Vicki Barker
speaker
765 appearances
133 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2025
last heard 14 Sep
Vicki Barker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 107 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 20.
Appearances
The program was started by a past conservative justice secretary who was eager to encourage abstinence over the methadone treatments he felt left drug-addicted prisoners virtual zombies.
Inmates pledged to give up drugs and to undergo frequent drug tests.
In return, they're moved to special drug-free wings where access to gardens, music lessons, and other perks are on offer.
The Ministry of Justice says re-offending rates are down by 44 percent and acts of violence and self-harm down 30 percent inside those prisons participating.
The program is now in place in 70 percent of English prisons.
For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.
First, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds fired a salvo at a tradition long cherished by British gardeners.
It has urged them to put away their bird feeders between May and October to fight a deadly parasite which spreads wherever birds crowd together.
The bird feeders are a particular source of infection.
And now, another seasonal tradition violated.
The posh and venerable Chelsea Flower Show has relaxed its historic ban on garden gnomes.
How could it not?
After soccer star David Beckham personally decorated a gnome for the garden he designed with King Charles.
The gnome will then be auctioned off for charity.
For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.
Prince Harry, his co-founder, and the entire board of trustees resigned from the Sentebale charity last year after a highly public spat with the board's new chair.
At one point, Harry referred to, quote, blatant lies told about him.
Now, the charity, which helps HIV-positive young people in Lesotho and Botswana, has filed suit in Britain's high court, accusing Harry and a fellow trustee of defamation, a claim both men have rejected.
It's just the latest legal headache for the Duke of Sussex, who's awaiting a high court decision on the phone hacking case he and several other celebrities have brought against the male newspapers.
For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.
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