Read more...
Now it's Prezza's turn to show his feminine side
The Independent
21 April 2008
At the now-closed Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, there used to be a competition during the interval where audience members were given two seemingly unconnected subjects and asked to come up with a joke linking the two. George Bush and a McDonald's happy meal, for example, to which an answer might be that they are both full of crap and trying to take over the world. Not once though did they ever think of asking the audience to set their minds to John Prescott and Princess Diana, though if they had, a few similarities could have been drawn. Read more...
A less than charitable approach by sponsors
The Independent
10 April 2008
I
didn't raise much sponsorship money as a child. This wasn't because I
didn't like to run very far or couldn't stick to a 24-hour famine,
though that is true also, but because I wasn't allowed to ask anyone
other than close friends and family to sponsor me. I was given several
reasons for this including that doorstep blagging is dangerous, that
some people cannot afford it but feel unable to say no, particularly to
children, and that people might not support the aims of the chosen
charity. This is not to say that my family were against charitable
giving, but that blackmailing people into it by making them disappoint
an enthusiastic child if they said no was not the way to go about it. Now I am grown up, the rules have all changed.Read more...
The Guardian
29 March 2008
Homebuyers now have their information packs - so what if you received a warts-and-all job information pack before starting a new job? Ellie Levenson canvasses support for Jips. John Ham left his job at a big campaigning charity last year after just nine months. "It was only once I had started to experience difficulties with the role that I found out several other people had either failed their probation period or left the organisation shortly after starting. And it was only then that I discovered my team had been receiving training before I arrived ... for being dysfunctional." Read more...
You haven't got mail
The Guardian
11 December 2007
Richard McCartney is the father of two children, aged 11 and 13, who attend a north London comprehensive. He separated from his wife in 2002, and has the children two nights a week. "From the first moment my eldest went to secondary school I didn't hear a peep from the school. It was as if I didn't exist. Towards the end of my son's first year, I emailed the form teacher asking if there were any events coming up, and finally spoke to the head of year, who said I should be getting information ... But still nothing came. I complained again, and again they said it would be fixed. I now have two children in the school and have still not had a single communication, apart from responses to my complaints." Read more...
There’s no business
Progress
1 September 2007
Some people, and they are wrong of course, say that journalism is showbusiness for ugly people. Journalists say that estate agency is showbusiness for ugly people. Estate agents say the law is showbusiness for ugly people. But the journalists, the estate agents and the lawyers all agree on one thing; politics is most definitely showbusiness for the ugliest of the ugly. And if that is the case then party conference is most certainly the ugly people’s Oscars. Read more...