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20/01/2015

Morning news. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day and a special Democracy Day edition of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4's Public Philosopher.

Including from 0830 a special Democracy Day edition of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4's Public Philosopher in which Professor Michael Sandel goes inside the Palace of Westminster to explore the nature and limits of democracy, challenging an audience of MPs, Peers and the public to apply some critical thinking to what democracy really means.

3 hours

Last on

Tue 20 Jan 2015 06:00

Today's running order

0710

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers is calling on the world's big drugs companies to slash the price of children's vaccines. It says it costs 68 times as much to vaccinate a child now as it cost in 2001. AND it says because there's no competition or transparency some developing countries have to pay more than wealthy European ones for vaccines. Rohit Malpani is from MSF.

0715

In an interview with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Political Editor Nick Robinson for β€˜Can Democracy Work?’ on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage says that β€œwe’re all going to have to return” to the debate about replacing the NHS with an insurance based system of healthcare. He was asked to confirm that his honest view was that he didn’t love the NHS.

0720

Children at risk at school, not at risk of being badly taught or hurt in the playground, but at risk from gunmen who might kill them.Μύ That is the reality of Jewish schools on the continent, and the reality here after the attacks in Paris and the suggestion that they may be at higher risk from Islamist killers.ΜύΜύ Sanchia Berg has been to a school in North London where they feel they have to take the threat seriously.

0725

The people of Greece are voting in a general election on Sunday. Tomorrow John will be presenting the programme from Athens and considering the options for Greek voters. Today is Democracy Day on the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ, 24 hours marking the 750th anniversary of the first Westminster Parliament. But as John explains, Westminster was not the first example of a democratic system.

0730

Doctors have performed the first ever organ transplant from a newborn in the UK. The baby was starved of oxygen before birth. Doctors at Imperial College NHS Trust in London say in an act of "extraordinary generosity" her parents agreed that her organs could be donated when her heart stopped beating, six days later. Her kidneys and liver cells were successfully transplanted to two separate recipients. Dr Gaurav Atreja is a consultant neonatologist at Imperial Hospital NHS Trust, who cared for the baby until her death and spoke to the parents about organ donation.

0740

The actress Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street, has died.Μύ Her husband said she passed away at a hospital in Manchester following a short illness.Μύ Deirdre Barlow was one of Coronation Street's most popular characters since the early 1970s. Nigel Havers played Lewis Archer in Coronation Street and has known Anne Kirkbride since 1970.

0750

For Democracy Day, can modern democracy withstand the forces that threaten to destabilise it, such as external threats like extremist attacks or internal threats like voter apathy? And, especially in the light of the Charlie Hebdo attack, how important is protecting freedom of speech? Sylvie Bermann is French Ambassador to the UK. Matthew Barzun is American Ambassador to the UK.

0810

After forty four years Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper, The Sun, has stopped printing pictures of topless women on page three. In recent years it has come under growing pressure from campaigners who argued that the practice was conditioning readers to view women as sex objects. There has been no official announcement from The Sun about the change, which means the paper isn’t bound to stick to it, and could always reverse the decision if it results in a decline in sales. Today’s page three shows two women running across a beach in their bikinis. The last topless shot was on Friday. Steve Hewlett presents the media show on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Four. Stella Creasy is MP for Walthamstow.

0818

We asked the sound artist Matthew Herbert from the New Radiophonic Workshop to tinker with the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Language Services' readings of a particularly poetic section of the Magna Carta.

0820

According to research by the Pew Hispanic Centre in Washington, more than 60 per cent of Americans support President Obama's decision to restore relations with Cuba. Yet barely a third believe it will make any impact to democracy on the communist island. Tomorrow the question of democracy may well feature on the agenda in the historic talks due to be held in Havana between the US and Cuban governments. But as our correspondent, Will Grant, reports from Havana, for the first time in almost 60 years, there was no precondition for Cuba's political system to change before the talks could go ahead.

0830

in a rather unusual last half-hour of the programme, we're handing over to Michael Sandel, Radio 4's Public Philosopher, with a special 'Democracy Day' edition of his programme recorded yesterday deep inside the Palace of Westminster.

All subject to change.

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Broadcast

  • Tue 20 Jan 2015 06:00