Woman's Hour - Everton Football Club

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Known as ‘The People’s Club’, Everton football club has reacted quickly to the coronavirus outbreak by adapting its current community outreach programme to offer support to people across Liverpool. Jenni speaks to Everton player Simone Magill about how she is training at home and their director of Youth Engagement, Employability and Sports Development, Sue Gregory, about how the club has adapted their community to support those affected by coronavirus.The Early Years Alliance has warned that thousands of nurseries are facing permanent closure after the government appeared to change its guidance on furloughing staff. Jenni discusses the issue with Shannon Pite, Public Affairs Director of the Early Years Alliance which represents 14,000 providers. Over the last few weeks we've been focusing on the heightened risk to those experiencing domestic abuse in the UK during lockdown. How much is this being replicated in Europe? Jenni speaks to Natalie Higgins, Senior Europe Producer for the BBC.In Stephanie Scott’s debut novel, a man hired to have an affair with a woman by her husband slips up when he falls deeply in love. Stephanie joins Jenni to discuss the true story behind the novel.How to rediscover your wardrobe during lockdown. Emma Slade Edmondson is a consultant specialising in fashion, lifestyle and retail. She gives advice on how to fall in love with what’s already in your wardrobe, with tips on styling of clothing we already own for spring. Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Louise Corley Editor Karen Dalziel Interviewed Guest: Simone Magill Interviewed Guest: Sue Gregory Interviewed Guest: Natalie Higgins Interviewed Guest: Stephanie Scott Interviewed Guest: Emma Slade Edmondson

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Natalia Melman-Petrozzella, and from the BBC, this is Extreme Peak Danger. The most beautiful mountain in the world. If you die on the mountain, you stay on the mountain. This is the story of what happened when 11 climbers died on one of the world's deadliest mountains, K2, and of the risks we'll take to feel truly alive. If I tell all the details, you won't believe it anymore. Extreme, peak danger. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello, Jenny Murray welcoming you to The Woman's Hour podcast for Monday the 20th of April. Good morning. In today's programme, a debut novel inspired by a true story. Stephanie Scott's What's Left of Me Is Yours is set in Japan, where there's a growing industry in what are known as marriage breakup agents. Everton Football Club is known in Liverpool as the People's Club. How have they adapted their community outreach programme during lockdown? We've discussed the rise in domestic violence in this country since we've all been confined to home. How much is it being replicated across Europe and how are other countries handling it?

And shopping for clothes for spring and summer isn't really on the cards. How to fall in love with the wardrobe you have, refresh it and retain it. Now the Early Years Alliance has warned that thousands of nurseries are facing permanent closure after the government appeared to change its guidance on furloughing staff. In March the Department for Education confirmed that nurseries would continue to receive the funding which pays for the 30 hours that children of working parents receive. It also confirmed that those childcare workers not looking after the children of key workers could be furloughed under the coronavirus job retention scheme, where the government would refund 80% of their salaries. Well, last week, that guidance was clarified to say that the job retention scheme would, and I quote,

only cover up to the proportion of its pay bill which could be considered to have been paid for from that provider's private income. Well, Shannon Piety is Public Affairs Director of the Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 providers. Shannon, I have to say that is not the clearest sentence i have ever read what do you take it to mean hi jenny i think that a lot of child care providers that have been grappling with the guidance over the weekend would agree with me there essentially i think the principle of what the government is saying ironically is actually Rwy'n credu bod y prinsiple o'r hyn y mae'r Llywodraeth yn ei ddweud yn ironigol yn iawn, yw bod, os yw'r darparwyr, ac yn gyfan, rydym yn siarad am nyrsiau a chyngorau, ond mae'n effeithio hefyd ar dynion plant sy'n cymorth cyflogwyr,

os ydynt yn derbyn arian cynllun gynharach ac mae'r arian yn mynd tuag at costau staff, mae'n dweud nad yw'n dda iddynt derbyn yr hyn y byddant yn ei ystyried fel arian cymorth cymorth gan ddynion gynllun ac yn cael cefnogaeth Llywodraeth ar gyfer cyllid staff eto. Mae'r problem yn benodol llwyr oherwydd mae gwasanaethau gofal yn defnyddio cyllid cyllid cynnar am llawer mwy na cyllid staff. Maen nhw'n ei ddefnyddio ar gyfer ffyniadau a ffyniadau, am ymwneud â chyfrifon, am ddod â'r defnyddion. Felly mae'r Llywodraeth wedi gwneud yn ystod y cyfnod diwedd, yn ymgynghori cyfrifiad cyflym iawn, utilities. So what the government has done is at the very last minute applied a very overly simplistic calculation, which is dramatically restricting the amount of financial support

that childcare providers can get at a difficult time. And of course, as you rightly point out, the initial guidance was made available four weeks ago. And at the last minute, six o'clock on Friday, they published this new guidance that said, actually actually it's not quite how it seemed and so providers at the very last minute are having to work out what impact this is going to have on their businesses many of whom have already furloughed workers on the understanding of the original guidance. What have your members been telling you about the position that they now feel they're in? I mean we over the weekend have been absolutely deluged with with emails and concerns i had a manager of five nurseries uh they're all outstanding they that manager's

worked in the sector for 30 years and they've been remaining open for critical workers and they've been providing additional free child care for local nhs workers and they say they now may be forced to close and that 47 employees jobs are at risk because they based their budgeting on the understanding of the original guidance they said they've had unbearable stress over the weekend because they've got this at the last minute and don't know what to do with it how does how does support shannon for private nurseries differ from what state preschools are getting so at this point the the private nurseries receive early entitlement funding so that would be as you say for the 30 hours but also the 15 hours and

vulnerable two-year-olds so all early years providers can receive government funding for entitlement funding but early years providers in the private business private businesses have to make sure that they remain viable so they have to you know we talk about break even really if you're a business you want to be able to run a profit so you can reinvest into your business so i think the problem is is that private and voluntary non-state run nurseries preschools and childminders are being treated as if they're just schools as if it's like yn cael eu trafod fel sefydliadau, fel sefydliadau sy'n cael eu darparu, mae'n rhaid iddyn nhw ddarparu addysg, mae'n rhaid iddyn nhw agor cymorth cyfrifol yn y pryd. Ond maen nhw'n busnesau ac maen nhw'n rhaid iddynt gael gweithredaeth. Rydym yn siarad am gweithredaeth fel os oes yn beth negidol,

rydym yn siarad am gwasanaethau pryw, fel os oes yn ddifrifol. Maen nhw'n busnesau sy'n rhaid iddynt gael gweithredaeth i gynnal y gofal bwysig. Mae'r Llywodraeth yn ystyried ei fod wedi'i ddysgu yn yr holl hyn, sustainable to provide this vital care. And the government seems to have forgotten in all of this that once we get through this crisis, these providers have to be sustainable to continue to provide care in the long term for families. Now, I know lots of parents are being asked to pay fees to keep their place, even though their own income may have decreased or even disappeared. What are nurseries doing to try and help parents? I mean, I think I would challenge the idea that, you know, it's a kind of majority.

I think there's a very small minority of providers who aren't in a position to waive fees entirely. I know that, you know, I have a one-year-old at the moment. We have no childcare. It's in my contract that if the nursery closes temporarily I have to pay fees but my nursery has waived that to support their parents like me so there's a lot of providers who have in their contract that yes if we have to close temporarily you know because I don't know because of snow for example we need you to continue paying fees because our costs continue but no one predicted something like the coronavirus where there'd be months and months of closures so a lot of providers have actually said to parents even though it says that in your contract we're going to try and be as flexible as possible

but they did so on the basis of the original government guidance and the financial support they thought they were going to get which now isn't as it seems. So what do nurseries need if they are going to be able to be open at the end of the lockdown? They need what was originally suggested by government which is their costs to be covered so that the fact that they are not getting the amount of parental fees that they would have been getting but they still have outgoings they still need to pay their staff they still need to pay their rents and their mortgages they still need to pay utilities staff, they still need to pay their rents and their mortgages, they still need to pay utilities and insurance, they need money to cover that. And the government has made a big deal about the fact that it's doing this unprecedented spending to keep the economy churning over to get through this crisis. So the early years sector, and again I say it's

nurseries, but it is also childminders with assistants affected by this. They just want what the government has promised everybody else, which is to do what is needed to get us through this time and ensure that businesses can keep running once this is all over. Well, Shannon Pite, thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning. We did try to get a comment from the Department for Education. None has as yet been forthcoming. But if this is a problem that's going to face you, whether you're a parent or you run a nursery,

do let us know what's going on for you because you can contact us on email or indeed on Twitter. Now, if you've been listening regularly to Woman's Hour in the weeks we've been asked to stay at home, you'll know we've discussed the heightened risk of domestic abuse in the UK during lockdown. How much is the rise being replicated across Europe and how are different countries responding to gender-based violence during the pandemic? Well, Natalie Higgins is Senior Europe Producer for the BBC and joins us from Brussels.

Natalie, we know the murder of a young Italian doctor was widely reported in Italy. What happened to Lorena Quaranta? Yes, Jenny, Lorena's case was widely reported in Italy and beyond. She was a 27-year-old woman from Sicily, and she was on the brink of qualifying as a doctor when she died at the end of March. Now, we think more than 100 doctors have died during the pandemic in Italy, but Lorena's case was different. It wasn't the virus that killed her. Her boyfriend, who's a nurse, told the police that he killed

her. And it may partly have been that contrast that led to her story cutting through so much in the Italian media. But it served to highlight the issue of domestic abuse during the lockdown, which women's groups had already been trying to raise awareness of. Just like in normal times, some cases of femicide get a lot more attention and others get less, even though they're no less shocking. And we do know of other cases too. Just on Saturday night near Milan, a woman called Alessandra was reportedly killed by her partner. And in Spain, we can actually be quite precise because of the way that gender-based violence is monitored there. A woman was killed in a town called Almasora near Valencia. Her name was Karina. Her husband confessed to killing her and turned himself in.

And a 78-year-old woman in Gran Canaria was also confirmed to be a gender violence death. So the 17th and 18th deaths of women at the hands of a current or former partner in Spain this year. And these are, of course, just the death that we know about already and just the most extreme iteration of domestic abuse, which takes many forms. So how much of a widespread spike in domestic abuse is showing up in the statistics? I mean you said those ones in Spain are known about but there may well be many others.

Well as ever with statistics it depends a little bit on what you look at so it's now been about five weeks since large parts of Europe came to a standstill, which isn't very long to gather, verify and publish statistical data. And on top of that, we're talking about a lot of different countries. But among the numbers that we do have access to already, there are strong indications of a rise in domestic abuse. In France, the government said reports to police had gone up by a third and by more than

that in Paris. This morning, the Ministry of the Interior in France told me that police call-outs to what they call domestic disputes have doubled compared to the same period last year. In Spain, calls to the National Helpline went up 18% in the first fortnight of the state of alarm there compared to the same period in the previous month. But by the second fortnight, it was 48% higher. And police have carried out 25% more checks on women who are victims of violence than they normally would. Just a few other countries where I've spoken to people on the front line,

calls tripling for the French language helpline in Belgium, double the calls in Cyprus, double the calls for emergency shelters in Denmark, contacts to a network of 80 women's centres across Italy, up 75% compared to the average month. But in among those numbers, Jenny, there's some numbers that seem a bit incongruous or don't go along with the trend. So in Spain, there's been suggestions of a decrease in complaints to police. In France, calls to the helpline were at one point decreasing. And people on the front line have told me,

you know, it would be wrong to conclude from those exceptions that there's less domestic abuse happening. But rather, we should conclude that women are finding it hard to report in these circumstances. Obviously, I mean, we've seen in this country that the lockdown can prove to be a barrier for victims seeking help because they can't make a phone call, they can't get outside to make a complaint but what kind of support is available in different countries? I was intrigued by something in Spain called Mask 19. How does that work? Yes, so MASC19 is a new scheme that was launched in the Canary Islands by the Institute for Equality there. It's basically a code word. So if you go into a pharmacy and you ask for MASC19, the pharmacy staff know that they should call the

police and support staff for the women and either bring those people to the pharmacy if the women can wait or send them to her home. In one case we know that that was used in Tenerife by a woman who hadn't been able to get out of her partner's home for two weeks and she used that code word while he was waiting for her outside the pharmacy door. So having started in the Canary Islands that's now expanded across Spain and to lots of other countries as far afield as colombia and uganda and so that is one way of matching the challenge of these new circumstances and using one of the few places that women can still freely go to as a center for help so in france they've done a similar thing with drop-in centres and hypermarkets. And another trend is increasing the silent ways that you can ask for help. So in Spain, for example, we talked about calls to the national helpline doubling if you can call,

but email contact is up by 733% in the last two weeks compared to the same period last month. And they're launching new psychological support messaging services via WhatsApp, which got 730-odd inquiries in its first nine days. So there are new initiatives to match the challenges of these new circumstances. How possible is it to assess which countries, which cultures are the worst affected? It's a reasonable question and it's one that I wanted to try to answer when I started reporting on this subject to you know to see where the spikes were the highest but that's really difficult because the numbers that I've been talking through with you are comparing the picture in an individual

country before and after the lockdown. To compare countries to each other, to see who's doing the worst and the best requires data that you can compare that measures the same things. And at a European level, that doesn't really exist. Experts in the area are saying we need better harmonisation of the data across Europe, at minimum, if people could be gathering, if countries could be gathering the gender of the victim, the gender of the perpetrator and the relationship between them so that it would be easier to identify gender-based crimes and intimate partner violence. Lots of countries don't gather that way and some are very resistant to changing it. And even if they did change it, reluctance to share it

sometimes, because there aren't necessarily shared definitions. So what constitutes a partner? What constitutes abuse? It would be possible to change that, but it requires political will and requires some governments to get past reservations about privacy, squeamishness about being seen to poke their nose into what's going on at home and some concern that what they perceive as their values are being challenged by that. How surprising is it that the Scandinavian countries, which are famous for their equality and equal relations, seem to have high numbers of abuse?

Well, the numbers that you're referring to there from 2014 and that was a survey of women so obviously there's lots of things we can measure um in terms of measuring domestic abuse calls to helplines reports of crimes um sadly deaths of women but that survey was women being asked if they had experienced violence from a current or former partner. And the highest result was in Denmark at 32%, which seems confusing, right? Because you might think, well, the progressive liberal societies will be the most enlightened and there'll be the least violence. And in the same survey, you're seeing very low results for Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Austria. But that may also be because, like the governments, women

themselves might define abuse differently. So reporting that you've been a victim or a survivor depends on you recognising and acknowledging that what happened to you was abuse, and also overcoming the shame that remains pervasive in terms of reporting it and being able to say that that happened to you. So cultural issues play a part, not just at government level, but also in the minds of individual women. Natalie Higgins, thank you very much indeed for joining us from Brussels this morning. Now there are two football clubs in Liverpool. Liverpool are the Reds and Everton are the Blues.

And it's Everton that's known as the People's Club. It has a community outreach programme which offers support to the population across the city, whether they support Everton or not. But of course, they've had to make quick adjustments to the programme because of the restrictions imposed as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus. Simon McGill plays forward for Everton and for Northern

Ireland internationally. Sue Gregory is Director of Youth Engagement, Employability and Sport Development at Everton in the community. So Sue, let me start with you. What sort of community work do you do under normal circumstances? Hi, morning normally my remit is all over as you mentioned our youth department which we deliver under our impact model so we go in education establishments and from primaries right up to adult education in areas of mass deprivation primarily just to overcome them inequalities within education. Then we have our massive sports and youth zone activity to keep young people hooked into positive activities. And then we have our support arm, which is targeted support work or one that can respond to the needs coming out of the other models. We then also have a massive Pathways project,

which is engaging local employers to inspire them young people for legitimate careers. And what sort of changes then have you had to make as a result of the lockdown? Well, because we had an excellent infrastructure anyway and all the networks in place, we just mobilized in a different way so we launched our blue family campaign primarily to support straight away those vulnerable within our city whether you support football or not so that was our general blue family campaign and then that also supports our existing participants that we had in our delivery models. So straight away, we're calling them, our support work is going out.

We've got a list of priority of families that need more support that we know are living in mass poverty. So they were our priority. So it's just mobilising differently, really, to still meet those needs. You've been helping with food, I think, haven't you yeah we've a variety of stuff we've done and meet emergency food parcels hygiene parcels giving people food vouchers got metal medical prescriptions gas electricity essential kitchen equipment which has been quite a surprise to me about the level of reliance the families have had on the school network so providing basic cutlery microwaves for those families to give a hot meal to the young people so it's been quite a variety now simone as a player what's been the

impact on players like you i mean you're there to play the game. You can't play a game. So what have you been doing? Yeah, it's a strange time. It's a strange time for everybody. And, you know, obviously, you know, we're used to being out on the pitch every day and playing football,

and obviously we can't do that at the minute. So it is very strange for us all. And even not being able to be with each other physically as well is quite strange. You know, you're used to spending so much time together as a team, and to not be able to do that is very strange in itself as well. How are you coping with your training? Yeah, no, the club have been excellent, obviously, in this kind of strange time um they've you know they've handled it quite well in terms of we've all got individual programs sent out and they got gym equipment to us so that we could all work from home and we could you know complete our fitness regimes from home

and stuff like that so um in terms of how they handled it and dealt with it it was really good. And how involved have you been able to be in the community, the Blue Family idea and something called Girls Onside? Yeah, no what the Blue Family campaign does is fantastic and you know I've done a couple little

bits to help out in terms of I made a phone call to one of the girls from the disability team just to check in, just to see how they're coping during this time, just to make sure they're okay. You know, to try and bring about a smile on some people's faces during this time. I've also done some children's reading bedtime stories. Again, just something different, just to reach out to our fans and members in society, just to try and bring about a smile on their face.

So let me come back to you. What role generally does football play in the community and how do you feed the passion for football when there aren't any games well a city like liverpool obviously football is a massive passion and it's a way of life and a major social good in many people's lives but it offers that sense of family and that's companionship and that's what we've noticed pulled together so it was very we were very aware that we needed to maintain that so we've been staying in touch offering support and re-emphasizing getting touch for referrals but as Simone said we

players have also been making calls to people giving them nice surprises as well as staff so we've made over 70 well over 800 1800 calls just to check in but then we're also trying to keep that rhythm of football in place by posting classic matches new commentary and what would be match days and just keeping that familiarity really with the fans so social media must be playing quite an important role in keeping the club morale up massive um not only for our fans as well but the club have been amazing in um well being allowing us to get our education side stuff on allowing their platform to be used to help families educate the children keeping in touch mentoring young people so social media is a massive, probably a way forward that, you know,

as we come out of this, that we'll rely on a lot more. Well, Sue Gregory and Simone McGill, thank you both very much indeed for joining us this morning. And I'm sure you're both looking forward to the lockdown going and me having to get back to your proper work.

Thank you very much indeed for being with us. Oh, thank you for having us. Now, still to come in today's programme, how to fall in love with your wardrobe, retain and refresh when you can't go out to buy new stuff for the spring. And of course, the serial, the first episode of Curious Under the Stars, the latest week of that drama. Now, it was not uncommon in the days before no-fault divorce for a husband

or wife to persuade a mate to maybe join them in a hotel room and be caught in flagrante to provide the evidence of infidelity. Well there's a not dissimilar system in Japan where a spouse looking for divorce has to prove fault and there's a system of what are known as wakarisa seya or marriage breakup agents they're paid to lure a husband or wife into an affair and again provide the evidence well it's a system which is at the heart of a debut novel by stephanie scott what's left of me is yours now reena is married is married to Osamu, who wants a divorce. He hires Kai to seduce his wife. And here they meet for the first time in the market.

Rina browsed beneath the heat of the lamps. It was warm for spring and muggy. The stench of stagnant water from the pavement rose into the air, along with the bittersweet scents of char-grilled squid and corn on the cob. She'd stopped in front of a display of gnashy pears, their golden skins shining bright beneath the lamps when he approached her. Excuse me, do you know where I could find a good cheesecake? Rina looked up. He was tall, taller than the usual salaryman, and slender, and there were crinkles around his eyes, perhaps from laughter. She gestured to a stall behind her. Try over there, she said. But are they any good?

Rina considered this. I'm not sure. She was aware that she was frowning, as though this were a grave matter. The cream looks too light. Oh no. Hmm, Rina nodded, biting back a smile. Can I buy you a coffee, he asked, smiling with her. I'm married. I know, he said. You do? Your wedding ring. While things don't go quite to plan, Kai and Rina fall in love with disastrous consequences, and the story is told by Rina's daughter, Sumiko. I'm joined by the author, Stephanie Scott. Stephanie, a true story inspired this novel. What happened in the true story?

Hi, good morning, Jenny. In the true story, the Wakarisesa agent fell in love with his target and they were going to live happily ever after. But when she found out the role he played in the breakdown of her marriage, she tried to leave him and he strangled her. And in the real case, he turned himself into the police and confessed very quickly. And as he was doing so, he said, but I loved her and I couldn't live without her and I love her still. And this made me sort of feel compelled to explore what love means to each of us, you know, how we love, what we're capable of doing to each other for love. And that is where the novel began. Now, you describe what I understand is known as the Japanese divorce industry, which is growing.

How does it work? Well, it's normally attached to private detective agencies and their bread and butter work would be assessing if a partner is having an affair. But you can also hire someone to seduce your partner. Or if you and you can, you can shame employees, companies can hire people to shame employees so that they have to resign, or they feel compelled to resign. And, and they also have most recently started a matchmaking service. And of course, matchmaking in Japan is very traditional and socially acceptable. So in a way, it makes sense that there is this matching industry, except that the divorce industry is much more covert and less acceptable. Now, you highlight the fact that the custody of children is only awarded to one parent.

What impact does that have on a character like Rino or the woman in the real story? Well, it can be quite devastating. And, you know, as often happens in divorce, what you love most, what you value can become a pressure point, a point for manipulation from your partner. And there is only sole custody in Japanese law. The Civil Code of Japan expressly provides only for this. And it has caused widespread, I think, devastation, both internationally for foreigners who marry Japanese spouses and then cannot see their children and also for Japanese spouses because one parent will take the child and their family will raise them and

more often than not the spouse that is abandoned will have no further contact with their children and actually as recently as the end of last year, the Japanese Ministry of Justice has said that they will start an investigation into whether they could, in fact, consider joint custody. They're currently being sued by 12 parents who've been separated from their children who say that this system violates their constitutional right to raise their kids. So it is a very hot topic at the moment and what's the thinking in japan about the divorce industry i mean if it's all known about is it approved of um definitely not i would say in as much as honey trapping will exist all over the world and will have its various uses, it's still strange to us.

You know, if we meet someone who's been involved in a honey trap, it's still quite odd. I think it's considered to be quite niche. It has to remain covert just in order to function. So it's certainly not accepted, not in the way that matchmaking or, you know, searching for a marital partner is. Now, the book is told from the perspective of Rina's daughter, who grew up believing her mother had died in a car accident. And I think she was inspired by an idea which you call forgotten parties. What's that all about? Yes, well, when I first started researching the novel and I was living in Tokyo

and I spent a lot of time with Japanese defence attorneys then and they mentioned to me that victims of crime, their families, could be known as forgotten parties. And back when Rina dies in the 1990s, the treatment of forgotten parties was very different to how it is now. I think the concern then was to protect the rights of the accused, to not disclose their identity. And that was very much where attention was focused. And so the victim's family would effectively be shut out of the case. You know, they wouldn't be notified of the trial.

They wouldn't necessarily be allowed to attend it. And whereas now, in modern days, the situation is very different for forgotten parties. You can actually hire someone, a lawyer to represent you and be in court, you know, with the perpetrator. And you can access the files. Of course, this isn't possible for Simico because her mother died back in the 90s and far too long ago. And would simply be no way even though she is a lawyer there would be no way that through the public prosecutor's office at least that she could access her mother's case file so I was told quite categorically this would never happen by Japanese lawyers so I had to find another way around that in the book. She has had to build up her own

version of her mother and it seems to me you're absolutely fascinated by the way children view their mothers. Why is that so fascinating for you? I think it's because it's something that has always fascinated me. My mother is the most important person in my life and she's always been there for me And I think everything I am is due to her. But I'm very aware of her role, not just as my mother, but as a woman. And I'm fascinated by her life before me. You know, I think we can often fall into the assumption that with children, they normally think that, well, life begins with them.

You know, they are year zero. But of course, this isn't the case. And there are so many different sides to a person, so many different lives that can be lived. So that's what has always interested me. In this story, in particular, I wanted to explore female voices that have been silenced. Of course, victims of murder are silenced. And so I wanted to explore a notion of reclaiming, perhaps even rewriting personal history. And to some extent, we all do this with our parents, because we cannot know everything about them. There's always this element.

Now, interestingly, you've been honoured by the British Japanese Law Society. How did that come about for someone who is not Japanese and not a lawyer? Indeed. Well, I have been made a member of the British Japanese Law Association, and that came about because I gained an introduction to the legal secretary at the Japanese embassy. And these are prosecutors from Tokyo who come over to London and act as legal attachés for a period of years. And I actually worked very closely with two of them in succession. And we've spent a lot of time together. And I was quite determined, I think think when I started the novel to be accurate in my portrayal of Japanese law. One of the prosecutors did say to me you know look there are lots of novelists in Japan who just make everything up why don't you do that and I didn't

feel I could I didn't want to so they have been extremely generous to me and spent a lot of time with me and they invited me to join the BJLA and so I get to go to events the embassy I've been able to liaise with other lawyers British and Japanese lawyers there and some of them are now very good friends so that that is a tremendous honour. Stephanie Scott thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning. Thank you. Now it's that time of year when spring has truly sprung and you start to think about maybe popping to the shops and getting something nice to wear in this

weather but that of course is not an option at the moment so how about rifling through your wardrobe picking out the things you haven't worn for ages, falling in love with them all over again, refreshing them and retaining them. Emma Slade Edmondson is a consultant specialising in fashion, lifestyle and retail. Emma, how do you suggest going through your wardrobe? Hi Jenny, good morning. Well, I think what's really struck me sort of during this period of social distancing and quarantine is the idea that it's been a rare opportunity for me to kind of give myself license to slow down a bit, to take stop. And I've kind of made a commitment to share this moment with my wardrobe. And I think that this is something we can all do now that we're kind of inside. And as

you say, we can't go out and buy things. And I used to run a style consultancy. And I would always tell my clients to organize a night in with their wardrobe. So kind of get everything out, look through what you've got. Think about things that you haven't been wearing for a while and really think about why you haven't been wearing them how they make you feel try them on again you know put new combinations together that you probably wouldn't have time to to look at when you're feeling quite time poor and rushing around in your your everyday life um and i think probably right now is the ideal time to do that. But a lot of people I suspect are at home in very casual clothes possibly pyjamas are they really going to be

interested in going through all the clothes and trying to decide do I like that one could I throw that one away because at the moment there's nowhere to throw them to. Well look I think we're all going through this experience in a slightly different way and probably going through um different moments of the experience at different times but I know definitely for me you know I've worked from home for a long time but I've been finding it really difficult to motivate myself and I have to confess I you know when we first went into lockdown I was sort of in my pajamas quite a lot even though you know I work from home normally so it's kind of odd to me as to why I couldn't motivate myself and I found personally that getting dressed purposefully has really kind of

given me a bit of a spring in my step and lifted me for the day and sort of made me feel like I'm in the zone to get on with my day. I think things like wearing bright colours, wearing things that feel comfortable but also beautiful and that you love really make you feel good. So what are you wearing this spring? Having gone through your wardrobe, decided to retain and refresh, what have you returned for spring well i've actually got this green olive um silk suit that i've been we've been wearing quite a bit especially to jump onto cools which is really comfortable it feels really beautiful on my skin and it's kind of a um late 80s and klein and i think that that's that's something I'll be definitely wearing quite a bit

I've also got something of my nan's that I've been wearing and I think that's quite nice as well because obviously we can't we can't see our we can't see our grandparents at the moment so it's it's quite nice to wear things that make you feel closer to your family now how do you refresh the clothes that you want to keep but they do need to be rejuvenated yeah well um i i recently wrote an article about this actually and i think um again as somebody who's a city dweller I don't often have time to really sit and kind of get into mending upcycling you know perhaps dying things that I've put aside because they're no longer working for me or that they perhaps have a bit of a stain that I kind of you know I want to

to look at so yeah I've kind of been looking at de-bubbling things. De-bubbling how do you yes de-bubble a sweater? Well you can get um you can actually order a de-bubbler online but you can actually just do it with a razor so it's just about gently shaving those pieces of clothing that have you know formed little bubbles and you can kind of hang them up shave them gently and restore them and if you air your jumpers you know if they're lambs wool or cashmere because these there are things that you can't you just can't put in the wash but you can just aerate them and spot clean them and this means that they'll last longer and feel refreshed so aerating is that just hang them out on the line on a nice sunny day?

Yeah. And if you don't have a garden, you can just, I often pop things in my bathroom and open the window very wide. And if you were going to upcycle, as you called it, what kind of things would you be doing to just make things look a bit brighter and different? Yeah, as I say, I'm really interested in natural dyeing at the moment. That's something I definitely want to experiment with whilst in lockdown. And so there's a book, The Modern Natural Dyer, that one of my friends recommended to me, which I've ordered. And it sort of tells you how to dye things with rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, onion skin, avocado even, you know, things that you either might find in your garden or that you might have in your fridge. I think that's a really nice way to look at giving something a new lease of life particularly if as I say um it sort of has a mark on it or something like that you're not going to put that lovely green silk suit into most definitely not

definitely not and what else might you do to just cheer something up I mean are you the sort of person who could make a new collar for something or change the way the sleeves look yeah I mean I would say that my um upcycling tends to be um more in the vein of I'm really interested at the moment in painting um on clothing I'm actually I've actually arranged to do a bit of painting by a tutorial through another friend of mine who often paints on denim. So I'm going to uplift a pair of jeans by just doing a very simple kind of upcycle on them by painting the seams in different colours. So there's lots of little things that you can do, even if you're not somebody who's really proficient with a sewing machine.

But I think actually, one of the things I think it's most important to get into during this time, or that would be most valuable going forward is just learning to mend. Because that really is the way that you give the things that you love the long life that they deserve and give them longevity. I was talking to Emma Slade Edmondson, and we had lots of response to our discussion about reorganising your wardrobe and upcycling your clothes. Claire emailed to say, very appropriate, listening to Women's Hour

while sorting out my wardrobe and putting winter clothes away. I always love getting my summer clothes out as they're always more colourful. Trying things on and looking forward to being able to wear them, even if it is just on the daily walk. Barbara said, that's what I've been doing for a number of years.

When people ask where I found a dress, I say in my wardrobe. Anne added in an email, I'm 81 and a shield person, so can't go out. But last night I got fed up with jeans, etc. and dug out and wore a lovely woolen dress from 1978 with a T-shirt and leggings. Another Barbara emailed to say, I've made a lovely summer dress from one side of a 1970s duvet cover. The other side will be used for another dress using a different paper pattern.

I knew these patterns would come in handy one day, along with a vast collection of different coloured cottons and zips, all very retro and on trend. And Diane Mycock sent an email to say, It seems to me that the most useful clothing stroke sewing skill that one could develop during this time of lockdown is the ability to let your clothes out. I've gone up a size already.

We had a big response to the item on the changes in government provision for nurseries. Nigello on Twitter said, What's gone wrong here? Government constantly relies on nurseries and care homes to provide for you, but treat these providers with contempt. Without these low-paid people, the rest of the workers couldn't cope. And on an email, David Smith said, Without these low-paid people, the rest of the workers couldn't cope. And on an email, David Smith said, Thank you for covering the government's U-turn about paying 80% of wages for furloughed nursery staff.

I've run my nursery for 28 years. We try to keep fees to a minimum to make the provision affordable for all working parents. We've drawn up plans to survive the pandemic based on the original government guidance and have already paid staff on the basis that we would be able to recover 80% of staff costs. The change in the guidance is therefore retrospective in our case. Depending on how long the lockdown lasts, we may not be able to survive if the original guidance is not adhered to. This would involve the loss of 20 jobs and 90 working families would be left without registered child care. And lots of others of you who are affected in this way are still in touch. We did of course get a comment from the Department of Education which came towards the end of the programme,

and said we're providing significant financial support, including a business rate holiday for many private providers. We've set out further clarity on other support available, including eligibility for the coronavirus job retention scheme, where an employer receives government funding. Now, tomorrow, we hope to have a long and helpful conversation about death and dying. Do join us tomorrow, usual time, two minutes past ten, if you can. Bye-bye.

I'm Sarah Trelevan, and for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered There was somebody out there who was faking pregnancies I started like warning everybody Every doula that I know It was fake No pregnancy And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth How long has she been doing this?

What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's Baby. It's a long story. Settle in. Available now.