''The Week in Westminster'' is a weekly political radio programme, which is broadcast on Saturdays on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. It is the fifth longest-running radio broadcast on British radio, between '' Daily Service'' (2 January 1928) and '' Sunday Half Hour'' (14 July 1940).

History

Women in parliament

It was first broadcast on 6 November 1929 on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

was the Prime Minister at the time, after the 1929 General Election on 30 May 1929, when the Labour Party had won the most seats (287) in a general election for the first time. The 1929 general election was known as the

Flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...

Election because it was the first general election in which women over 21 had been allowed to vote. The

Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 ( 18 & 19 Geo. 5. c. 12) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This act expanded on the Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) which had given som ...

had been given

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 2 July 1928. Men were also allowed to vote when over the age of 21. Only in the

Representation of the People Act 1969 The Representation of the People Act 1969 (c. 15) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that lowered the voting age to 18 years. This statute is sometimes called the Sixth Reform Act. Background The 1960s were a period of grow ...

would the age be lowered to 18, but people aged under 21 could not stand as MPs. Women's broadcasting on the Home Service had been initiated by

Hilda Matheson Hilda Matheson, OBE (7 June 1888 – 30 October 1940) was a pioneering English radio talks producer at the BBC and its first Director of Talks. After resigning from the BBC in 1931, she published a book on the development of broadcasting. Though ...

OBE (7 June 1888- 30 October 1940). The programme was at 10:45 am on each Wednesday and first known as ''The Week in Parliament''. As parliament, and its affairs, was thought to be a new institution to most women by the patriarchal-run BBC, it was decided to create a radio programme whereby female MPs would broadcast short talks to the nation's women, to help them familiarise the parliamentary processes and significances. The first presenter was Scottish.

Margaret Bondfield Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a priv ...

was the first British female cabinet minister, when she became

Minister of Labour Minister of labour (in British English) or labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

in June 1929.

Lord Reith Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

approved of the programme, and wrote of it, "it is chiefly for the benefit of

housewives A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

but covering also a large mixed audience of shift-workers, unemployed, invalids, etcetera". In 1931, male MPs were also given a slot on the programme to expound their opinions. The programme had become more well known by then. In the late 1930s the programme's producer was

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

, later found to be a Soviet spy.

World War II

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the programme had an (enforced) eighteen-month break.

Wider coverage

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

gave the broadcast on 10 April 1965. By the late 1960s presenters other than actual MPs, such as political journalists, were given slots. In the late 1990s, the Controller of Radio 4 moved the programme to late Thursday nights. A protest ensued and it was restored to Saturday mornings.

Content

The programme today is not presented by actual MPs, as it was before the 1960s, but by

political journalists A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. They interview a small group of backbench MPs in the studio, interspersed with other features. It is broadcast for 30 minutes on Saturday mornings, usually at 11:00 am, and is available as a podcast. It is not broadcast when parliament is in recess. Audio broadcasting from the Houses of Parliament began in 1976. Television entered the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

in 1985, and the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1989.

Regular hosts

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman, Lady Walney (born 5 May 1986), is a British political journalist and the assistant editor of ''The Spectator''. In 2015, she was named Journalist of the Year at the Political Studies Association's annual awards. Early life Born i ...

Anushka Asthana Anushka Asthana (born March 1980) is a British journalist and television presenter. She is the current Deputy Political Editor of ITV News, and is also a co-presenter of '' Peston''. Early life Asthana was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, ...

Steve Richards Steve Richards (born 6 June 1960) is a British TV presenter and political columnist, who has written columns for the ''Guardian'', ''Independent'' and ''New Statesman'', of which he was political editor for a time. He regularly presents Radio 4 ...

References

External links