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Georgina Ballantine - record-breaking fisherwoman, Dame Rachel de Souza, Dianne McKay, Rising cost of living, Rachel Krantz

From a witch to a pioneering photographer, more than 50 women are to feature in the new Perth City Hall Museum when it opens in early 2024.

The Raise the Roof project in Perth in Scotland, is gathering the lesser-known histories of a number of influential and fearless women to feature in the new Perth City Hall Museum when it opens in early 2024. A list of over 50 women who have lived in Perth over the centuries – from a witch to a pioneering photographer and the first female MP has been drawn up. But it is down to a number of different community groups to decide which women will be celebrated. They will work with an artist to help tell their stories and a wire statue of each of those women will be displayed around the city. Chloe Tilley is joined by Anna Day the Cultural Public Programme Manager at Perth & Kinross Council and the artist Vanessa Lawrence.

The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has warned that thousands of children have "fallen off the radar" of schools. She is launching an inquiry to find young people who are not attending school in the wake of lockdown.
On the programme Dame Rachel de Souza told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Woman’s Hour that between 80,000 and 100,000 children were not on any school rolls at all. This was inaccurate. The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England subsequently confirmed that Dame Rachel misspoke and that this figure actually relates to the number of children who were persistently absent from school in Autumn 2020, following the first Covid-19 lockdown. They also confirmed that the number of children not on school rolls is unknown.

In 1969 Muriel McKay was kidnapped after being mistaken for Rupert Murdoch’s wife. The story dominated front pages for weeks, and hundreds of police worked the case. After 40 days Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were arrested, and later jailed, but Muriel was never found. The brothers never confessed to their crimes, or revealed the whereabouts of Mrs McKay’s body. Until now. Dianne McKay is Muriel’s daughter and joins Chloe.

With inflation at a 10 year high, energy bills on the increase, and average pay rises failing to keep up with the rise of the cost of living, and not forgetting an increase in national insurance coming this way, millions of people will find themselves worse off in 2022. The number of households spending at least 10 per cent of their family budgets on energy bills – is set to treble overnight to 6.3 million households when the new energy price cap comes into effect on April, that’s according to research by the Resolution Foundation, who’ve dubbed 2022 the year of the squeeze. And new analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that low income families could spend on average 18 percent of their income after housing costs on energy bills.

How would you respond to starting a relationship and being told by your new partner he was looking for a committed partnership—just one that did not include exclusivity? Author and journalist, Rachel Krantz had to address just this and embrace it with her ex partner Adam. She was nervous, yet intrigued and so Rachel decided to give it a go. Seeing whether she could cope with, and enjoy, both of them dating other people. In her debut memoir, ‘Open, An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation & Non-Monogamy’ Rachel candidly shares with the reader her experiences of exploring Brooklyn sex parties and being part of the swinger community.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Dame Rachel de Souza
Interviewed Guest: Dianne McKay
Interviewed Guest: Helen Barnard
Interviewed Guest: Victoria Benson
Interviewed Guest: Anna Day
Interviewed Guest: Vanessa Lawrence
Interviewed Guest: Rachel Krantz

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57 minutes

Broadcast

  • Wed 19 Jan 2022 10:00

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