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You and Yours: Gig Economy; Medicinal Cannabis; Robots In Social Care

01/11/2019

Gig Economy; Medicinal Cannabis; Robots In Social Care

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Gig Economy; Medicinal Cannabis; Robots In Social Care

What do zero hour workers make of Ken Loach's new film about the gig economy?

A care worker and a delivery driver review Ken Loach's new movie Sorry We Missed You. Is zero-hour working as bleak as that?

Ken Loach's new film Sorry We Missed You is on general release this week. It's a companion piece to his 2006 hit I Daniel Blake, which exposed the stresses the new benefits system was placing on families. In the new film we learn about the lives of two zero hours economy workers Ricky and Abbie. Consumers will recognise them - Ricky is one of the small army of men and women delivering our online shopping, while Abbie is one of the many care workers looking after our parents and grandparents. We wondered how close to reality it is so we asked a real life delivery driver and a care worker to see the film. 

It's one year today since the law was changed to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use. But epilepsy and MS charities say people are finding it all but impossible to get access to it on the NHS. The law change, they say, is largely a failure. The problem, it seems, is that doctors feel that not enough research has been done on the benefits of cannabis. A big research project this week found that medicinal cannabis is not useful for those with mental health problems. But some people who say they need the drug to help them live pain-free are left without it. Peter White talks to Paul Griffin who has MS and Michael Atwall-Brice who has twin sons with epilepsy.

This week the government announced a £34 million fund to help develop robots to look after us in our later years. We'll take a look at the latest international research on robot use and ask if they can really learn enough empathy to take care of the elderly and unwell. 

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Olive Clancy

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