Natalya Romaniw; Party political conference season, Essex Girls, the women behind the first hydrogen train.

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.1 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2020

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The opera singer Natalya Romaniw joins Jane to talk about the challenges performing live in the Covid-era and her latest role as Mimi in the ENO’s La Bohème at Alexandra Palace in London.

As the political party conference season comes to a close Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff and Katy Balls from the Spectator consider what, if any, policies are on the table for women. Men are disproportionately affected by Covid 19 in health terms but it is women who seem to be bearing the brunt of the economic fallout of the pandemic as well as taking on a larger share of domestic work and childcare. Is the virus a step back for women’s rights? And what are the political parties planning to do about it?

Apart from walking and cycling, the train is the greenest way of getting around. Trains, especially diesel ones, still emit carbon dioxide though. But, last week the first hydrogen train in the UK took its maiden journey. It’s 100% clean. There’s still a lot to do like making room for the batteries underneath the train, and increasing the speed. Jane talks to Helen Simpson and Chandra Morbey, two women – who do a jobshare – behind project.

We explore the issue of Essex Girls – the butt of countless jokes and preconceptions – with the Oxford English Dictionary referring to her as "unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic", while Collins adds "devoid of taste" to the mix. The author Sarah Perry has just penned a book in praise of the Essex Girl aimed at “profane and opinionated women everywhere” and she’s joined by the food writer and political campaigner Jack Monroe and a proud fellow Essex Girl.

Natalya Romaniw photo - copyright Patrick Allen.

Presented by Jane Garvey. Produced by Louise Corley Editor: Karen Dalziel

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.5	Hi, this is Jane Garvey and I'm going to be quick today to apologise. This is the Woman's
0:09.2	Hour podcast Wednesday, the 7th of October 2020. Hello, very good Wednesday morning to
0:15.1	you. Welcome to the programme. Today we're going to be talking to two women behind the Hydrogen
0:20.4	Train project. We did mention that on the programme yesterday and thanks to everybody who
0:25.3	has made suggestions for the Woman's Hour 2020 power list, we closed two suggestions
0:31.5	at midnight last night. Hundreds have come in, brilliant, looking forward to putting all
0:37.2	those names on the list or as many as we can and will reveal those names on the 16th of
0:42.4	November. The power list this year is all about our planet and brilliant women committing
0:48.4	huge amounts of their time in many cases for no money at all for the good of the environment.
0:53.8	So today the opera singer Natalia Romano will talk to her too and Essex Girls, Sarah Perry,
1:00.8	the novelist and Jack Monroe, a top chef will discuss their pride at being Essex Girls
1:06.9	on Woman's Hour today. And if you want to join in at BBC Woman's Hour on social media,
1:12.5	now let's just mark, well, the beginning of the end really of the virtual party conference
1:17.2	season, the S&P conference still to come. The Guardian columnist Gabby Hinsliff joins us,
1:22.2	Katie Balls from The Spectator. What we'd really like to know I guess is what's on the table
1:26.9	for women and to what degree did women's lives feature in the virtual conference season,
1:32.6	all very peculiar this year, of course. You may have seen some of the Prime Minister's address
1:37.7	yesterday in an empty room, not easy to do. Gabby and Katie, good morning to you both, how are you?
1:44.2	Good morning. Good to have you on. Let's start with you, Gabby, if you don't mind. What have
1:50.8	you noticed about women, or perhaps the absence of women during the conference season, or what
1:56.4	passes for it this year? As you say, it's been a very odd sort of truncated conference season,
	...

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