Jess Phillips MP on remembering Jo Cox and speaking truth to power

06/25/20 • 37 min

Jess Phillips is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley and the author of Truth to Power and Everywoman. When she’s not standing up in the House of Commons, calling out the prime minister for playing “bully-boy games” during Brexit votes, she’s shedding light on the reality of being a woman in politics. That reality is pretty terrifying. She receives death and rape threats every day of her life. And one night received 600 rape threats in one night. She has panic alarms installed in her home and office.

On 16 June 2016, Phillips’s friend, the MP Jo Cox, was assassinated by a far-right terrorist in her constituency. We spoke to Phillips about Jo Cox, and how she should be remembered. In this episode, Phillips talks about her admiration for Annie Kenney, the working-class suffragette and socialist feminist. She also discusses the lessons we can learn from Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist who was murdered in October 2017. Phillips also pays tribute to the activists behind Ireland's Repeal The 8th campaign to legalise abortion.

Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.

Special thanks to Jess Phillips MP, Midas PR, and Octopus Books.

Credits:

Host and creator: Rachel Thompson

Producers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay Nikolov

Editor: Shannon Connellan

Music: Christianne Straker

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.

Special thanks to Jess Phillips MP, Midas PR, and Octopus Books.

Credits:

Host and creator: Rachel Thompson

Producers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay Nikolov

Editor: Shannon Connellan

Music: Christianne Straker

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday on the 1967 Abortion Act and their campaign to decriminalise abortion

Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday are campaigning to decriminalise abortion in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Diane Munday campaigned to legalise abortion in Britain in the 1960s. Her activism has not only changed women’s lives in this country — but saved them. Munday had a termination in 1961, when it was illegal. Her husband’s salary meant she was able to afford the procedure. But a friend of hers who had a backstreet abortion died. She went on to fight for the legalisation of abortion in Britain. Over 50 years after the 1967 Abortion Act was passed, Munday is fighting for legal reform.

Along with journalist Vicky Spratt, Munday is fighting for the decrimalisation of abortion in England and Wales. Spratt has also changed the law. Her #MakeRentingFair campaign resulted in the government banning letting agency fees for tenants.

Now, Spratt and Munday — two women who’ve already changed the law — are campaigning legal reform with Refinery29's #ImACriminal campaign. Listen to the episode to find out more about this important campaign. You can sign their Change.org petition here.

Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.

Special thanks to Refinery29, Vicky Spratt, Diane Munday, and Nina Joyce.

Credits:

Host and creator: Rachel Thompson

Producers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay Nikolov

Editor: Shannon Connellan

Music: Christianne Straker

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Caroline Criado Perez and Tracy King on the gender data gap that's putting lives at risk

Caroline Criado Perez is an author and feminist campaigner. Tracy King is a writer and campaigner. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez exposes the erasure of women in a world that’s been designed BY men FOR men — and men alone. In this world, women sit shivering in offices set to male temperatures, they hold phones that are too big for their hands, they struggle to reach the rail on the tube set to a male height. But discomfort is just one part of the puzzle. This data gap is also putting women’s lives at risk. Invisible Women delves into the consequences of not collecting data specific to women and proves that decision-makers in urban planning, transportation, policy, design, science, and manufacturing are overlooking the needs of half the world's population. Writer and campaigner Tracy King ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to send a copy of the book to every MP in the country in the hope that lawmakers will take action against the gender data gap at the heart of this systemic discrimination. Those books have now been delivered to every single MP.

This episode is the Season One finale of History Becomes Her. We'd like to say a massive thank you to all our lovely listeners for tuning in to our very first season.

Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.

Special thanks to Tracy King, Caroline Criado Perez, and 89up.

Credits:

Host and creator: Rachel Thompson

Producers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay Nikolov

Editor: Shannon Connellan

Music: Christianne Straker

Illustration: Vicky Leta

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.