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Lord Rennard the Liberal Democrats’ strategist was suspended from the party yesterday. He’s refused to apologise to the four women who have accused him of sexual harassment. He has spoken of his distress at the lengthy investigation. The four women have spoken of the impact the party’s handling of the issue has had on theirs. So what does the way the Liberal Democrats have handled the accusations say about the party’s attitudes to sexism? And does the party which has just seven women MPs have a problem with women?Ìý Jane talks to Cathy Newman is the Channel 4 journalist who uncovered the story, Jo Phillips was a former Lib Dem press secretary to Paddy Ashdown and to Caroline Lucas, the Green MP.

Pop songstress Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been entertaining us for over a decade, with hit dance and pop tracks like Groovejet and Murder On The Dancefloor. And recently she took to the actual dance-floor on our Saturday night TV screens, when she competed on Strictly Come Dancing. She grew up in a television household as daughter of Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis, and today she combines a music career with family life, with three young children of her own. She’s sold over five million records, but now with her new, fifth, solo studio album, she’s moved away from the dance floor to collaborate with the Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt. Sophie Ellis Bextor joins Jane Garvey to perform live in the studio from her new album, Wanderlust, and to talk about her change of musical direction, dancing on Strictly, being a woman and mother in music, and growing up in a Blue Peter household.

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Wanderlust is out now on EBGB.

In the next in our series of working lives of mothers who have children with disabilities, we meet Jill Carter and her 23 year old daughter Jessie. Jessie has an undiagnosed moderate to severe learning disability butÌýthat does not stop her mum being positive and ambitious for her future. When Jessie was a teenager - like her friends - she wanted a part-time job but when it became clear there was nothing suitable Jill created the opportunity for her. From there,Ìýthe , based in Nottingham, was born. Jill told our reporter Henrietta Harrison how it’s enabled both her and Jessie to have meaningful and fulfilling working lives.

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When Kate Moss turned 40 last week the papers headlined Kate’s still got it at 40. Is this a ridiculous tagline? Since when did forty mean over the hill? Michelle Obama has just turned 50. How have you handled landmark birthdays? Do women handle landmark birthdays differently than men and does it depend on where in your life you are? Bibi Lynch, freelance Journalist with Grazia, Cosmo, Psychologies is 47 and single; Rebecca Perkins is 50, divorced with three children and has written a book on life after fifty - Best Knickers Always: 50 Lessons for Midlife. ÌýÌý