Women With Balls: the Nadine Dorries edition

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Nadine Dorries is the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sports and MP for Mid Bedfordshire. After leaving school at 16, Dorries went on to become a nurse and an entrepreneur before entering politics at the age of 49. She was a minister in the Department of Health during the pandemic, and in her current role is leading five bills at DCMS through Parliament, including the controversial Online Safety Bill.

On the podcast, she talks to Katy Balls about her plans for the BBC and Channel 4, why she believes much of the criticism against her comes from those unable to accept her background, and where her red line would be in sticking up for Boris Johnson, as one of his most loyal allies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator Economic Innovative of the Year awards, sponsored by InvestTech, are open for entries.
0:07.2	If you are an entrepreneur-led business bringing radical change to its sector, please apply at www.
0:14.0	We are looking for entries all across the UK, and our closing date is the 4th of July.
0:27.2	Hello and welcome to Woman of Balls, where I Katie Balls speak to today's trailblazers.
0:32.8	My guest today was born in Liverpool to an Irish Catholic father and a Protestant mother.
0:37.4	At the age of 16,
0:38.4	she left school and soon after trained as a nurse at Warrington General Hospital, before
0:42.8	starting her own business, a child daycare service for working parents. She then made her move into
0:48.8	politics, firstly as an advisor to Oliver Letwin, and then in 2005, she won her seat in mid-Bedfordshire,
0:56.0	with 11,000 majority in Parliament.
0:58.8	She quickly made waves as a politician willing to speak her mind,
1:02.4	describing the Tory leaders, David Cameron and George Osborne,
1:05.6	as two arrogant posh boys with no passion to want or understand the lives of others.
1:13.0	She also made history, as the first sitting MP to appear in reality television through I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, leading to her
1:18.4	brief suspension. A best-selling novelist, she joined the Department of Health in 2019 and was
1:25.4	appointed Minister for Mental Health and Patient Safety.
1:28.3	But her biggest promotion came last year when Boris Johnson named her as the new Culture Secretary.
1:34.0	Since taking on the role, she has regularly made the news for her bid to rid the arts and media,
1:38.8	world of snobbery and elitism, and is now charged with steering the online harms bill through Parliament,
1:45.3	the privatisation of Channel 4 and what happens to Chelsea Football Club, and that's before we get to the BBC, all while
1:51.6	finding time to defend the Prime Minister from criticism. My guest today is Nadine Dorris.
1:56.5	Nadine, thank you very much for coming on the podcast today. We want you on for a long time, so thrilled
	...

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