meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Woman's Hour

Baroness Ruth Davidson; The science of knitting; Spiking by injection

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former Scottish Conservative leader – the recently ennobled Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links - will be giving her maiden speech in the House of Lords on Friday as part of a debate on assisted dying. She used to be against amending the law on assisted dying but had a change of heart last year. She explains why to Emma.

The Home Secretary Priti Patel has requested an urgent update from the police following a spate of recent cases where women's drinks have been spiked. With multiple reports also emerging of women being spiked by injection in clubs in Glasgow and Nottingham, journalist and author Lucy Ward last night shared texts from her student daughter on Twitter- Lucy speaks to Emma.

Are you a keen knitter? Have you ever considered that patterns for knitting your jumpers, hats or gloves could be seen as having parallels to computer coding? Do we undervalue the scientific aspects of some female-dominated skills? Emma speaks to Shetland knitter and pattern writer Hazel Tindall - aka World's Fastest Knitter - and to Sue Montgomery, who went viral in 2019 for knitting data into a shawl.

Women Talk Back, a feminist society at Bristol University is filing a legal case today against Bristol Students' Union, after they say they were sanctioned by the union for running women-only meetings. This issue came to a head last March when they refused admission at one of their events to a trans woman. Raquel Rosario Sanchez is the President of the group and joins Emma.

A company that speed-grows coral in the Bahamas is among the winners of the inaugural Earthshot Prize – the new annual awards created by the Duke of Cambridge to reward people trying to save the planet. There were five winners announced at the star-studded ceremony in London on Sunday, each receiving £1m. Alannah Vellacott is Coral Vita's Coral Restoration Specialist and takes Emma through the process and why it's so important.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.6

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.4

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

0:14.3

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

0:20.4

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.

0:41.0

Hello I'm Emma Barnet and welcome to Womensa from BBC. podcasts. it is, when is it not? I want to ask you something you may find difficult to admit.

0:55.0

I want to ask you about changing your mind.

0:58.0

What is the biggest thing you have changed your mind about?

1:01.0

Perhaps you are absolutely resolute, and then something happened, or you met

1:06.0

someone, or perhaps it was getting a bit older and you suddenly saw something in a different light.

1:13.4

I was speaking to one of my producers before coming on air this morning, she says simply

1:16.7

her family don't change their mind.

1:18.6

Maybe you're in that camp.

1:20.3

But one of my first guests today, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, now Baroness Ruth Davidson,

1:26.0

has changed her mind over something significant, assisted dying.

1:30.0

She now supports a change in the law having previously been against it.

1:35.0

We're going to those details shortly.

1:37.0

Yours may be far less serious and I still want to hear about it or it may be incredibly consequential. Another question though with that if I can,

1:46.2

have you admitted it? Maybe you had a big row about it, maybe you had a big discussion with somebody,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.