Today’s show was a Women in Politics special. With both City Council and European Parliament elections coming up in May, we took the opportunity to invite a bunch of local women politicians into the studio.

The first hour saw us highlighting a couple of minor parties: TUSC and RESPECT. These are both essentially Socialist alternatives to Labour (who these days have drifted a long way from their roots). For the RESPECT lady we also had a group of kids from a local school doing work experience in the studio. I think they did very well for their first experience of political interviewing.

As Ellen from RESPECT was talking about the party’s origins in the anti-Iraq War movement, I did ask about the issue of arms fairs at a local university, which I know is getting some of the students very concerned. Sadly Ellen wasn’t aware of that one, but I hope to have some of the students in the studio next week.

The Listen Again link for the first hour is here.

In the second hour we had a more high powered group in. There were two ladies from the Lib Dems, one from Labour and one from the Greens. The Conservatives, sadly, were unable to send us anyone. Apparently they all have jobs and were unable to get time off.

Topics covered included the proposed biomass power plants at Avonmouth, the withdrawal of the Tory nominee for Lord Mayor over his alleged homophobic comments (both mentioned here), the “Boy’s Club Britain” report from the UN, and the need to get more women involved in local politics.

The Listen Again link for hour two is here.

I’m sorry that this week isn’t of much interest to people outside of Bristol, but I will make up for it next week. My first studio guest will be a certain Caroline Symcox who will be talking about life as a trainee woman vicar and possibly a little about being married to Paul Cornell.