Dawn Foster Quotes

Dawn Foster

Profession : Journalist

Birth : September 12, 1986

Towards the tail end of primary school, I was pulled aside by my headteacher and told I was joining a scheme for 'gifted and talented' children, that would run from my 10th birthday until I was 16.

Dawn Foster

The homeless often feel invisible, allowed to plummet through widening holes in the social safety net, then hidden in doorways from which people avert their eyes.

Dawn Foster

Children are more perceptive than we give them credit for: the poorest kids know their place as surely as the wealthiest children are aware of their station.

Dawn Foster

Most people pass through the doors of a hospital as a last resort. By the time you reach a bed, you've probably made a lot of small-scale decisions that, if they didn't cause your affliction, may have exacerbated your symptoms.

Dawn Foster

Cooking requires time, effort and fuel: increasing numbers of people I've visited can't even afford to turn on the kettle for a cup of tea as they eke out every penny to feed their extortionate gas and electric meters.

Dawn Foster

I want to know when my friends need help, as well as when they're happy; when they're vulnerable, as well as when they feel strong.

Dawn Foster

Winter is always the hardest period for rough sleepers because of the climate and the post-Christmas dip in generosity towards anyone begging. And there's a genuine risk to life for anyone having to sleep out as temperatures plummet.

Dawn Foster

I've had grateful messages from people thanking me for being open about health on social media: from others with epilepsy who feel less alone; from a man who shows his daughter my tweets and Instagram pictures, and says she feels much less of a pariah knowing others are in the same boat; and from people asking for coping mechanisms and tips.

Dawn Foster

The academisation of schools under New Labour helped the Conservatives bring free schools into being. They said the new model would allow enthused parents to open schools. Instead, most free schools and academies are run by large chains that can outsource their IT facilities, cleaning services and other non-teaching jobs.

Dawn Foster

The human cost of austerity goes far beyond the period in which a country's economy endures those methods.

Dawn Foster

Many benefit cuts hit single parents hardest and punish children by forcing their families into destitution.

Dawn Foster

Working within newspapers, so many of them are so used to the status quo, they're so invested in lobby journalism, and assuming that all politics happens in Westminster... but doing social affairs, I spend a lot of time out of London speaking to people who have been hit by cuts, or disabled, or who have been made unemployed.

Dawn Foster

For men, the Right Time to become a parent seems to be any time after reaching the age of consent.

Dawn Foster

Homelessness can be complex, and some rough sleepers will refuse help when living on the street becomes entrenched. But fining people, confiscating tents, and forcing people to move on from certain areas will do nothing to combat the core issues that cause homelessness.

Dawn Foster

People never know what to do with women who write, especially about lust, in a way that isn't sanitised and held back.

Dawn Foster

The majority of us don't do what's best for us all the time because life is complicated and busy - and creating excuses is so much easier than getting on with the business of wellbeing.

Dawn Foster

I've read enough dreary campus novels to know more than I ever wanted to about the punctured Oxbridge academic psyche, and feel as if I've been through a mid-life crisis dozens of times, purely because I've foolishly grabbed a paperback by an author I've vaguely heard of.

Dawn Foster

Passing a beggar who asks for money causes discomfort - and so it should. The act of facing and acknowledging human suffering and hardship on this scale ought to imprint itself on a society that has such glaring divides in income and comfort.

Dawn Foster

If Freemasons won't be completely open about their membership, should we not say that in all cases membership is incompatible with public service? Asking public servants to either confirm they are not a member of a masonic organisation or to be open when they are won't fully excise the backroom deals or the stench of privilege.

Dawn Foster

If we have a right to healthcare, we should also have a right to the most fundamental of human needs: shelter.

Dawn Foster