Woman's Hour - 29/09/2009

With Jane Garvey. Jill Murphy's illustrated stories are amongst the most popular books for children. She started drawing and writing stories when she was six, and got the idea for The Worst Witch when she was still at school, finally succeeding in getting it published when she was 24. Now it's the publication of Dear Hound, the first new character developed by Jill for more than 15 years. She joins Jane to talk about her work At the Labour Party in 2008, Sarah Brown made headlines with an impromptu onstage appearance to introduce her husband. The success of this appearance was seen as critical at the time, but one year on, has Sarah's popularity made an impact where it's needed most? Can the popularity of a leader's partner influence the success of the leader? To discuss the issues, Jane is joined by Gaby Hinsliff, Political Editor of The Observer and Alice Thomson, political writer for The Times. Eva-Britt Svensson is a Swedish MEP who has been appointed the new Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Gender Equality. Jane talks to her about her priorities during her five years in charge, which include the appointment of an EU Commissioner responsible for Gender Equality and asks how the work of the committee impacts on the lives of women in the UK and other member states. The Mayor of London is asking mobile phone companies to help crack down on prostitution and trafficking in the run up to the Olympics. Research shows that incidents of trafficking ahead of the Athens Olympics rose by nearly 100 per cent. The men behind the sex trade in the capital still advertise prostitutes' services by dropping cards containing mobile numbers into the city's phone boxes. Now City Hall wants to see an agreement between mobile operators and the police that would see the cards removed and the numbers disconnected. Jane is joined by Kit Malthouse, a Deputy Mayor of London and Diane Martin, Chair of Lambeth Multi-Agency Prostitution Strategy Group.