Fatima Manji

With hospitality businesses struggling with strikes, the cold weather and the cost of living crisis, we’ve been speaking to Sacha Lord, Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, and asked him about the current state of the sector.

We spoke to the General Secretary of the PCS Union, Mark Serwotka.

We spoke to Alex Veitch, director of policy at the BCC who wrote the report, and Ben Habib, a former Brexit Party MEP and the chief executive of a property business. 

Dr. Seggane Musisi is from Makerere University College of Health Sciences and his research includes the study of mental health care in Africa. 

We were also joined from the Scottish Parliament by Susan Smith, a director of For Women Scotland, which opposes gender self-identification – and Colin MacFarlane from the equality campaign group Stonewall Scotland.

We spoke to Ellie Gomersall, a trans woman who is president of the National Union of Students Scotland, and sits on the board of campaign group the Equality Network.

A controversial law making it easier for transgender people in Scotland to change the gender recorded on their birth certificate is reaching its final stages in the Scottish parliament.

We spoke to Nargis Nehan, a former minister with the Afghan government and women’s rights activist, about the Taliban’s decision to ban women from university.

US government employee Anne Sacoolas has avoided jail and been given a suspended sentence for causing the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn. She was sentenced at the Old Bailey today – more than three years after hitting the 19-year-old as she drove on the wrong side of the road near a US military base…

Fatima is joined by Deanne Ferguson, from the GMB union, she was a Labour parliamentary candidate in 2019 and from London by Kate Nicholls, who is the Chief Executive of UK Hospitality.

We also put some of those points to Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray, and started by asking whether the voters he meets on the doorstep actually care about reforming the House of Lords.

We spoke to Baroness Hayman, the former Labour minister who was Lord Speaker of the House of Lords between 2006 and 2011, and began by asking her if Labour’s plan for more elected democracy was a good thing.

After more than two months of unrest that’s seen hundreds of people killed by security forces, Iran’s government has made – what on the face of it – appears to be a concession to anti-government protesters, by disbanding the country’s morality police. 

The Home Secretary has confirmed that the head of the police watchdog for England and Wales has been forced to resign after becoming the subject of a criminal investigation. 

We speak to Pat Cullen, who is General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.