WP Radio interview of 2009!

Fiona Mactaggart MP - changes the laws on prostitution and wins an Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize

Fiona Mactaggart, the Labour MP for Slough, has campaigned and succeeded in changing the laws on prostitution.

It was at 11pm on 3rd November 2009 that Fiona watched the House of Lords pass Clause 14 of the Policing and Crime Bill. It begins to put the responsibility for prostitution onto the purchaser, who has a choice, instead of a seller who often does not. It was one of the most significant changes in politics of 2009 and was in danger of being voted down.

She has won a special prize in the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her work and is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade and co-Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Women’s Committee.

Here Fiona tells how she worked with others in her party, Harriet Harman MP, Jacqui Smith MP, and men too as well as women across party to achieve this change. It was first spoken of by Mary Wollstonecraft in "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" in 1792. Fiona told Boni Sones how she "reached for the stars" and succeeded.

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The Ann Treneman Diaries

Annus Horribilis: The Worst Year in British Politics

Matthew Parris has called it "brilliant" and Women's Parliamentary Radio wholeheartedly agrees. Here Ann Treneman, the sketch writer for The Times, reads from and reviews her new book. Boni Sones, Executive Producer of www.wpradio.co.uk joins in. The book puts the years most turbulent events in politics into Ann's very own side-splitting perspective.

Thanks to Ann for allowing us to broadcast these special readings.

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Chloe Smith MP for Norwich North

December 1, is the 90th anniversary of Nancy Astor taking her seat in Parliament

Chloe Smith the new MP for Norwich North is now the youngest MP in Parliament after being elected in a by-election in July this year. At 27 she is two years younger than the previous "baby of the House", Lib Dem Jo Swinson, but Chloe insists “If you are good enough you’re old enough, the age isn’t the thing!”

Chloe describes herself as a Norfolk girl “through and through” and whilst a candidate for 18 months she was an energetic local campaigner. Her mentor was Baroness Gillian Shephard of Northwold, a former Norfolk MP and minister, and Chloe says she herself has mentored other potential candidates through the Conservative’s Women2Win Campaign jointly led by the Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

She’s already given her Maiden Speech, on further education in her constituency and although she says she isn’t a fan of positive discrimination she does want to see women supported in their attempts to gain seats. Here our reporter Linda Fairbrother secured a special interview with Chloe, but first she visited Cliveden House in Berkshire, the former home of the first women MP to take up her seat in Westminster - the Conservative Lady Nancy Astor, where she spoke to Annette Scudamor, a National Trust guide.

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mashsport supports more women entering the Olympics

Our interview with Tessa Jowell MP, The Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport has been spotted by the grassroots sports community website www.mashsport.com. Launching in January 2010 mashsport is teaming up with Women's Parliamentary Radio to find out more about the new sports women will be able to compete in during the 2012 Olympic games, thanks to Tessa's help.

"mashsport is delighted to see Tessa Jowell MP campaigning for inclusivity and equality in sport - both of which mashsport actively promotes at a grassroot sports level. Her work will no doubt inspire many more sports women to compete at the 2012 Olympics," Dominic Risebro, CEO & Founder mashsport.

For the first time ever women's boxing will be included in the Olympics. mashsport and WP Radio will be keeping you updated on further developments. You can listen to Tessa's interview here...

To join the mashsport community or simply find out more, go to: www.mashsport.com

Baroness Prosser, Deputy Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Treasury Select Committee is spending the autumn asking prominent men and women in banking, finance, politics, academia and the fields of equality, what their views are on whether a so called "Lehman Sisters" approach could have helped avert the financial crisis in the City. The Committee is looking at how many women are in senior positions in major financial institutions, how widespread is the glass ceiling, pay inequalities, flexible working, and sexisim in the City. One of those to give evidence was Baroness Margaret Prosser, Deputy Chair of the EHRC. Our reporter Linda Fairbrother caught up with her and asked what she told the Committee?

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Clause 13 of the Policing and Crime Bill

On the first day back after the long summer recess, Labour MP and former Home Office Minister, Fiona Mactaggart, held a briefing meeting in the Commons to campaign for Clause 13, of the Policing and Crime Bill. There are fears the Clause maybe diluted or rejected in the Lords, where the Bill is now being debated, and Fiona told the meeting that 54 organisations supported it.

She was joined by Catherine Briddick, Senior Legal Officer at Rights of Women, who said it was the first time she had wholly supported the Home Office but she believed it was "completely right" to make it a "strict liability" offence to pay for sex from a person who is "procured for gain". Some other countries have legalised prostitution but supporters of Clause 13 say this has been shown not to work. Boni Sones spoke to Fiona and Catherine.

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Penny and Helen and the Women2Win Campaign for the Conservative Party

Penny Mordaunt, is the Conservative's prospective parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth North at the next general election. Helen Whately is the Conservative's prospective parliamentary candidate for Kingston and Surbiton. It's the first time Helen, a consultant in healthcare, telecoms and the media, and a mother of a young son, has stood as a candidate, and she has to defeat a Liberal Democrat. Whereas Penny, a media consultant, stood before for the same seat in the 2005 election which was won by Labour.

Penny and Helen say they are getting a warm reception on the doorstep and that so called “door knocking” to get the vote out is fun. But it's the recession that is top of people's priorities alongside schools and hospitals. They both say they have little time to go shopping for those “colourful” jackets women politicians wear to get spotted. Boni Sones spoke to them at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester where they sung the praises of the Women2Win campaign and the Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

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Mrs Sherry Ayittey
Honourable Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Government of Ghana

There's still a lot of work to be done if the world is to reach agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen in December when the G20 countries meet. But while politicans prepare for the "Road to Copehhagen" talks, academics from all over the World met at Cambridge University to look into the impact of climate change on water resources in Africa.

"The Global Water Initiative, Implications of Climate Change and Variability on African Water Resources" conference heard from keynote speaker Mrs Sherry Ayittey, Honourable Minister for Environment, Science and Technology Government of Ghana. A Bio-Chemist by training Mrs Ayittey, believes the issue of water resources is one of basic "human rights" and that in this inter-connected world the developed world needs to embrace the problems the developing world is facing. In speaking up for the voice of the voiceless Mrs Ayittey says that with "trust" in each other we can work towards a dialogue of understanding in Copenhagen.

Thanks to Judge Business School for allowing us to broadcast this podcast.

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Antonia Cox PPC for the Conservative Party for Islington South and Finsbury

Antonia Cox is the official Conservative Party candidate for Islington South & Finsbury at the next General Election.

Antonia is a school governor, local campaigner and mother of three from central London. She is a leader writer for the London Evening Standard and author of the Policy Exchange publication, "The Best Kit", which makes the case for better support of our armed forces.

Here Antonia tells Women's Parliamantary Radio journalist Daisy Ayliffe, how she has been juggling her career, her political life here and abroad, and her family.

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Sally Keeble MP, Vulture Funds

The Labour MP for Northampton North, Sally Keeble, is pushing through a new ten-minute rule Bill, to get the UK to crack down on the excesses of the so called "Vulture funds" that profit out of developing countries debt by buying it up and then demanding excessive repayments. "The developing country debt (restriction of recovery) Bill" aims to tackle the secrecy and profiteering of the vulture funds.

Jubilee Debt, which has led the campaign against the vulture funds, records 54 lawsuits by commercial creditors against some of the poorest countries, some still in process.
The vulture funds buy up the defaulted sovereign debt of developing countries at knockdown prices, and then sue, often through the UK courts, for the full face value of the debt, plus compound interest and charges. They're secretive institutions, often based in tax havens, and pursue their claims through jurisdictions around the world.

Boni Sones asked Sally, what she thought her Bill could achieve.

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Tessa Jowell MP:

Tessa Jowell, MP, as the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport helped London win its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Now as Olympics Minister, she is pressing the case for sports women to be able to compete in as many Olympic sports as the men.And it seems her efforts are gaining ground with news recently that for the first time ever, women's boxing will be included in the Olympics. The governing body of the games, the International Olympic Committee, has agreed to include the sport in London 2012. Here Tessa tells us why she has fought so hard on this particular issue.

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Lyn Brown MP
Summer holiday reading and her love of Libraries!

Lyn Brown, the Labour MP for West Ham since 2005, is a passionate champion of the library movement. From the time her mother took her to a London library as a child she confesses to having "wolfed down" books of all kinds and to having been "radicalised" by them. She is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries, which is due to publish a report on modernising the service in the autumn and an assistant Whip.

The novels which have changed Lyn's life include:"Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, "To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee, and now she's porinng over her summer holiday reading which will of course include "A view from the Foothills" by her colleague Chris Mullin. Her mother worked as a packer in an icing sugar factory, but she taught Lyn that reading was the best way to "improve" yourself, and that's just what she's done, now as an MP in a neighbourhood near to where she grew up.

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Pick of the Summer Listening:

While Parliament takes its summer break, www.wpradio.co.uk invites you to listen to some of the very best of our listening. As ever thanks to all for all, particularly our Chair Jackie Ashley.

John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons
The Conservative Speaker of the House of Commons the MP for Buckingham John Bercow is a supporter of human rights and women's rights internationally. Prior to his election to Speaker, Boni Sones asked him why?
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Lynne Featherstone MP

What's in a name? Well quite a lot it seems when it comes to job applications. The Liberal Democrat's Equality spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green has just floated a new idea at the second reading of the Government's Equality Bill to have names taken off application forms.

The "Featherstone" amendment is likely to be accepted in some form by the government. Lynne says that the unfairness of being judged on your name when you apply for a job first came to her notice when two of her interns with the family names of Hussain and Patel, complained about not getting to an interview.

Labour's Equality Bill has been opposed by the Conservatives' and welcomed by the Liberal Democrats' who are pressing for its provisions to go further. The Solicitor General, Vera Baird MP, has pushed the Bill through Parliament for the government. Lynne praised her work.

Lynne writes a good blog, do read it: www.lynnefeatherstone.org/blog.htm

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Cheryl Gillan MP
The Autism Bill

The Conservative MP, Cheryl Gillan, is successfully pushing through a Private Member's Bill on Autism in The House. It will ensure local authorities and NHS service providers give adequate support for adults with this learning difficulty. It will champion new pathways for diagnosis, assessment and support for those with Autism.

The MP for Chesham and Amersham says she was fortunate, after many years, to come top of the Private Member's Bill ballot. She talked to colleagues and charities before deciding that the gap in existing provision for Autism sufferers needed addressing. As a result of attracting cross-party support for her pioneering Bill, it has successfully passed its third reading in the House and has now gone to the Lords.

This is England's first ever piece of Autism legislation, and Cheryl says she thinks it shows how politicians across party work to bring about change in society and that in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal, it highlights, the good work that politicians do in Parliament. W P Radio reporter Linda Fairbrother spoke to her.

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Stop press: Congratulations to John Bercow MP for becoming the new Speaker of the House of Commons and thanks for this interview...

John Bercow MP
Contender for the role of Speaker in the House of Commons.

The Conservative MP for Buckingham John Bercow, is standing for the position of Speaker in the House of Commons. He is well liked and respected in Labour circles, even though he is a Conservative, and he is said to have the backing of more than 100 Labour MPs. Members of his own Party aren't so sure though, as some believe he leans too much to the left. For the past 17 years the Speaker's Chair has been sat in by Labour members. Some think a left leaning Conservative who is relatively young and forward looking would help to modernise the House in the wake of the MP's expenses row. Mr Bercow is 46 years old, one of the youngest contenders for the job.

John, a member of the wpradio.co.uk Advisory Board, told our reporter Georgie Hemmingway, how he would help further equality in the House, and clamp down on sexist exchanges in the Chamber.

Other contenders for the role include: Margaret Beckett, (Lab); John Bercow (Con); Sir George Young (Con); Ann Widdecombe (Con); Sir Alan Beith (LD); Sir Alan Haselhurst (Con); Sir Patrick Cormack (Con); Parmjit Dhanda (Lab); Richard Shepherd (Con); Sir Michael Lord (Con).

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Susan Kramer
Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park

Women and Politics

Keeping a calm head in politics has never been more needed, as more and more of MPs so called "extravagant" expenses are paraded in the "Daily Telegraph" fairly or unfairly. What's more the "WAGs" group, Women Against Gordon Brown, appear to have been orchestrating moves to make the Labour Party confront the need for a leadership challenge. Susan Kramer, the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park since 2005, has been tough enough to get out there and talk about the need to reform parliament, restore trust in politics and politicians, and to say she thinks the "Telegraph" is just doing its job.

Susan made her career in finance as a Vice-President of Citibank, a leading international bank and set up her own company before moving into politics. So will women be put off going into politics and what advice would Susan give to aspiring women politicians? Boni Sones asked her.

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Anne Begg MP, Vice Chair of the Speakers Conference

Parliamentary reform and MPs expenses

The Labour MP for Aberdeen South, Anne Begg, says she'll be out campaigning in her Constituency over the coming weeks to advise people that if Parliament needs reforming then they need to sign up to a political party to do just that! Anne says the way to overcome the dismay about politicians and their expenses is to get involved in a political party yourself and begin the process of change that is needed.

Anne is a formidable politician herself, being the first wheelchair user in Westminster, and the Vice Chair of the recently instituted Speaker's Conference which is looking at the under representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons. She is also a member of the House of commons Charimen's Panel, and stands in for the Speaker in the Westminster Hall debates.

Boni Sones asked her if she agreed that Parliament needed better scrutiny?

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Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!

Is Margaret Thatcher the "Mother of the Nation" or the "Monster from the Blue Lagoon"?

That's the question The Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury, London, is asking from 6th May to 26th July with an exhibition of satirical cartoons of Britain's first woman Prime Minister 30 years since her election. It features work by Steve Bell, Gerald Scarfe, Trog and many others for newspapers and magazines across the political spectrum. The cartoons reflecting her 11 years in power, were chosen by Steve Bell of the Guardian and one of her former trusted ministers, Lord Baker of Dorking. Clearly they find it hard to agree about her legacy but the exhibition brought out the humour in both of them. Boni Sones began by speaking to Lord Baker and then Steve Bell.

You can find out more at: www.cartoonmuseum.org

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Dame Professor Dawson, is the KPMG Professor of Management at Judge Business School at Cambridge University

In the week that the Government has published its historic Equality Bill, Professor Dawson tells Women's Parliamentary Radio her thoughts on how women can progress in business, what distinct qualities women managers have, and if these can help get them to the top. She also grapples with those other sticky problems of the so called "glass ceiling" and gender pay differences.

Professor Dawson has managed to juggle bringing up a family, with a high flying career in business and management herself. She was Director of the Judge Business School from 1995 to 2006 and has specialised in studying organisational structure and change. She is also now Master of Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. Those close to you at home, she says, can help determine the success of your career.

Thanks to Judge Business School for allowing us to broadcast this podcast.

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Kay Carberry
Assistant General Secretary TUC
The Government's new Equality Bill

Too much or too little? The Government's New Equality Bill has been published this week almost 40 years after the Equal Pay Act came into force. It brings together all of Britain's Equality Legislation into one Act. As well as covering race, disability and gender the new Bill turns its attention to maternity, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief and gender reassignment.

Public sector bodies such as government departments, local authorities and health authorities, will have to comply with the provisions of the Act. The many businesses that supply them with services won't be awarded contracts until they do too.

The Minister for Equality Harriet Harman says the Bill will "make Britain more equal" but Shadow Minister for Women Theresa May remains sceptical. With the pay gap still standing at 17 per cent, Boni Sones, asked the TUC's Assistant General Secretary, Kay Carberry, if she was happy that the Bill went far enough?

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Tessa Jowell MP
Minister for the Olympics

Men & Olympic events = 164
Women & Olympic events = 124

Tessa Jowell, MP, as the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport helped London win its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Now as Olympics Minister, she is pressing the case for sports women to be able to compete in as many Olympic sports as the men. Currently men can compete in 164 events and women 124. Olympic gold medallist cyclist Victoria Pendleton and others are supporting her campaign, which would allow women to compete in heavyweight wrestling and men in synchronised swimming.

Yvonne Ball of the British Wrestling Association said it was highly unlikely women would want to compete in heavyweight wrestling. Never-the-less Ms Jowell thinks this misses the point and that sportswomen of the future should have equality as a goal and their glass ceilings removed. She told Boni Sones, that she has written to the UK sports chiefs and is optimistic that there will be some change before 2012.

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Sally Keeble MP

How the budget is helping grandparents

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has announced in his budget that from April 2011 grandparents who obtain a certificate, will be able to get a National Insurance credit towards the basic state pension for caring for their grandchildren or members of their family aged 12 or younger for 20 hours or more a week.

Boni Sones, asked Labour’s Northampton North MP, Sally Keeble, if this was at long last a welcome acknowledgement of the years of informal help grandparents have given families and if it would help to ease the gender pay gap between men and women and progress the government's equality agenda on the eve of a new Equality Bill being published?

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Alan Campbell MP,
Home Office Minister
and
Lynne Jones MP

Prostitution


The government is changing the laws that govern prostitution in a bid to protect women who are trafficked or “procured for gain” by making it illegal to pay for sex from them if they are being controlled in this way. The amendment in the Policing and Crime Bill, now passing through Parliament, is contentious.

Alan Campbell MP, a Minister in the Home Office responsible for crime reduction says the government is right to be taking a firm line on protecting those women who are most vulnerable. The government's new laws would also attempt to rehabilitate sex workers by making an Order for them to attend meetings aimed at tackling addictive behaviour.

But the Labour MP, Lynne Jones, has put down an Early Day Motion, saying her own government's measures are “deeply flawed”.

Our reporter Georgie Hemmingway, spoke first to Alan Campbell MP about how the new government measures would work in practice, and then to Lynne Jones MP.

Alan Campbell
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Lynne Jones
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John Bercow MP women and the National Minimum Wage

John Bercow, the Conservative MP for Buckingham is a strong advocate for women's rights and an International Women's Day. In the recent International Women's Day Debate in the Commons, John, spoke up on behalf of all those hundreds of thousands of women who work below the National Minimum Wage. He also believes that there is a case for increasing the national minimum wage, particularly during a recession. He told a Conservative colleague he thought he was a “troglodyte” for suggesting there was no need for a special debate for women each year and supports Labour's Harriet Harman's quest for a new Equality Bill. Boni Sones spoke to him.

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Dr Evan Harris MP – women  and their right to the throne

The Liberal Democrat Equality Campaigner, Dr Evan Harris MP, attempted to introduce a Private Member's Bill to modernise our monarchy by allowing a woman to be first in succession to the throne rather than being superseded by a younger male sibling, the so called rule of “primogeniture”. Dr Harris's “Royal Marriage and Succession to the Crown Bill”  also wanted to allow those in the line of succession to the throne to marry a Catholic.  Boni Sones, asked Dr Harris, why his Bill was needed now?

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The Parliamentary Education Service Question Time for Women

The Parliamentary Education Service recently held a “Question Time” event where schoolgirls were invited to meet members of Parliament and members of the Lords. They listened to speeches and talked about why Parliament would be a better place with more women politicians, and those from ethnic minorities. Boni Sones spoke to the Labour MP Anne Begg , Vice-Chair of the new Speaker's Conference, which is debating the issue, Baroness Hayman, the Speaker in the House of Lords and to the young women students themselves. www.parliament.uk/education

Anne Begg MP

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Baroness Hayman

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Students

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The Million Women Rise Coalition

WP Radio joined 6,000 women on a march with The Million Women Rise Coalition through London to celebrate International Women's Day 09.

The coalition campaign group www.millionwomenrise.com aims to "End male violence against women". As Seema Malhotra of the Fabian Women's network, walked with the protestors from beginning to end, she heard why women, families and children turned up in such large numbers to stop the violence against women here and in countries like the Congo.

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Seema even met four generations of one family as she narrated the progress of the Million Women Rise march and eventually caught up with its Co-ordinator Sabrina Qureshi, to allow her to tell her story too.

The march coincided with a new initiative launched by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to help prevent Domestic Violence from occurring, particularly during the recession.

To celebrate International Women's Day 09 Film maker Barbara Gorna has kindly allowed WP Radio to show HER film on the life and tragic death of the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, the only suffragette to die for the cause. The former Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd and the former Labour MP Tony Benn, tell Barbara why Emily's life is so important to them today, over 90 years since women first got the vote in Britain. The film shows the scarf Emily wore when she was knocked unconcious at Epsom races. That scarf is now on display in a special permanent exhibition in the House of Commons thanks to women MPs of today across party and Barbara. THANKS to Barbara and good luck with her movie on Emily.

You can see the Emily Wilding Davison video here

International Women's Day Women and the Recession:

Women across party celebrated International Women's Day 09 with a heartfelt debate in the Chamber on Women and the Recession. The debate had been arranged by Labour's Harriet Harman MP, deputy leader of the Labour Party and Vera Baird MP, the Solitor General. It came a day after women from all parties had been invited to number 11 to discuss how to support women during the recession.

All parties, including the Liberal Democrat's Lynne Featherstone, talked of the importance of the government's forthcoming Equalities Bill becoming law sooner rather than later and not being side-lined because of the recession.

Theresa May MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women spoke of the need to help older women and families and her Facebook campaign "Theresa May for Equal Pay". And THANKS Theresa for the mention of WP Radio's women MPs photographs in the debate which are to be promoted to schools.

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Eleanor Laing MP

Eleanor Laing MP, Shadow Minister for Justice, talked of the need to support women internationally by keeping up our aid budgets to the third world and the high cost of childcare for women in this country.

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Sir Crispin Tickell
Women and the Recession and International Women's Day 09

To celebrate International Women's Day this week, Women's Parliamentary Radio has secured this special interview with Sir Crispin Tickell, Director of the Policy Foresight Programme at Oxford University on how to meet the "sustainable development" challenges of the 21st Century. Sir Crispin, says he is optimistic about our ability to adapt and embrace sustainable green global values despit the terrible problems that face the World. Sir Crispin believes it is WOMEN who hold the key to a sustainable global future. Boni Sones asked him why?

Thanks to CIBAM at Judge Business School in Cambridge for allowing us to transmit this broadcast.

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Dr Noreena Hertz
Women and the Recession

It's women, it seems, who hold the future of the world in their hands as economists and politicians agree that global capitalism is in need of drastic repair.

In this new "Recession Thought Leadership Series" Women's Parliamentary Radio is asking women in business and academia to contribute their thoughts on how to fix capitalism and prepare for a greener, healthier, more sustainable planet in the future. Here, Dr Noreena Hertz, an Associate Director of CIBAM at Judge Business School in Cambridge tells Boni Sones why she thinks we are about to move from an era of "gucci" capitalism to a new one of "co-operative capitalism" and how women and families will benefit.

Thanks to Judge Business School for letting us transmit this podcast.

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Emily Thornberry MP

Emily Thornberry, has been the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury since May 2005. She has three children and was brought up in a single parent household living on a council estate. She has campaigned at a national level with trade unions and parents' groups for more family-friendly employment policies and access to childcare, particularly for women. Boni Sones, asked her to justify how the Labour government intended to help out hard pressed families during the current recession.

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Maria Miller MP
Women and the recession

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Dawn Butler MP

Dawn Butler the Labour MP for Brent South is one of only two black women in Westminster and the first black woman to ever become a government minister.

On the day that Barack Obama becomes the first black President of the United States of America, Dawn will be launching a new campaign "Bernie's list" to get more black MPs into Parliament. Dawn is known as a formidable campaigner, and is also planning some parliamentary celebrations to mark the historic occasion. Boni Sones spoke to her.

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Listen to our special 30 minute documentary podcast, when Boni Sones spent a day with Dawn and other Parliamentarians on the very day that Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America.

Thanks to our sound engineer Pete Cook of www.screen-space.co.uk for this brilliant interpretation of the material in this documentary.

Happy New Year 2009

Boni Sones, Executive Producer of wpradio.co.uk would like to thank all for her OBE for "services to broadcasting and PR".

Thanks to the team, and all women politicians across party who have
given us their support, in particular, Vera Baird, Maria Eagle, Margaret Moran, Theresa May, Eleanor Laing, Caroline Spelman, Jo Swinson,
Sandra Gidley.

Thanks to Jackie Ashley our Chair, Deborah McGurran, BBC East, Anne Garvey. Paul and Lyn at MagStar and Pete Cook of Screenspace.
Boni Sones OBE

Read the press release here...
(opens in new browser window)

Anne Begg MP

Anne Begg, the Labour MP, for Aberdeen South, is Deputy Chair, of the specially convened "Speaker's Conference", which will look at improving the representation of women, minority ethnic people and disabled people in Parliament. Anne Begg is the first permanent wheelchair user MP in parliament, and she said the idea for the conference had been "energised" by the election of the USA's first black President, Barack Obama. At present only 20 per cent of MPs in Parliament are women and there are still only two black women MPs, Diane Abbott, and Dawn Butler. The Conference of 17 MPs from all the Parties will report next year.

Ending WP Radio's series of interviews focusing on women parliamentarians achievements 90 years since women first got the vote, Anne Begg MP, gave this engaging exclusive interview to Georgie Hemmingway. Anne told Georgie, she could remember the time when disabled people used to have to travel in the baggage compartments of trains.

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