Tracking and tracing the rise of Dido Harding
The Story
Dan box
4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last week Dido Harding, the former amateur jockey and TalkTalk boss who since May has been the head of the ramshackle NHS Test and Trace programme, was put in charge of England’s new pandemic response agency. Sunday Times business reporter Sabah Meddings traces Harding’s rise to the top of one of the most important organisations in the country.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Guest: Sabah Meddings, pharma, consumer and leisure correspondent for The Sunday Times.
Clips: BBC News, Talkradio, Sky News, BBC Radio 4, UWE Bristol, The King’s Fund, OECD.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As we teeter on the brink of a potential second wave, knowing we're still in the throes of a global pandemic, it may seem |
| 0:16.7 | like an odd moment to scrap the public health body leading our response to the virus. |
| 0:27.1 | We need to bring together the response to the pandemic |
| 0:30.5 | in one institution. |
| 0:32.2 | Baroness Harding has been the chair of NHS improvement, |
| 0:36.0 | so her leadership will be vital in driving this forwards. |
| 0:40.0 | At the head of the new National Institute for Health Protection will be someone who might not |
| 0:45.6 | seem like the obvious choice either. Baroness Dido Harding. |
| 0:50.7 | Why is she the right person for this job? |
| 0:52.4 | Is she qualified for it? |
| 0:53.6 | Yeah, absolutely. She's simply the best person who could be doing this job now. |
| 0:59.2 | It seems to be happening time and time again that senior appointments are made and it's not quite clear |
| 1:04.8 | who arrived at the decision, why they arrived at it and why no one else was considered for the |
| 1:08.9 | role. |
| 1:09.9 | In the middle of a pandemic, it put someone in with no real health experience. It doesn't sort of instill confidence. |
| 1:17.0 | What do we know about the test and trace Baroness, and what does her appointments say about power and influence in Britain. |
| 1:25.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:30.0 | I'm Manveen Rana. Today, tracking and tracing the rise of Dido Harding. This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits |
| 1:56.7 | to spend on Uber eats, so you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 2:02.3 | Trains. instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 2:06.0 | Trains, now on Uber. Tees and C's apply. |
| 2:07.0 | Check the Uber app. |
... |
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