Equal Britain? a 30 part series for talkRADIO investigating equality in the UK.
Ten years after the Equality Act became law, people tell their stories in thirty features and a series of in depth interviews. The series is supported by the Audio Content Fund.

Equal Britain week on talkRADIO

Heart edited01

Bringing five peoples' stories of their relationship with one of the five vital organs to life through music. An extraordinary one-off symphony brings to life the stories of five people and their relationship with one of their primary organs. 

The five individual tracks for each organ are featured here, alongside the full Organ Symphony, where they are all brought together to perform the movement, that is human life. 

The Brain

How hard can it be to buy a toaster? What retailers don’t get about disability.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Unknown Speaker  0:12  
Hi, my name is Gem aka wheels, no heels. I'm a disability lifestyle blogger and campaigner. Believe it or not, this toaster breaking led me to talking on national television about the difficulties disabled people have been facing post lockdown. So to some people, an everyday toaster might not seem like a big deal. But for disabled people who find it hard to cook and prepare meals, it's actually quite a lifeline. 

So the first shop that we went to, we got to the car park, only to discover that all of the disabled bays were blocked off. When we asked the staff if they could help us, they couldn't offer us any alternative. And they didn't even seem to care. That made me feel very angry and very upset. So I still needed to get my toaster that meant another trip to a different store. 

When I went to this particular store, I had a raging urine infection. And when we got to the store, there was a queue. So I waited for about 20 minutes. By this point, I really, really needed to use the bathroom. When I spoke to the manager, I explained please may I skip the line? And he said no, you'll probably end up upsetting the other people in the queue. Would you be upset to see a disabled person jumping the queue? Or would you be more upset to see a grown woman wet herself? Well, he probably didn't realise is that people with spinal cord injuries do tend to suffer with urine infections. Hopefully third time lucky, next door and what is right in front of the door making it almost impossible for me to get past, a big sanitizing station where I was trying to navigate my way around it with just staff watching me struggle. I don't think that retailers truly understand the spending power of disabled people, which is 270 billion pounds per year. So I did finally get my new toaster but it shouldn't have been that hard should it.

Mmm you can't beat a bit of Marmite on toast. 

Unknown Speaker  2:21  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Gem's Story - What retailers don’t get about disability.

I’m an actor who just happens to be trans but I’m happy to be a role model.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 

Ash:
I realised pretty early on that I was a little bit different from everyone else. And it wasn't till I got a lot older, I started seeing the odd thing in the press and I started doing my research I realised that you know, I think I might be transgender. My name's Ash Palmisciano. I'm currently playing Matty Barton in ITV's, Emmerdale, the first ever transgender character in the soap. 
Like all kids, I mean, I loved being outside and one of my passions was playing football. And, you know, as a little kid, I was just automatically wanting to play with the rest of the guys and had a couple of mates, we used to have a kickabout and got invited to a summer football camp, it was all great, I was lining up with all the lads. And you know, I was really excited. And just as we're all stepping into the changing rooms, I got a tap on the shoulder from the coach and he said, hey, you're not in there with them, In that changing room, you're in the girls one. And all of a sudden, I sort of realised that I wasn't one of them. And it was kind of a defining moment, the first moment, I really realised that this is going to be a problem for me. And I was sat there on my own in the changing room, because I was the only girl there. And all the lads were sort of having fun and laughing in the other room. And I think I felt extremely lonely in that moment. Because I thought to myself, what has gone on here, this is like a really crazy thing. I just don't know how to explain this. But I feel like I should be in that room with them. I want to be one of those guys. And it was a little bit more than just wanting to be friends with them. It was like I wanted to get changed in there. I want it to look the same as them. I always think about that moment. I think that's when I started to realise, okay, things are going to be a bit complicated for me. 

When I was growing up, as I said, there was in terms of transgender representation, absolutely non if I was a kid growing up in today's society, my life would have been really different because I'd have the character that I'm playing, and I've sort of become the person that I need to see when I was younger, mainstream soap, having a guy that happens to be trans but that's not his storyline all the time. Having adverts on TV, having characters in things like first dates, to having people that just so happened to be trans but that isn't their focus. Just seeing it is amazing. Just seeing that there is something else is just fantastic. And we're moving towards that. 

Unknonw Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Ash's Story - I’m an actor who just happens to be trans.

Trans actor, Ash Palmisiciano, who plays trans character Matty Barton in ‘Emmerdale’ talks to Darryl Morris about this life.

Full Transcript available here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0wmqu7ttn6au25a/AAAy9lRy--CzQz48d1cBETZva?dl=0

INTERVIEW Ash Palmisciano: Emmerdale actor on his trans story

I’m Scottish, I’m Sikh, I’m a lassie driving a cab - so what?

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 

Balwinder:
My name is Balwinder, and I'm from Glasgow. I'm the first female Asian taxi driver in Glasgow. The people that come into my taxi, as soon as they come in first thing their like, Oh, hi, mate, and then they see me and they're like, gobsmacked, and I'm like, Hi, how are you today? And they're like, Oh my god, you're Scottish. That's amazing. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I'm born and bred here. And they're like, yeah I can tell hun. Oh, my God, if I wasn't looking at you, I would just think it's any lassie he told him. I was like, I mean, I am any lassie. 

I've been in the taxi for five years. My husband, he's a taxi driver. As he was working, he had a wee minor heart attack. So he was in hospital unwell. So we were having problems with bills and stuff. So he said, Why don't you just try it? And I was like, No, we're asian, we shouldn't be doing things like that. He was like, you can, you're a good driver. You know how to talk. You're Scottish. And I was like, No, I don't know.  

I was actually really scared. is I've just stepped out the normal. I've just done something Mum and Dad didn't do. Dad was out but not mum. Dad's sister, did have a go at me. She goes, we are ashamed of you being out there. And I said why are you ashamed? What am I doing wrong? Can you tell me? Are you paying my bills? 

It has been positive. But there are a few incidents that did happen when somebody was racist. And but then I set them straight. There was a lady, a mature lady who you would think you know, it's okay. You're actually happy to see a woman driver but No, she had to have a say. So did you not get a job in your own country? And I was shocked. And I just looked at her and I said, You sound very English to me. I don't think you belong here. If you actually hear me talking, you should be able to tell i'm Scottish. And it sid you know what I could do? I could actually report you for saying that to me. I think the Scotts and Sikhs we relate a lot. We're very outspoken. And we say what we want to say.

Unknown Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Balwinder's Story - I’m Scottish, I’m Sikh, I’m a lassie driving a cab - so what?

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Ami  0:07  
First time I got stopped. I was 13 it was outside my house, like, in the alleyway outside my house. Um, I was I think I was wearing a black jacket in my school uniform. So my shoes were black and so were my trousers, but my shirt was open and you can see my school tie and whatnot. But, um, it was basically three, it was three white men. And there was a car parked in the carpark like a police van. And as I was walking, they came out and they came up to me a put me up against the fence and just told me some B.S. about how they're invoking the certain stop Rights Act or some crap like that. And that because I look suspicious, so they searched me on and whatnot, and I just felt like a, like a, like a criminal. They didn't ask me how old I was. If I was going to school. You know, if I live there. They just told me I look suspicious and now they're gonna search me. You know, they just.. I felt like violated.

Unknown Speaker  1:44  
The Equal Britain series supported by the audio content fund.

Ami's Story - stopped and searched at 13 in my school uniform.

“Black people can float!” fighting racist myths in swimming.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Unknown Speaker  0:07  
Hi, my name is Alice Dearing and I'm a British swimmer. And I'm currently training to be the first black woman to swim for Britain at the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year. 

I have sadly had one instance of blatant racism done towards me. And it really had the potential to knock my confidence from the sport. If I'm being honest, like in hindsight, I could see how that would really affect the way I view swimming and what I think of the sport and the community. However, I didn't look towards that path thankfully, I didn't want anything to get in the way of what I wanted to achieve. And me being the swimmer I wanted to be. 

I want to see more black men, black women, every race, every color, get involved in the sport because it really is something special. There are many barriers stopping people of color getting into swimming. The stereotype such as black people don't swim, our bones are too dense, we sink when we get in the water. Swimming is just not a sport for us, which a lot of black people have either heard throughout their life or have been explicitly told by somebody. And this stereotype and stigma needs to go because it's damaging to a community, like race doesn't stop you from being able to float. The water doesn't think of there's a black man getting in the water. I'm going to not help keep him afloat. 

I'm one of the four co-founders of the black swimming Association set up by other black people who are involved in swimming in some capacity. And we really want to change this idea and challenge the narrative, which tells black people that they can't swim or that it's not a sport for them. This isn't just an issue of learning to swim. It's an all encompassing life factor, which we really hope to be able to change.

Unknown Speaker  2:14  
The Equal Britain series supported by the audio content fund.

Gem's Story - What retailers don’t get about disability.

LoftusMedia

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