Podcast appearances and mentions of Lesley Riddoch

Will Russia agree to a ceasefire? Political analyst and youtuber Vlad Vexler gives us the inside track on Russian opinion on the war. Economist Linda Yueh explains how US tariffs affects world trade and former Welsh government minister Jane Davidson is with us to celebrate 10 years of the Future Generations Act - what is it and what has it achieved? Nicola Sturgeon is standing down from Holyrood at the next Scottish election. Veteran broadcaster Lesley Riddoch talks about her legacy. After twenty years of research, Professor Kevin Morgan from Cardiff University has published a book, 'Serving the Public'. He tells us why he thinks free school meals is a wonderful Welsh innovation. Cardiff County Councillor Rodney Berman and Anna Brychan from the University of Wales Trinity St Davids review the Sunday papers.

Here's the first topic of today's Talk Media. To hear the full episode go to www.patreon.com/talkmedia

Auchnerran Farm is run by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust as a demonstration farm to test and trial conservation and land management strategies. Mark visits the farm to hear about their projects and how they manage these alongside a profitable enterprise of sheep farming.It is the 20th anniversary of the opening of Five Sister's Zoo this year, and the facility has grown from very small beginnings to now housing over 160 species on site in West Calder. Rachel chats to Brian and Gary Curran about their growth over the last two decades and their recent attempts to rescue zoo animals from Ukraine.2025 marks 20 years since the Scottish Outdoor Access Code came into force, and Mark is joined by journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch to look at exactly how this has impacted Scotland's relationship with the outdoors.Rachel is on the banks of Loch Lomond visiting a project attempting to combat erosion on one of Scotland's most popular hills. Conic Hill has undergone a £900,000 path restoration, and access officer Dave Robinson meets her to explain why such a project is so necessary.Mark is at Dunnottar Castle, one of the locations featured in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel Sunset Song. Speaking to Emily Cruickshank, Mark finds out the history of the castle and spots some of the wildlife that surrounds it.Mark and Rachel are joined by a lifelong scholar of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's work, Bill Malcolm, to find out more about the author's background and the incredible impact he has made on Scottish literature, even 90 years on from his death.It is the height of Snowdrop season, with many gardens across Scotland opening their gates for visitors to enjoy the carpet of white flowers. Mark visits Bruckhills Croft in Rothienorman and meets Helen Rushton, whose garden boasts nearly 600 different varieties of the plant.Back at Five Sister's Zoo, Rachel finds out about the important work the zoo does in partnership with the Beavers Trust, managing populations across Scotland.Mark heads to Charlesfield Farm and meets Trevor and Lorna Jackson, the couple behind Border's Bubbly, who are hoping to be the first sparkling wine producers in Scotland

Fiona and Marlene share their highlights from the Big Land Question conference. In November the Revive Coalition held their biggest conference yet bringing together organisations and individuals with a shared interest in Scotland's land. Who owns it? What do they do with it? Is there a better way? These, and many more questions were covered on the day and you can watch the full day's event on  @IndependenceLive  's channel. This podcast covers our favourite bits from the following speakers: 00:01:43 - Lesley Riddoch introduces the event 00:07:42 - Kevin Cumming, Scottish Rewilding Alliance 00:16:07 - Josh Doble, Community Land Scotland 00:28:19 - Kirsty Jenkins. Onekind 00:30:32 - River Roding Interspecies Council 00:36:22- Jenny Barlow, Tarras Valley Nature Reserve 00:44:27 - Mhairi McFarlane, Diffley Partnership 00:51:09 - Donna Smith, Scottish Crofting Association 00:57:03 - Lesley Riddoch, Intro to part 2 01:02:03 - Robin McAlpine, Commonweal 01:09:41 - Mike Russell, Scottish Land Commission 01:14:05 - Max Wiesnowski, Revive Coalition Further info: Community Land Scotland https://www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/ Scottish Rewilding Nation Charter https://www.rewild.scot/charter The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe for free to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips.  video premieres most Tuesdays at 8pm If you've enjoyed this podcast you might like to buy us a coffee?  https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts or choose us as your Easyfundraising good cause. Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod

The Owning Our Futures event held in Edinburgh in October was a great opportunity to see our quest for independence in the context of other nations and regions across Europe who share similar aims.   The delegates took  part in three Q and A panels and brought their wisdom, experience and fresh thinking to the table.   Organised by the Scottish Independence Convention and the International Committee for European Citizens and chaired by Lesley Riddoch, this was a positive and uplifting event. Panels and speakers : 00:01:51  Panel 1 questions 00:02:06  Begotxu Olaizola Elordi, Basque Country 00:03:53  Alessandro Cucci, Sardinia 00:04:44  Anna Arque i Solsona, Catalonia 00:10:13  Panel 2 questions 00:11:16  Nick Peeters, Flanders 00:15:13  Paul Descarli, South Tyrol 00:16:53  Aka Hansen, Greenland 00:20:09  Bjort Samuelsen, Faroe Islands 00:27:59  Panel 3 questions 00:28:47 Gwern Gwynfil, Wales 00:33:07  Isobel Lindsay, Scotland 00:37:17  Richard Walker, Northumbria 00:38:28  Kerron O'Luain, Ireland 00:43:51   Lesley Riddoch closing remarks You can watch our previous episode with highlights from the delegate presentations here: https://youtu.be/A4J1hE04Y2M?si=dcpBUvxXvhdwCbna You can also watch the full livestream of the event on  @IndependenceLive   #scottishindependence #icec #conferencehighlights The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe for free to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips.  video premieres most Tuesdays at 8pm If you've enjoyed this podcast you might like to buy us a coffee?  https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts or choose us as your Easyfundraising good cause. Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod  

Scotland has practically the largest units of local government in the world.  An average Scottish council has 175,000 people compared to an average across the EU of 10,000.  There seems to be widespread consensus that something needs to be done about the over-centralisation of Scotland, but little agreement about what that should be. A group of individuals from a range of backgrounds - activists, academics, trade unionists and more - have set themselves the task of raising the profile of this democratic deficit and engaging the public and politicians in a discussion about how to address it. Indypodcasters have been presenting a series of podcasts on the topic of the kind of national conversation Scots are having and this seemed a perfect fit for that series so we went along to the launch event which was held in Edinburgh on 9th September 2024.   This is our recording of the public launch event.  You can find out more from the website www.buildlocal.scot  You can also sign the declaration calling for citizens' assemblies to gather evidence and recommend solutions here https://buildlocal.scot/sign-the-declaration/ Panel presentations were: 00:01:11    Introduction by Joyce McMillan, Scotsman columnist and theatre critic 00:04:17    Esther Roberton, former co-ordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Convention 00:08:00    Dave Watson,  Director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation 00:14:16     Willie Sullivan, Senior director for campaigns Electoral Reform Society 00:20:42      Ewan Aitken, Former Labour Councillor and COSLA spokesperson 00:28:36      Lesley Riddoch, Director of Nordic Horizons, filmmaker and award winning journalist 00:37:23      Q and A 00:07:39       Next steps   The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Thanks to everyone who supports us by buying us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts You can also nominate us as your good cause on www.Easyfundraising.org.uk Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod  

On 18th September 2024 we marked the 10th anniversary of the historic first Scottish Independence Referendum, Indyref for short.  During a passionate and exhilarating campaign, support for the Yes side grew from around 30% to over 50% before settling back at 45% on the day of the vote.  In the words of Professor Sir John Curtace, the Yes side lost the vote but we won the campaign.  Support for independence has hovered around the 50% mark for the last decade. Campaign group Believe In Scotland organised events throughout Scotland to mark the occasion.  The mood was reflective, but upbeat and determined.  We are STILL YES.   Speeches from the Holyrood rally: 00:00:48   Gordon MacIntyre Kemp, founder of Believe In Scotland 00:12:56    Lesley Riddoch, award winning journalist, author, filmmaker 00:28:32    Richard Walker, Editor of the Sunday National 00:40:31    Andrew Barr, co-founder of the National Collective 00:46:52    Gordon MacIntyre Kemp You can contribute to the Believe in Scotland crowdfunder here https://www.believeinscotland.org/crowdfunder2024 Independence Live's crowdfunder is here https://independencelive.net/crowdfunder/   The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts You can also nominate us as your good cause on www.Easyfundraising.org.uk Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod     

There are political stories everywhere you look, so which one should lead the news? James Harding is joined by three guests to discuss the first few days of Keir Starmer's government, the prime minister's visit to Scotland and France's shock election result.Email: newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.comGuests:Cat Neilan, political editor at TortoiseJess Winch, news editor at Tortoise,Lesley Riddoch, broadcaster and columnist at The NationalHost: James Harding, editor-in-chief at TortoiseProducer: Rebecca Moore and Casey MagloireExecutive producer: Lewis VickersTo find out more about Tortoise:- Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists- Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and exclusive content- Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and moreIf you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK is set to vote in a general election this week - called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose conservative party has been in power for fourteen years. Polls suggest his rival, Labour leader Keir Starmer, could replace him. So, what are the issues - and how significant is this election?  In this episode: Will Hutton, President, UK's Academy of Social Sciences. Lesley Riddoch, Author, 'Blossom - What Scotland Needs to Flourish'.  Pablo O'Hana, Senior Political Adviser.  Host: Dareen Abughaida  Connect with us:@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

In this special edition of the Lesley Riddoch podcast we give our immediate reaction to and analysis of Rishi Sunak's surprise announcement of a General Election on the 4th of July. ★ Support this podcast ★

Welcome to our roundup of topical clips and snippets for January 2024.  Main themes covered this month are: 00:00:53  Calling out war crimes 00:05:47  Covid enquiry 00:09:35  Scottish budget 00:15:48   Holyrood snippets 00:21:15   UK General Election  00:34:59   Westminster hot topics 00:40:23   Horizon scandal 00:44:57   Lesley Riddoch chats with Jim Byrne 00:51:02   Indypodcasters out and about 00:54:02   Time for Scotland by the Singing Councillors   The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips  

Episode 195 of the Common Weal Policy PodcastYou can download the episode directly here.Welcome to Season 6 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast. This year's theme is "Activate" so if you have a story to tell about an interesting thing happening in your community or if you're involved in a campaign to change things for the better, then please get in touch and we'll get you on the show to talk about it.This week, Craig talks to Lesley Riddoch about her new film Denmark: The State of Happiness. Denmark is a nation in many ways similar to Scotland but one that has made many different choices. They discuss the similarities and differences between our two nations and what Scotland could do to move towards or at least learn lessons from a nation that is both one of the richest in Europe and regularly tops wellbeing league tables.Lesley is currently touring with her film and you can book tickets at: https://lesleyriddoch.com/eventsCommon Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/donate/The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at craig@common.scotYou can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rssThemeExcerpts from "Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Support the show

Award winning broadcaster Lesley Riddoch joins us to chat about her new film Denmark: the State of Happiness.  The film is currently on tour all around Scotland with a Q+A session with Lesley at each screening. For details of dates, times, venues and to book tickets, go to www.lesleyriddoch.com/events This is the 5th film in Lesley's series looking at the Nordic countries, you can find all her other films at www.lesleyriddoch.com/films key points include: 00:00:54 Dan Jorgensen - happiness is important 00:01:34 Welcome to Lesley 00:02:15 Losing an empire 00:05:34 Audience reactions 00:10:20 Not just for indy supporters 00:16:18 Danish Education system 00:17:07 Larissa Albus - taxes are a good thing 00:19:38 Jannick Marshall - Efterskole 00:22:49 Samso islanders fuel bills cut 00:25:04 cause for optimism? 00:28:28 national self confidence 00:30:47 issues based conversations 00:31:41 cultural summer school and other ideas 00:38:01 the future for indy media   Also mentioned in our discussion is Independence Centre Stage from our Mibbes Aye series which you can watch here:  or check out our website here  The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips Music: "Inspired" by Kevin MacLeod

Join us for our last roundup of topical clips for 2023! Topics include: 00:00:50 Covid come-uppance for Johnson and Mone 00:05:45 George Monbiot savages the Tory Rwanda Bill 00:08:40 Alison Thewlis picks holes in the Tory Rwanda Bill 00:10:58 Joanna Cherry highlights the illegality of the Rwanda Bill 00:12:55 Scottish Parliament legislates for the children's rights 00:17:35 Joanna Cherry explains Tories breaching the Treaty of Union 00:24:56 Neale Hanvey shares international legal opinion 00:28:12 Secret Agent Alister Jack reports 00:31:32 Westminster quick fire round up 00:35:48 Holyrood quick fire round up 00:40:49 Patrick Harvie explains green alternatives to nuclear power 00:43:00 Bill Ramsay on dangers of nuclear power and climate instability 00:44:32 Europe for Scotland petition 00:48:32 Lesley Riddoch on keeping up our profile in Europe 00:54:14 Midwinter at Maeshowe, a poem by Alison Miller 00:58:26 A Christmas thought ... Thanks for listening everybody, please subscribe and share! Links mentioned in this podcast: Alison Thewlis longer Rwanda speech Europe for Scotland petition The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to like and subscribe! ontact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot/ for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips

Lesley Riddoch chats with Jim about her new film, Denmark - the State of Happiness Jim & Pat's Glasgow West End Chat - Episode 100 Welcome to Jim & Pat's Glasgow West End Chat. Remarkably, this is episode 100. Hurrah! Well done to us. :-)  This is the second half of my chat with the esteemed broadcaster, podcaster, journalist and filmmaker Lesley Riddoch. In part one, we learned about Lesley's formative years and we learned about the background to the making of her latest film, Denmark - the State of Happiness. In this second part of our chat, Lesley talks about the film itself and explains exactly why you must go and see it. And I agree.  It's a fabulous film. If you get a chance to see it, grab a ticket and go along. You'll enjoy it.  Links Pat's Guide To Glasgow West End Pat on Twitter Lesley Riddoch Music by Jim Byrne

Lesley Riddoch talks to Jim Byrne about, ‘Denmark - the State of Happiness'.  And more. Part 1 of 2 Episode 99 of Jim & Pat's Glasgow West End Chat Lesley Riddoch is a tour de force. She is a political activist, pioneering publisher, writer, podcaster, independence and land-reform campaigner and, last but not least, a role model for women in Scotland and far beyond.  It was great to chat with Lesley about her student days at Oxford, her work in both the mainstream and independent media, the current state of Scottish politics and. of course, about the making of her latest film, 'Denmark - the State of Happiness'. It's a brilliant, inspirational film that I recommend you seek out.  I guarantee you will enjoy this chat. Lesley is forthright, a natural storyteller and always speaks directly from her heart. Not only will you enjoy the podcast, it will be an education. Links Pat's Guide To Glasgow West End Pat on Twitter Lesley Riddoch Music by Jim Byrne

Topical snippets from Scottish politics and activism in November: 00:01:08  Festival for Survival opening by Lynn Jamieson  00:04:09  Jean Urquhart marches in Ullapool 00:06:07  Revive conference opening by Chris Packham 00:10:43  Lesley Riddoch speaking at the Breakup of Britain event 00:16:10   Our Star in Scotland - former MEP Julie Ward explains Erasmus 00:18:47   Holyrood -  Trams Enquiry  00:21:34   Net Zero committee on the circular economy 00:27:21   Scotland's Census 00:29:04   Rwanda plan ruled unlawful 00:31:12   How others see us 00:35:45   Westminster - will Kemi Badenoch devolve employment law? 00:36:42    Deirdre Brock vs Penny Mordant 00:39:54    Scottish affairs committee science enquiry 00:41:54    Neale Hanvey responds to the King's Speech 00:45:40    Alex Salmond preaches forgiveness in Alba conference speech 00:53:50     Alex Salmond sues Scotgov 00:55:23      Protest choir sings for a cease-fire outside of Colonial HQ "Contains information licensed under the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence". Protest choir footage by Mike Fenwick  The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips      

What is deliberative democracy, and can it help your community involve more people in creating a better future for all? SCCAN Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, explores the idea in this story from the People's Assembly in Torry, as the community stand up against becoming a sacrificial zone yet again. The Assembly took place at St Fittick's Park over the weekend of 28 and 29 of May this year, and it was facilitated by Open Source. It was a part of the multi-partner Just Transition Communities pilot project, coordinated by North-East Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub and funded by the Scottish Government from their Just Transition Fund. Interviews, recording and edits: Kaska Hempel With special thanks to NESCAN for the use of recording of Alison Stewart's speech, from the North  East Communities Just Transition project partner Knowledge Exchange event 31 May, 2023. Resources: NESCAN https://www.nescan.org/ Grassroots to Global/Open Source https://www.grassroots2global.org/open-source Assembly Catalyst training with Open Source in Aberdeen, apply by 4th of October https://www.grassroots2global.org/training Declaration of Torry People's Assembly May 2023 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVnCe8YBD4PV1uThl411Ahzfbu1gejtA0LHoro-9eBg/edit Scottish Government's Just Transition Fund https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-fund/pages/overview/ Lesley Riddoch's column on Torry People's Assembly in The National, May 2023 https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23514047.torry-one-deprived-areas-lose-park-just-transition/ XR Scotland statement on reasons for leaving Scottish Climate Assembly Stewarding Group in 2020 https://xrscotland.org/2020/11/xr-scotland-can-no-longer-endorse-scotlands-climate-citizens-assembly/ First Torry People's Assembly 2021 report by Scott Herrett and Susan Smith https://www.grassroots2global.org/thinkinghome/torry-assembly People's Torry Assembly Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesAssemblyTorry People's Torry Assembly Twitter https://twitter.com/Torry_PA Grampian Community Law Centre, Robert Gordon University https://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2022/5411-grampian-community-law-centre-prepares-for-torry-launch-in-scotland-first A mini-doco by ReelNews "They're killing our kids!" Save St Fitticks Park, including Climate Camp visit to St Fittick's https://youtu.be/jtvfbc-2GT8, Friends of St Fittick's Park https://saintfittickstorry.com/ Greyhope Bay Café in a doco by Sara Stroud https://vimeo.com/639311933 Transcript [00:00:00] Kaska Hempel: Hello. You look interesting. Why don't you tell me what you're doing here? [00:00:09] Speaker 1: What we're doing here, right at this moment in time, is directing people to where the actual assembly really is. But, on the greater scheme of things, I think there's... [00:00:20] Kaska Hempel: Oh, there's a sign! [00:00:21] Speaker 1: I think the... how can Torry reclaim the power to make this a healthy community to live and grow up in? That's the main thing that it's all about. [00:00:31] Liam: Yeah, I'm Liam. I'm just a volunteer for the weekend. So I've not been involved in any organisation. I was like, it's good to help out, but yeah, learning a lot and it's a great community event to meet people that are quite active in activism circles around Aberdeen. It's a little melting pot. I'm from just south of Aberdeen and I live in the north. I got involved with Friends Of St Fittick's Park, who are one of the main activist groups organising the event today. The green space we're in, St Fittick's. It is earmarked for demolition company called Energy Transition Zone. My degree was in Conservation Biology, so I'm really interested in the biodiversity here. It's won awards. There was £300, 000 of spending from the council to enhance biodiversity at this site. It's done incredible. Yeah. It's not a very clear cut issue. It involves a lot of discussion around the power that oil and gas has in Aberdeen, who the council is serving. There's vast amounts of money changing hands. Yeah. It's got a lot of interesting climate and community justice aspects where you go, who is this for? who's it going to benefit? who's suffering? [00:01:56] Alastair: Sup, my name's Alastair. Well, you can have a badge with it. [00:02:01] Kaska Hempel: Yeah, unfortunately we can't see it. [00:02:03] Alastair: Yeah, so I'm just helping out too. I've come up to Aberdeen for a couple of days to do whatever. Put tables up, or move chairs around, or anything like that, just to help the People's Assembly to run as smoothly as possible. It's also, you know, to try and help with... Yeah, if we live in a democracy, then we ought to be able to ensure that what goes on is actually for the best for all people, not for a small minority who are going to make a lot of money. And, you know, got to exploit the poorest even more, if I've understood correctly. That's what I think is happening. Yeah, if you... basically, if you go over there, it's by the old folks home, by the Balnagask. [00:02:50] Kaska Hempel: Hello, it's Kaska, one of your Story Weavers. That was me making my way to the day one of Torry People's Assembly at St Fittick's Park in Aberdeen on Saturday 27th of May, earlier this year. We'll hear more from the gathering later, but first let me ask you... do you know what People's Assembly is? Or deliberative democracy? Well, before I embarked on this journey, I was not quite sure myself. So let me share with you what I've learned as I've dipped my toe into the Nescan's Just Transition Communities project. The project that was conceived last November and with support from the Scottish Government's Just Transition Fund, Nescan, or North East Scotland Climate Action Network, along with several partners, embarked on a pilot year. Here is Alison Stewart, Nescan's Hub Manager. Explaining the transformative thinking behind it at the Knowledge Exchange Get Together for the Project Partners in June this year. [00:03:55] Alison Stewart: When we talk about getting to net zero, there is a tendency to limit ourselves and our imaginations. We need to think bigger, we need to think holistically, we need to think collaboratively and inclusively, and we need to think of systems change. When we discuss what a just transition means, the main barriers to change, to transition, It's that our current decision making processes are flawed. They allow for vested interests to dominate the conversation and create an elite few who determine the process and the pathways to net zero and the changes that we have to make. The people are not generally represented in this, but if we want a just transition, all sectors of our society, workers and communities need to be involved on an equal basis in our decision making processes. We have an opportunity, while getting to net zero, to create the society that we want. A fair, just, equal, biodiverse, healthy and thriving one. And we need to seize this opportunity with both hands. So Nescan Hub is playing our part to ultimately create, over a few years, a toolkit for communities and decision makers. So by the end of this process, we really hope that communities can run these processes themselves. The ideas, plans, and outcomes can then be fed into wider and bigger decision making processes. [00:05:19] Kaska Hempel: While we wait for the recordings from this gathering to be published by Nescan on their website, along with their reflections on the pilot, let's immerse ourselves in the Assembly process itself. In this episode, I take you along for a visit with People's Assembly in Torry, which was facilitated by Open Source. Before I headed out to experience the Assembly itself, I spoke to Eva, one of the people who helped facilitate the Assembly with the community. I wanted to get to grips with the concepts and the process in theory. To start, I asked her to introduce herself and share her own journey into this work. [00:05:59] Eva Schonveld: I'm Eva Schonveld. I live in Portobello in Edinburgh, and I work for an organisation called Heart Politics. Particularly on facilitation of deliberative democratic processes through a group called Open Source. It's been quite a long journey. There are a few key moments. The ecologist did a supplement on climate change, probably at the end of the 90s, that hit me like a ton of bricks. And I really wanted to do something about it and wasn't sure what. And then I read another article, probably four or five years later, in Permaculture News. That Rob Hopkins had written about the work that he did at Kinsale and suddenly I kind of thought oh, this is great, It's so positive and you know, we can work and make our communities better places as well as doing something about climate change. So I managed to shift my work to be working mostly in that for quite a few years and then burnt out and came back slowly into climate action in different ways, but particularly with Extinction Rebellion, which is where, you know, I first came across this idea that we could use democracy really differently. I think I'd already started thinking about politics and about how toxic the political system that we have is now and how it doesn't do anybody any good, including the people who are in it. And, you know, we get very bad decisions out of it. And I'm really interested in the kind of emotional and cultural underpinnings of that. And I think that came together with the Assembly work that the Extinction Rebellion really highlighted. And our group was forming, and via Extinction Rebellion we had two representatives on the stewarding group of the Scottish Climate Assembly that the Scottish Government put together and, you know, had quite a lot of input into that, I think making it quite a lot better than it would have been. But eventually our two representatives decided to leave because they felt that basically the people who were going to be Assembly members weren't going to be allowed to deliberate properly. The thing was increasingly being skewed towards existing government policy. Which is kind of understandable, but not very democratic. And so we have set out to explore how Assemblies might be part of a different way of doing democracy. And that's what I'm working on at the moment. [00:08:38] Kaska Hempel: That's really interesting. I'm already sort of spotting a bit of jargon that I think it will be quite useful to explain to people. So, if you could explain what deliberative democracy means? [00:08:50] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, it is one of those kind of catch all phrases that sort of means, you know, if you deliberate, you mean you think really deeply and carefully, and I think there is something about slowing down and moving away from the kind of party political Punch and Judy kind of politics, you know, it's the top layer of what we see in government because it's not the only thing that happens in government to something, you know, and here's where it gets a bit vague. For me, it means much more inclusive, and it means being open to a much wider range of how people understand things and process ideas. So, you know, a lot of what happens in mainstream politics is very verbal, is very written, but that's not necessarily the best way for us to process information, or certainly not all of us. So for me, deliberative democracy then broadens out into a... really interesting, rich exploration of how can we be really inclusive in the decisions that we make? How can we make sure that we set them up so that people don't get reactive, but actually are listening to one another and to the information they're hearing, and have time and space to really think about and come to shared understandings of what's really going on, and then move towards kind of good better decisions. So yes, it's a bit of a catch all phrase. [00:10:15] Kaska Hempel: So you already mentioned the Citizens Assembly on Climate that Scottish Government put together a few years back, a couple of years back now. Can you explain what that involves and how is it different to People's Assemblies or more grassroots driven Assemblies work that you've been involved in? [00:10:34] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, so Citizens Assemblies are one of the more popular forms of alternatives to mainstream democracy. And they're one of the most sort of clearly... delineated. So with a Citizens Assembly, people turn up because they've been, well, A, invited, and then B, they've been sortitioned. So the sortition process, I don't exactly know how it happens, but the intention is to try to get a representative sample of the population of whoever's being consulted here. So you'll select for different demographics, for age and education and race and gender. And you'll try and say, ok, so we have got, I don't know, 56 percent of women in Scotland, so we'll want to make sure that 56 out of 100 people in this Citizens Assembly end up being women. So we're trying to sort of build a mini picture of all of us within the group who become members of the Assembly. And no one else joins. It's a closed group that normally lasts over several weeks. It's normally around a hundred people. And there's a kind of phasing of it where there's input from across a spectrum, which is also really important. So you'll have an input of people with different views, but who have some kind of expertise, some reason to be the people who you'd go and ask about this particular subject that we're looking at. So that people can compare. And the idea is that, you know, people are presented with these different ideas, and then they deliberate. They talk in small groups and talk in big groups and have different, you know, there's different methods of helping people work through the material that they've got to come to some kind of shared opinion. And obviously it's rarely 100%, but it can often be quite high. Just because this process of filtering and boiling down and taking time and throwing ideas around together tends to move people towards more common ground, tends to move away from the polarisation that we're used to in politics at the moment. [00:12:47] Kaska Hempel: So that's the Citizens Assembly and that's usually put on by the government and feeds into government policy in some way. [00:12:55] Eva Schonveld: That is partly because they're quite expensive to put on, just the sortition process itself can be pretty expensive. So, and it has tended to be governments who've done that or local authorities. We're very interested in the idea of Citizen led Citizens Assemblies because we felt that the government was not able to put its own agenda to one side when it hosted a Citizens Assembly. And then People's Assemblies are, again, a kind of catch all phrase for like a big meeting. For us to try to bring that together into something that feels like it's a contribution towards something that's really democratic. The outreach phase is as important as the actual Assembly itself. Letting people know that it's happening. Giving people an opportunity to feed in, to have views on what it is that we should be focusing on. And trying to make the process itself as accessible as we can. It's all part of trying to make this feel like it's legitimate. And in some ways it can't be. Because there'll always be people who get left out. And so what we see with People's Assemblies is that they're particularly good at generating policy ideas. There may be places where people want to take decisions, and you wouldn't say, well, you know, you guys can't decide to start a community garden even though you found a bunch of other people who really want to do it at the People's Assembly. Of course, decisions may be made there, and may lead to action in communities. But, in the bigger picture, It may be that, you know, communities can come up with ideas for how their local economies could be transformed. Or what changes of National Policy would be needed in order to make community life be more meaningful and fulfilling, and be less damaging to the environment. So that's how we're seeing those. So People's Assemblies really good at generating ideas, and if you connect them up across different communities, then become quite a powerful voice which is part of our kind of theory of change. And then you could have potentially Citizen led Citizens Assemblies to make decisions around the kind of policies that have been generated by local People's Assemblies. So within our movement, we're relatively well practiced in these kind of processes of helping people to think creatively, to listen to one another, to make decisions that lead on to action. But in terms of interacting with democratic systems as they stand, we're... right at the beginning of that. And I think the work that we're doing in Torry is, it's our first step into seeing how this community could get more of a voice that feels like it genuinely comes from an informed position of what people in this community feel about particular issues and that could potentially lead to change. Torry is just south of the river in Aberdeen and is a community that has been in the news quite a lot recently and it's quite an extraordinary place to go to because it does feel like it has ended up at the sharp end of some very bad decisions over the last 30, 40 years. [00:16:21] Lynne Restrup: I bought my own two comfy chairs. They're much comfier. [00:16:26] Kaska Hempel: Oh, yes. Lynn, who I found at the welcome desk once I got to the Assembly site, filled me in on what it's been like to live in a place treated like a sacrificial zone for decades. Wind was picking up at this point, so there's some noise from the tent flapping around in the background. [00:16:48] Lynne Restrup: I'm Lynne Restrup. I'm a long time Torry resident. I've lived in Torry for nearly 50 years. I live in Balnagask Road and my extended family lives in Torry. My mum lives in Torry. My sister lives in Torry. My oldest son still lives in Torry. And I really love the community, but I've seen a huge change in it in the last 50 years. It used to be... It always had its problems but it's kind of seems to have lost its heart a bit. I think people have got a bit demoralized with having all the good things in Torry taken away from us and having all the rubbish things sort of put in our community, things that other communities really wouldn't want to have. And It's after a period of time, I think people just get a bit demoralized about the fights. So some of the things that historically have happened in Torry, like we've lost access to the sea on one side of us. Back when they demolished old Torry, the tanks were built for the oil and gas companies down there. This was a huge part of Torry heritage from being an old fishing village, so we lost that connection with the sea then. In more recent times, we've lost one Primary School, our only Secondary School, we've lost our outdoor Sports Centre, we've lost our indoor Sports Centre. We used to have more Medical Practices in Torry. We've lost a lot of our retail in Torry. We've lost a lot of our community in Torry because people have moved out of Torry due to a lot of the changes that have been happening. We had a huge thriving Polish population for a while, but due to Brexit and Covid, a lot of them moved away, so we lost a lot of our new Torry folk, which was a bit of a shame. And I think once you lose a Primary School and once you lose a Secondary School, it stops young families wanting to move into Torry. And unfortunately, since they've put some of the less desirable things in Torry, like the water treatment plant, the incinerator, and we've lost our access to the sea on the other side of Torry, which with the harbour development which nobody in Torry wanted. We all fought against that but the Harbour Board got its way. So, to lose your part of your history with the connection with the sea, to lose a Primary School and a Secondary School, have an incinerator built right beside one of our two remaining Primary Schools. Basically, if you were in the school playground and could kick a ball hard enough, you could hit the incinerator. So, Torry's community, we're an aging population. I'm 60 now, so the fight that I'm doing is not necessarily for my benefit. It's for our younger community members. Because it's going to be a dying community, because nobody with young families is going to want to move here. So, instead of having a thriving population of people who lived for generations in Torry, loved living in Torry, and even when they moved away had really fond memories of being in Torry, we're just going to be seen as a place that people only live in Torry if they have to. And as soon as they get the opportunity to move, that's what they're gonna do, because to be honest, if I was younger, and I'm raising my family now, I don't know if I would want to stay in Torry, and that really breaks my heart to say that. I personally don't see how you can create anything green, truly green, by destroying the only green space that a community has. So I think the loss of St Fittick's Park is the last straw for a lot of people, and it's galvanized a lot of people. They've thought, well, we've put up with this, we've put up with that, but actually, you know... It's not, it's not alright. We're not just going to say, okay, well, just lose our park as well, because at some point the community has to say, enough is enough. And I think that's where we are. [00:21:10] Eva Schonveld: And one of the main things that people say when you go and ask them, shall we do an assembly in Torry? is don't bother, it won't work, and the council never listens to us. So, that is life in Torry. And basically it's not okay. It's not okay in Torry and it's not okay anywhere else. And so our Assembly is an attempt to encourage people, encourage people who live in Torry to come together and give it another try. And it's not like we're the first thing to come along, but we hope that it may be a way to bring people together across a wide range of different interests and focuses and say, what is it that we can do together? [00:21:55] Kaska Hempel: Let's just talk about logistics. How does one actually organise an Assembly the way that you're helping people? Is there a set format? [00:22:07] Eva Schonveld: There's not a set format. It has to be tailor made to the particular community, but that doesn't mean that there aren't phases and areas of work that you can expect to come up. And the first ones is outreach. I think it's almost impossible to do too much outreach. And we've come up with a completely spurious statistic which is like 90 percent of the work of an Assembly happens before the Assembly. At 10%, well, maybe 5 percent is in the Assembly and then there's a whole bunch of follow up as well which probably is another 90 percent actually. But I think because we're talking about Assemblies, we can get caught up in thinking about, so what are we actually going to do in that meeting? And obviously that's really important. But finding out where people are in the community, finding out what's important to them, finding out what would make it possible, or even desirable for them to come along to an Assembly. Speaking to people who are not like me, who are not, you know, who's not like oneself and finding out where they're at and taking all of that information on board to develop something which is going to be as accessible and meaningful to local people as possible is massively important. [00:23:28] Kaska Hempel: You've been involved in organising this assembly today. Why did you get involved? What prompted you to spend your precious time, no doubt, because it was a long, long process, wasn't it? [00:23:46] Speaker 3: It is. I mean, I'm full time work. I have a mum, an elderly mum, who I look after. I have grandchildren as well that I look after. So I don't have a lot of free time. You know, we've been doing this for months. Every Saturday, all day, Saturday evenings, different events, going and talking to people. It is a big commitment. But I feel it's worth it for me. Because Torry really suffers a lot from social issues. It's a really poor economic area. It's people with ill health. People rely on food banks. People are really struggling with the cost of living right now. There's a lot of unemployment, people are balancing huge, huge pressures in their personal life and not everybody has the mental strength to actually devote time to this as well because if I was a young single mum struggling to feed my kids, put food on the table, or pay my rent. You know, I don't know if I really would be that bothered about constantly fighting with the council, getting involved with an assembly in a way to try and bring those voices together. And I feel that I kind of have to do it for maybe people who would like to do it as well. [00:25:03] Kaska Hempel: How did you find the whole process of going through preparation? Do you think that in any way helped the community at all? [00:25:12] Speaker 3: As I said, I've lived in Torry a long time, but even I wasn't aware of all the pockets of really good things that are happening in Torry. I've met some amazing people in the preparation and the running up to this. People who really are community minded, that are really looking at problems in the local area, really trying to improve things. They're small voices working on small projects, so I would like to think that the Assembly is going to give them a platform for us to find out about more about what they're doing and for them to tap more into the community support. I love the idea of an Assembly because we all feel like what we have to say is not being listened to. And so maybe it takes folks coming in from the outside to shine a light. And for us to feel that bit more empowered than we were before. So I would like to see this as a jumping off point. [00:26:15] Kaska Hempel: And you're talking about people coming from the outside to facilitate it. And also to, you know, report on it. How do you feel about that? [00:26:27] Speaker 3: To be honest, to start with, I was a bit like, hmm, is this somebody else that's coming in and trying to take power away from people in Torry and tell us what should be good for us and what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing? And actually it's not been like that at all. It's been the real education. For folk from the outside to go into a community and actually ask them what they think the issues are and try and sort of say, well, you know, if you did have more help, what could we do? You know, you tell us what we could be doing to help. And actually having anybody coming into a community and offering that level of support is quite unusual, I think. And I think that they've brought, sort of, expertise as well in terms that we didn't have before. And also just somebody really actually taking an interest in Torry and people from the outside thinking actually it's not okay what's happening, not just in Torry, but in some of our other communities that are under threat. No, I think it's easy for the council or whatever to dismiss it as just people in Torry just complaining, but when other people are seeing that same thing happening. It almost like validates what we're feeling. We're not just making a fuss over nothing. I met a few people today and talked about some of the issues, and people are actually quite astounded about the really bad things that have happened in Torry, and about the accumulative effect of one thing after the other sort of being placed in Torry. I think a lot of people came along thinking it was just about the loss of St Fittick's Park, but there's a whole history behind it. [00:28:18] Kaska Hempel: So that's the work you've been helping with in Torry, is that right? [00:28:21] Eva Schonveld: Yeah, that's a lot of what we've been doing. So we've got a comms group and a logistics group and a outreach group and we have a programme group. So the programme is, you know, what you actually do once people, you've got people through the door, what is it we're going to do together? And it's helpful if that focuses around a question. So you use all that information, all those conversations that you've had when you've been listening to people in the community to go, okay, so what are they saying the really important issues in this community are? And is there a way that we can focus this assembly, so we touch on most of those. I think certainly with Torry, we've tried to create quite a wide question. So our question is, how can people in Torry reclaim the power to make this a good place to grow up and live in? So the question is around reclaiming power, but it's also around health. It's also around young people. And these were things that came out from the conversations that we had. This is kind of like, there's no point. The council never listens to us. Those are issues of power. So once you have your question, you can focus your assembly. So how are we going to help people to look at that? How do we reclaim the power? How are we going to help people to look at what is it like to grow up healthy in Torry? What would that vision of a healthy community be? And so you may want to have an input phase. You may want to have people speaking at the beginning about maybe possibly a range of views. It kind of depends. That's where the Citizens Assembly and the People's Assembly may be most different. You may not need a range of views. You may just want to give people different opportunities to think about different parts and in Torry we've decided to hang the whole of the outputs of the Assembly around a declaration. The declaration has different parts to it and one of them states the situation in Torry. What has happened and where we are just now. Another part states what do we want to change and who's responsible for that because I think there's a lot, you know, something that as a transition person I'm all about what can the community do together? And this just has not washed in Torry. I think people do things and they have done things for the community and will continue to. But they're furious with the council and there's a social contract that has been broken and people aren't just going to let that go. So it has to be dealt with. What is it the people in Torry want from the council? On their own terms, reasonably, you know, with a timeline that has been thought through and is reasonable. So we're not saying you have to change everything tomorrow, but within this reasonable point of view, we want you to have addressed this. So that's the declaration would encompass all of those things. And then there's another piece of work which is more kind of inward facing, which is what is the community going to do about this? So both what kind of tasks and projects might we want to happen in Torry? But also if the council don't do what we said, what's our next step? You know, are we going to move into petitions or going and standing outside the council? Or are we going to go and put our bodies on the line and block roads? You know, these are the kinds of things that people in the community might want to think about. And these are ways of reclaiming power. And so it's important that we explore them. And not everybody in the community is going to want to do everything, and that's another, you know, that's another plus, because we can potentially imagine different people doing different things. [00:31:56] Kaska Hempel: As you might have figured out by now, I turned up on day one of two of the Assembly, which was all about, according to the programme, looking at the issues we face in Torry and creating a declaration of what needs to change, and then celebrating. By the time I arrived at the assembly tents, the morning session was wrapping up and people already shared thoughts on problems and on things they would like to see in Torry. Each thought carefully written down on a large paper leaf to contribute to the Torry Assembly declaration tree on display. Now, focus was shifting towards the most imminent issue, the situation with St Fittick's Park. I was just in time to catch a walking tour of the place, led by Richard Caie, a member of Friends of St Fittick's Park and the Community Council. [00:32:50] Speaker 2: Look at these tours, and we haven't lost too many people. Okay. So is this bit staying here, or is it being developed? This bit of stage here. Yeah. [00:33:00] Speaker 1: And is the proposal then to move the, like they're saying they're gonna move the wetland or something? Yeah, that's the wetlands. Yeah. [00:33:08] Speaker 2: These are the wetlands. Swamp reeds look. [00:33:15] Kaska Hempel: Wow. Yeah. [00:33:16] Speaker 2: Bone rockes could be in Florida. That one that was up around. Yep. Right. The East Tullos Burn starts its life up in the Tullos Estate. It's all the waste from just water waste. The infrastructure there is 50, 60 years old, so nobody really knows what goes into it. That's a typical colour. It actually runs alongside the railway in a culvert. And this is where it certainly comes out. And between 2010 and 2014, there was a lot of discussion about this area, a lot of good consultation, and this is the end result. All the wetlands there are artificial. They're all being ploughed out by JCBs. And there's about 200 yards of reed beds till we get up to the next bridge. And the reed beds filter everything out. And every now and again people come and remove the mud and the excess plants. It does work. If you look at the colour of the water and then our next stop up in the bridge. Compare the colour. If you want to taste it, carry on, but I would not recommend it. Right, hurry up at the back there, come on. Right, if you come back here in a couple of years time, unfortunately, this might be fenced off and from here all the way, that big triangle there, that's all going to be an industrial estate. The factory's going to be here, somewhere, and all those trees are going to get zapped. So it's sort of from here to the white state, it's all going to be industrial, up to the railway. So, this is a very popular area, people come here with barbecues, we've got facilities for children there, baskets, ball, court, nets, that's all going to get zapped as well. So we'll next stop at the bridge. Next lot of the burn goes under the bridge and we're going to have a look at the quality of the water, see if all this, all the weeds here have improved the quality of the water. [00:35:39] Kaska Hempel: Hiya, would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? No, okay. Are you from Torry? [00:35:44] Annie Munro: Yes, I'm Annie Munro, 1978. I came up from Fife. No, I like this, I'm down here a lot, with Rosie a lot. I had another dog as well. So quiet and they want to take it away. They took the bay away, they've taken dunnies away. As you could walk up and around. There's a path that comes from here, right up to dunnies. Kaska Hempel That's really upsetting, isn't it? Do you think this Assembly today is going to make a difference? [00:36:15] Annie Munro: Do you know something? I hope so. Community Council, I'm on that. I've been on different ones. But it's apathy. It's because when we didn't have a Community Council when they said about the incinerator. But people go, they're going to build it anyway. And they do. So, what can you do? But I think this is a really good thing. It's bringing different views, sort of thing. Because before you just sit there in the Community Council and you'll go, Oh la la, the community councillors are there and you'll say to them, but... look, see the ducks? [00:36:53] Kaska Hempel: Oh yes, that's the best thing, it's right in the path. Beautiful, look at all the beautiful flowers in there. [00:36:58] Annie Munro.: I know, I know, the gorse. They'll come, look. They think they're getting fed. Oh, the water looks so much cleaner here. Yeah, cleaner, doesn't it? [00:37:08] Kaska Hempel: So you said you're feeling hopeful about this process? [00:37:12] Annie Munro.: Well, we need to get into people's houses. Yeah, we need to get people involved. It's okay saying you're here, but you don't stay here. You know what I mean? We need the people that stays here. [00:37:26] Kaska Hempel: How do you think you can do that? [00:37:28] Annie Munro.: I don't know. I stay on the block and not one of them know anything about it and they're not interested. [00:37:33] Kaska Hempel: Why do you think that is? [00:37:34] Annie Munro.: Well, they don't come down here. They don't see this. A lot of folk don't even know it exists. My daughter didn't even know this existed until I brought her down.  I used to come down here most days with her. [00:37:46] Kaska Hempel: Is it because you've got dogs? You've had dogs that this is a space you can use? [00:37:50] Annie Munro.: There's a lot of people come down with their kids. I've seen them in here with their push chairs and everything. Yep. Summer holidays it's used a lot more than it is now. This is all going to go.  Yeah, it's frustrating, isn't it, Richard? [00:38:04] Richard: Nobody listens. We've got all the lovely consultations. We've had three master planning sessions. Absolutely everybody there said, no, we don't want it. But, tick in the box, they've held a consultation. I was saying in BBC Scotland a couple of days ago, if they can take this away from a community, then no green space in Scotland is safe. A lot of people live on, sort of, the other side of down nearer to the city so they don't naturally sort of walk this way And, I don't know. We can't really get a lot of engagement going. We've got a wonderful Assembly, been well publicised, but yet, we haven't got all that many people. So, I think it's a universal problem. [00:38:50] Kaska Hempel: Oh, look at that! That's so amazing! The flowers over there as well, willow... [00:38:55] Richard: Marsh, what do you call it, marsh, marigold. And if we look at St Fittick's Church over there, I've got relatives buried there. So it is local to me. Do you have any idea how old it is? Oh, I think 1809 it stopped. But it goes way, way back. I'll tell you the story of St Fitticks. Right folks. St Fittick's, Bay St fittick's. He was an Irish French monk that washed ashore. Up to 1906, they used to have a well on the beach and in the preceding hundreds of years it was very, very popular with the locals because it was a holy well and the church clamping down on all this nonsense and there was real trouble, real antipathy towards that because this was our well and they couldn't stop the locals from drinking the well. As you see, what I'm saying now, even though we're way up, we can't see the sea. So if you're down in the park, you can't see the sea, you're hemmed in. And then, roughly where that big lump of earth is, that's where the new factories are going to go. So that's going to be even more hemmed in. So far as we know, they haven't done an Environmental Impact assessment, health, Quality of Life Assessment, Health Inequality Assessment. But even if all those are negative, you sort of know we're just going to be ignored. Nobody's going to stop the massive project like this just because you get a few negative reports. And the bottom half of that community wood, which was planted in 2010, 2014, is going to get chopped off. And that's where the new wetlands will go. They will abut directly onto the new factories. So it just doesn't make any sense at all. The good news is the rich people who are doing this don't live here, so it won't affect them at all. Oh, we need to be thankful for that . But it's been a great community fight and I think the community will just keep on fighting. This is our land. Right, lunch onward. [00:41:13] Kaska Hempel: So what are you guys doing? [00:41:18] Speaker 1: We're kind of just volunteering to... I think it's general help out. Specifically, we were gonna, if there were kids that were like, 18 to 16, that weren't wanting to sit through that, we were gonna like, take them to do physical activities and stuff. But, because there's not a huge demand for that at the moment, we're just helping out with whatever odd jobs is available. Which is? Which is soup! We're gonna refill the soup with just the red roll. [00:41:53] Kaska Hempel: I wanted to go back to the processes of talking to each other. You mentioned emotions and difference, maybe difference of opinion. How do you tackle these? In a meeting that's obviously going to have that kind of diversity of voices and strong emotions in it. Is there techniques or approaches that you use or you recommend people use? [00:42:16] Eva Schonveld: Well, there's a whole range of different things. And I guess one of the most fundamental ones is having people in the room who've thought about this stuff before. Because cultures... spread a little bit like yogurt cultures. We infect people with how we're feeling. And if there's enough of us who are feeling this is important, we're taking this seriously and we really, really want to listen to one another. We want this to be the kind of meeting where everybody's voice gets heard. Then that kind of transmits itself in some weird magical way. And so not to say that, well, you use magic, of course. So having enough people who are taking responsibility for and holding the space, who've got a sense of this is how we want to do things. Creating processes where people get to listen, but not too much, and where they get to speak, but not too much. So using facilitation. So that it's not just the people who are confident, or the loudest voices who get to speak, but where quiet people get space too. And also, creating different ways for people to express themselves. So again, like I was saying before, you know, some of us are really, really comfortable going on at length with chat. Whereas others might actually prefer to draw, or might prefer to do interpretive dance. And I think we're away, we're away from that. But actually, there is something about using the arts, you know, and that happens loads in other cultures. When my husband works in Kenya, when they take a break in the meeting, everybody sings. Everybody gets up and sings and dances. That's how you take a break. And the kind of dropping of petty issues and of tiredness. And of distraction and the bringing of everybody into the same space in the same moment feeling like we're together. That something like that does is like we have so much to learn from other cultures. And again, I think it's a while before that will be the way that we're expecting to do things in our communities. But I bloody well want to work towards it because it's important. It's really important. You know, if you ask somebody, would you change your job next week? You're going to be an MSP, you know most people were going no way because they know how toxic and stressful that kind of work is, but making our collective decisions should be something that we all feel like being involved in, and obviously sometimes it's going to be boring, but it is something about ways to make these processes feel more approachable, feel more fun, feel more engaging. [00:44:51] Speaker 3: We are doing some leaf printing to make a big banner for the park. This is a fern. They've all, it's just a bunch of stuff that I've collected up and pressed and dried out. And then if we pop it onto the fabric over here. [00:45:07] Kaska Hempel: So, how come you're involved in this? [00:45:10] Speaker 3: I live in Torry. And, like, the park, we walked around here loads during lockdown and everything so quite familiar with the place and enjoyed spending time here. So I've been sort of involved with the campaign to save the park and I knew somebody who was part of organising this thing and she asked if I want to come down and do like some, I'm also an artist, a textile artist so... [00:45:32] Kaska Hempel: Oh wonderful, hence the banner. [00:45:33] Speaker 3: Hence the banner. Are you coming? Are you coming? Right, I'll show, I'll show. You can have a go at that. My hands are messy. Yeah, I'm not very good at keeping clean with this. There we go. Should we have a look? Oh, that's lovely. You can see all the nice little veins from the leaf in there. That's very cool. Did you want to help me? We carry on colouring in all the letters using the leaves. Does that sound good? [00:46:10] Speaker 2: If you just arrived in this morning, we were looking at all the problems that Torry faces. And what do we want? On the tree there, you can see the problems. They came out in small groups. And on the second tree, you've got what we need. So that's what you miss, young lady. But instead of that, you're gathering all that to just go with it. And we're going to go into a session now. [00:46:31] Kaska Hempel: After lunch, people gathered again to hear more on St Fittick's Park situation, this time staying in the assembly tent to hear from a number of speakers with relevant experience. I've selected the most powerful excerpts from their presentations here. Despite being invited, neither the Energy Transition Zone company nor the council representatives turned up to contribute. Instead, Eva kicked off the session on behalf of ETZ, drawing on their contributions elsewhere. She donned a hard hat to better get into the role. There's a little bit of generator noise in the background, which was used to power the laptop with her presentation. [00:47:14] Eva Schonveld: Maggie McGinlay, ETZ Chief Executive, said on Radio Scotland yesterday that a small part of St Fittick's Park is needed by ETZ because of its location next to Aberdeen South Harbour. ETZ will work closely with the community to minimise the development of St Fittick's Park But maximize the impact in terms of jobs in a way that ensures ETZ are protecting and enhancing biodiversity and looking at other facilities that will enhance the park overall. My hat is off, I'm not ETZ anymore. [00:47:50] Kaska Hempel: Next up was Hannah from Grampian Community Law Centre. A part of Robert Gordon University's Law School. She's been working with the community on challenging the rezoning of St Fittick's. [00:48:02] Hannah: So, obviously the planning process, as many people who have become involved with St Fittick's Park have found out, is not particularly user friendly. It is very tricky to use and understand. And it is not made for the lone person. So we have this process, which is designed to be democratic, where we have a new local development plan comes into play every once in a while. And around about 2019, 2020, we had the emerging local development plan for Aberdeen. But as the new plan emerged, there was very quickly decided amongst decision makers that the park would have a different use. Obviously, things had developed with the port so we had the port taking over the Bay of Nigg and starting to creep, and then the powers that be decided, actually, that park looks just fine for a load of industrial units, so we'll have a bit of that as well. And obviously there's some money behind it. So, I guess it feels a wee bit like a fait accompli. You know, it must feel like that to the community. It feels that there's no hope. We're done here. It's, you know, the decisions made. But actually, you know, we've been working for months now with the Friends of St Fittick's group to understand what legal avenues there are to challenge this. And we have got avenues that we're investigating. So, this is not the end. This is very much the beginning. And it's going to be a long road ahead. That's a big process. I've just been through it with another community campaign and it's stressful. And it's time consuming. But if we don't stand up to these things, then no land in Scotland is safe, as Richard very wisely said on Radio Scotland yesterday. [00:50:04] Speaker 1: Do you want to just turn to the person next to you, just because you've heard two quite different presentations. Just take a moment to think, to share what that feels like, having listened to the person with the hat, and then to Hannah, yeah? What did you get out of that? What were the differences in what was being said? What were the different feelings with that? Just turn to the person next to you, just for a moment. Yeah. [00:50:27] Scott Herritt: So my name is Scott Herritt. So I'm here representing Defence Sympathetics, which is this sort of campaign group, what got set up to protect the park. So, I moved to Torry about two and a half years ago, and I can remember going down into the park, and it was just before the, obviously the harbour's been getting built. But I can remember going down into the park one day, a bit like today, walking down, and it's a really sunny day, walking down the hill, and there's just this natural amphitheater bowl looking out to the bayonet, and I just thought this is amazing. Like, this is an amazing place. And I basically ended up living here. And so now, if you go down there, that is gone. That is all gone. Even though it's in the water, it's affected the park. And that's what's gonna happen if they take a third of that park and stick a long, big factory in which no one knows what it's for. So, I'm really, really, really angry. And I'm really angry because of obviously what's happening. But I'm also angry because ETZ Limited decided not to come and look people in the eye. So I actually helped put another Assembly on which was more focused on basically looking at this idea of a community asset transfer of the park. And two years ago we asked them to come and present their plans. And they said that the plans weren't ready so they didn't want to come. Since that time, it's been two years, and they've said exactly the same thing. So, I'm going to leave that up to your own conclusions, like what that actually means. It's not about any transition, it's about a private land grab of our land, of public land. We all own this land, collectively, in common. That is what it's about. And that happens, not just in Aberdeen, that happens across the world. And we need to stop that, and the only people who are going to stop that is people like you. And I appreciate there's people, there's a mixture of people in from Torry and from outside of Torry. This is happening in your communities as well. But the only way to change that is... likes of you getting together, wherever your communities are, and trying to sort of do something about it, and not relying on people in suits, in big offices to try and do something about it. It's only going to change if we do something about it. As you probably can recognise from my voice, I'm not from Aberdeen, I'm from Grimsby. And so Grimsby's a place where it's like transitioned, and it's transitioned from fishing to basically nothing. And so it's had a big impact on parts of town which I grew up in. And so I think I just wanted to sort of highlight is that the Friends of St Fitticks support the real need for an energy transition and this idea of a just transition. And Aberdeen itself has gone through lots of different transitions. So, you've had like, obviously you had the granite industries, the ship building industries, the mills, the fishing, and then obviously you went into oil. And so all those transitions have been imposed on the people, and the people have been in control of those transitions, essentially the same people who want to control this transition now. We have to find a way to control that and direct it so it's actually to the benefits and to the needs of people. So whatever comes next, we need to try to find a way that we're sort of part and parcel of what happens. And I think, why not start that in here, in Torry? This, what we're doing today. That's what should happen. It should happen everywhere. So that's what I'm going to say. I'm just wondering, do you want to say anything? [00:54:18] Speaker 1: It really angers me that we've been selected yet again to sacrifice our space and our heritage and our nature for money, and I'm really pissed off about it. Sorry, I get a bit emotional. If you all know me, you know I do cry a bit. So to say we are now responsible for Aberdeen's thriving economy if this zone goes ahead, and that's a hell of a responsibility to put on the community. If you don't give us this, Aberdeen won't fall. That is the message that we've been getting. [00:54:57] Adrian Croft: My name is Adrian Croft and I'm a GP. I am the Clinical Lead at Torry Medical Practice. I'm the director of the Ribbidy Medical Group, which owns the practice. So, a couple of years ago, me and my colleagues decided we needed to write an open letter. Addressed essentially to the council and to the Scottish Government. To explain why we were astounded and shocked at the decision to change the planning regulations and to plan for industrialization of the park. We have, sadly a life expectancy that's like 13 years less than the West End in this area of Banagas. You have a healthy life expectancy, more than 20, 25 years even, compared with the rest of the city, second to the West End. I mean, those are massive, massive differences. But the evidence internationally shows that the benefits of green space are most marked in communities that have the worst health. The Scottish Government has polished hugely on green space, on the benefits of green space. We urgently need massive investment for the energy and industrial transition. But this is not the technology to do it. This is not the place to do it. And this is definitely not the way to do it. I mean, we'd love to see our money going into technologies that are proven. Things that can deliver immediate, tangible benefits to our local communities. Like insulating our houses. The houses here are frequently very small, very cold, very damp. So... they could quickly do something there that would massively improve insulation, for instance, in the community. And how cheap compared to the money they're pouring into this. [00:56:50] Kaska Hempel: This is, of course, just a very short snapshot of the process, and only some of the issues that we're focused on. The afternoon continued to explore questions about why these problems keep happening, and how can Torry reclaim the power to make this a healthy community to grow up in? Amongst all of the presentations, there was a lot of conversation and contribution from the audience. The format was varied across the day, and many voices were heard and recorded, just like Eva promised. The proceedings were also beautifully summarised in visual notes by Graphic Artist Rosie Bailuzzi. You can see some of that record on the Torry People's Assembly social media channels which I linked in the show notes. At the end of the day, I asked a couple of others what they thought about the process. [00:57:45] David McCubbin: My name is David McCubbin. I work for Third Sector Interface. Moray. Just started last month. I'm a Project Coordinator with a Just Transition project in Moray, which is part of the wider Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City. A project that's been coordinated by Nescan. I've come here today to volunteer just to help set up and man the welcome desk but also just to see how an Assembly works and learn because although we're not doing Assemblies, we are doing deliberative events with the different communities in Moray that want to engage and have those conversations about whatever it might be and it isn't this top down, you know, whether it's government or councils or an organisation, so it's trying to get people involved so that they feel part of the process and the decision making. It's very easy for people to not want to engage or say, well there's no point in being involved because I'm not going to make a difference but if we can show that you can make a difference it will inspire people and I think communities are looking at other communities to see what are they doing and then that spurs them on it's that kind of snowball effect. [00:58:52] Kaska Hempel: What's the most useful thing you saw today and during the day? [00:58:55] David McCubbin: What I really like about it is it feels very friendly and informal. There's no barriers. It's open to all. There's the entertainment for the children. There's nobody suited and booted. It just feels accessible to everybody. And you could see some people were coming on their own and people would go up and speak to them. So you were given the opportunity to mingle. But nothing's forced and nobody's being made to say or do anything they don't want to. I know sometimes when I go to things and you think I just want to listen. I don't necessarily want the spotlight shining down on me or to be, you know, given a mic to go up in front of everybody because there's the opportunity to write stuff down, you know, the trees they're doing and the leaves and it's sort of open to all because this isn't everybody's cup of tea. And this is really nice as well, outdoors. And, you know, they're in the place that one of the biggest challenges being faced at the minute and it's not just sort of in a community hall somewhere, it's here and the fact they did the tour earlier and that was really well attended so you could see this is where the proposals are. I like the fact as well it's drop in and out so you can come for the whole day and I know ideally that's what you want. Actually some people might come and think oh I'll just, I'll drop in briefly and then oh this is all right actually and I'm gonna stay and then they stay and then they might come back tomorrow. [01:00:10] Sarah Stroud: My name is Sarah Stroud and I'm a filmmaker. Yeah, so my feeling was like sometimes it felt like I was in group therapy. So it was really interesting like I loved when the chap speaking about psychotherapy and like for me I was really aware of the layers of the connections we have with the past and how we relive the cycles of things. I was just really aware of it being quite a therapeutic space. And how, you know, you're being given time so that you can speak and then people listen. Like that's something that you do quite often in 12 step programmes. It felt like really quite safe and a really nice nurturing space. [01:00:47] Fiona McIntyre: Yeah, and you were allowed to be angry you know, I was saying that I felt like I was picking up on people's emotions and feeling things that I didn't think I expected to feel but through that process probably have healed a little bit as well, like kind of, or at least there's a sense that there's people to share with. Kind of thing, like, yeah. My name's Fiona McIntyre. I run Greyhawk Bay, which is a local charity in Torry that aims to connect communities with our coast and heritage. We have a cafe up in Torry Battery, which has the best view of bottlenose dolphins. Because this is the community we serve, it's really important to us that maybe we can share what we have been able to do, but also just to kind of really get to know what are the issues and really... Yeah, I kind of support the community in that, and even just in listening. And again, seeing the children and the old men, like, seeing the cross section of, like, so many different people, and also people that have travelled up for the event. [01:01:49] Kaska Hempel: Right, we're interfering with serving of dinner, so we probably should back out. But thank you for chatting. That was the Assembly gathering. Lots and lots of going on in it. The second day was... It's equally busy with its focus on hearing input on how from local experience and then discussing strategies, next steps, and drafting an action plan. According to Rosie's graphic record, by the end of the assembly, a few ideas for practical action started emerging. From community litter picks, basketball tournaments and nature activities at the park to raise awareness and make it an irresistible place for all in Torry, to door knocking campaigns to reach people in their own homes, discussing heating costs and time banking ideas, to a vision for a community led Torry Retrofit Project, creating local jobs alongside warmer homes. Of course, the Assembly was just one point in the journey for this community. As someone said on the day, it's a long journey, and this is only the beginning, and there's been many beginnings. But it'd be interesting to see how this beginning may go forward. I asked Eva to comment on what needs to happen next for such people led Assemblies to turn into productive beginnings. [01:03:15] Eva Schonveld: We talk about there being three main pathways. So, pathway one is what the community could do for itself. Pathway two is like stuff that we want to happen that needs to interact with current power holders. That might be the council, that might be national government, that might be funders. But these are things that are going to take more work and more preparation. Pathway three is a really interesting pathway that's sort of imaginary at the moment, which is to do with the kind of things that I've been saying is like, what could communities achieve? If they decided to step into responsibility for decision making. What could we achieve together if we connected our Assemblies and used deliberation to have really, really juicy, generative conversations about how we could do things really differently. How we could change our communities and change our way of life in a way that means everybody gets their basic needs met. Which they currently don't, and also where we're not polluting the planet that we rely on to survive. These are kind of absolutely crucial questions of the moment, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be us in the places that we live who come up with the responses to that. Because fundamentally... that's what humans are for. Humans are for living in a place, having families and friends, and cooperating and collaborating with the natural world. We've given our power away to this kind of system, which feels impenetrable, and it also feels inevitable, because it's all we've ever known. But it's not how humans have always lived. We cannot continue to live like this. And we all know that. There's got to be changes. And to be kind of creative and collaborative and cooperative in how we make those changes so that people don't get hurt in the process. Feels like, well, this is the window that we've got to do it that way. And it's much better than the alternatives. [01:05:19] Kaska Hempel: Great. Yes, great call to action. So, organising something like this, it sounds really involved as a process. Is there help available, or funding? [01:05:31] Eva Schonveld: I think this is one of the really big stumbling blocks with this whole thing, is that it takes a lot to organise and there isn't currently money around for people to do Assemblies. It may be that as a result of this... Scottish Government will extend, because this is coming from Just Transition funding, which is being piloted in the North East and may be rolled out across the whole country. They may decide that Assemblies are a good thing, community run Assemblies, are a good thing, so there may be money coming from that. And there may be money coming through the climate hubs. If communities are saying, we want to have Assemblies, and this is what we're applying for grants to do, if the hubs think that those are important, then they would be able to put funds that way. And the last thing I would say is that we've got a training and we're planning to run a training up in the North East. Basically, it's an assembly catalysts training. It's for people who might then go off and set up a steering group and do all this kind of outreach. And we're going to develop, hopefully, if we get the funding, next year, a facilitators training, which we would work with Go Deep, who's another one of the partners in the NESCAN process. [01:06:41] Kaska Hempel: How do you take... the ideas forward. Do you have any feeling for that and what would be the most powerful thing that people can do or an outcome from an Assembly that can happen? [01:06:53] Eva Schonveld: Well, this Assembly in Torry will have this declaration that will include a plan. Or at least the beginnings of a plan for how we're going to move forward. And that might include small local initiatives that local people have, you know, discovered that there's other people who are keen on whatever it is. And also requests or slash demands to the council of things that need to be taken up in Torry. And all of that requires following up. And so for a big chunk of the money that we're putting forward for years two and three is for somebody to work in Torry basically to drive forward the outcomes of the Assembly. Because before we went to Torry, we just had no sense of how little capacity there is in some communities who just had the stuffing knocked out of them. And while there might be, there might be a group of people who could just carry on, just kind of integrate this with the work that they're already doing for nothing on behalf of the community. And I expect that is what will happen to begin

All the speeches from the rally organised by Yes 4 EU and Believe in Scotland which took place in Edinburgh on 2nd September outside of Holyrood.  Speakers are: 00:00:32    Lesley Riddoch (author and journalist) 00:06:57    Jamie Hepburn (Minister for Independence) 00:11:25    Lorna slater (co leader Scottish Greens) 00:16:16    Claude Detrez (Europe for Scotland) 00:23:52     Believe in Scotland Youth Wing 00:28:00     Iona Fyfe (folk singer) 00:33:30     Humza Yousaf (First Minister) 00:47:12     Gordon  MacIntyre-Kemp (Believe in Scotland) 00:52:39      Morag Williamson (Yes 4 EU) 00:54:52       Signoff The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Check out our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips Music Upbeat Corporate by Rinkevitch Music

June's round up of topical clips from the world of Scottish politics and culture presented by a rather croaky-voiced Fiona (thanks to a touch of hayfever) and guest presenter James.  Topics covered this month are: 00:00:24  A written constitution for Scotland 00:06:27  A legal opinion on flaws in the Supreme Court Decision 00:11:43  Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp on the impact of a wellbeing economy on polling results 00:20:48  Lesley Riddoch on local government and community action 00:33:11  Alister Jack stirring up trouble 00:40:32   DRS woes continue 00:46:57   Report confirms Johnson is a liar 00:52:40   US presidential candidate nominations 00:58:17   Sign off "Contains information licensed under the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence". The Indypodcast team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to subscribe! Contact: indypodcasters@gmail.com  Visit scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Check out our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for video footage and clips  

Lesley Riddoch gives a fascinating presentation to launch her new book Thrive: The Freedom to Flourish. Hosted by the Perth Yes Hub at the Bell Library in Perth, Lesley reads excerpts from the book and shares a selection of  anecdotes. She draws inspiration from our Nordic neighbours and those Scots who have decided to get on with whatever needs to be done to allow their communities to thrive. You can order a copy from Lesleyriddoch.com or all good bookshops Music: Motivational Upbeat corporate by Rinkevich Music The Indypodcast team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to subscribe! Contact: indypodcasters@gmail.com Visit scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes

Most Scots seemed largely indifferent to the Coronation which was certainly not reflected in the wall to wall obsequiousness of the mainstream media offering. Instead we decided to escape the TV to join more than 20 thousand pals on a wee jaunt through Glasgow.  Marlene and Fiona battled the elements to create an outdoor podcast recording with, it has to be said, mixed results, but here are all the best bits of the day! Obviously we can't bring the spectacle and colour of an independence march to an audio podcast, but you can watch clips and the video version of this podcast on our Youtube channel Scottish Independence Podcasts Indypod Extra Chapters: 0.00   Intro 4:41   The excitement builds 9:18   A flavour of the march 11:49  Inside the studio tent 15:38  Lesley Riddoch's speech 22:52  More from the tent 25:54  Alex Salmond's speech 28:20   Rainy reporting 30:50    Joanna Cherry's speech 33:37   Post march reflections 35:20   Yes stones brilliant tally 39:39   Heading home 42:59    End   music:  Upbeat corporate by Rinkevitch music

Stuart and Eamonn are joined by a dynamic duo of author and commentator Lesley Riddoch and Big Issue editor Paul McNamee. This week : Today, Our Views on the Scottish News, Murdoch fires Tucker Carlson and The Big Issue Northern edition to close after 30 years. This week's listener question is from David McParland. Recommendations: Stuart: 2022 Booker Prize-winning novel: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author, Shehan Karunatilaka. A photographer in the afterlife sets out to expose the carnage of Sri Lanka's Civil Wars, in a novel filled with humour and pathos. https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida/shehan-karunatilaka/9781908745903 Lesley: Blue Lights: Belfast based drama `Blue Lights' follows new police recruits Grace, Annie, and Tommy, as they learn the ropes in a high-pressure environment. Grace is a former social worker who has decided to switch careers in her forties, Annie has had to leave everything she knows behind, and Tommy finds it challenging to be on the frontline. The team deal with divided communities, criminal gangs, and struggle to know who to trust, all the while wondering if they have made the right choice in joining the PSNI. Blue Lights airs Mondays at 9pm on BBC One, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65069989 Lesley's bibliography https://www.waterstones.com/author/lesley-riddoch/52415 Lesley podcast https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast Lesley's book 'THRIVE' as referenced in the podcast is available on pre-order now from  https://lesleyriddoch.com/shop-mobile. Eamonn: New York Times opinion piece by Thomas Friedman: Why Kamala Harris Matters So Much in 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/opinion/kamala-harris-joe-biden-2024-reelection.html Paul McNamee: Ryuichi Sakamoto 12 The cult Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto is back with all new album, “12”, via Milan Records. The 12 compositions were recorded by Ryuichi Sakamoto in Tokyo during his 2-year long fight with cancer throughout 2021-2022. The album, his 15th so far, is the first of new solo material since 2017. The album's twelve tracks are titled and sequenced by the dates each were written, culminating in a diary-like collection of music that provides an intimate snapshot into this period of Sakamoto's life. https://sakamoto.bandcamp.com/album/12 The Big Issue https://www.bigissue.com/

Today we speak to Scottish pundit Lesley Riddoch an award-winning broadcaster, journalist and author about Scotland's new first minister and the issues faced by the SNP.Humza Yousaf has pledged to be a "first minister for all of Scotland" after being chosen by party members to replace Nicola Sturgeon. Mr Yousaf, who had been serving as health secretary, also vowed to "kickstart" a grassroots campaign that would "ensure our drive for independence is in fifth gear".Here are some of the other issues that are looming in his in-tray:The mammoth task required fixing the problems across health and social care. More than 600,000 people are on a waiting list; A&E departments are regularly full; one in every six patients in hospital cannot get out, despite being ready to be discharged.Education: Before the pandemic, the Scottish government saw education as its defining mission. It wanted to be judged by its progress in raising attainment and helping children and young people from disadvantaged areas. Inevitably, the pandemic has thrown up new problems which are still real issues.Scotland's business lobbies hope for a reset in their relations with Bute House. Several feel their concerns have taken a low priority under Nicola Sturgeon.Climate change: Tackling climate change was one of Nicola Sturgeon's priorities, with the Scottish Parliament setting some of the most ambitious targets in the world. But year after year those targets have been missed and the government's independent advisers have said Scotland's lead has been lost.The government's track record on the NHS is never far from a political rammy, but increasingly those working within health and social care are asking policymakers to step back from arguing among themselves and give some candid consideration to what kind of reform is needed. The new FM says his priority is to recover and reform the NHS but he won't deviate from its founding principle, to be free at the point of use. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicola Sturgeon caught us all on the hop with her surprise resignation. In this special episode, John Drummond chats with journalist Lesley Riddoch and Believe in Scotland CEO Gordon MacIntyre Kemp about the impact on the Yes movement and where we go from here. Whatever your views on her achievements as a politician and campaigner, nobody can deny that she has put in one hell of a shift as First Minister.  We thank her and we wish her well for the future, whatever it might hold.

Supreme Court judges have decided unanimously that an Indyref2 vote cannot go ahead without the UK parliament's permission. But it's not the end of the debate – or Scotland's First Minister's fight to break free from Great Britain. On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson looks at what the judgment means both politically and legally with our Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies. Plus, reaction from both sides of the debate as we speak to Kevin Hague, chair of pro-union think tank These Islands, and Lesley Riddoch, columnist for Scottish papers The Herald and The National, who supports Scottish independence. Annie Joyce – senior podcast producer Alys Bowen – interviews producer Philly Beaumont – editor

Stuart and Eamonn are joined by journalist and podcaster, Lesley Riddoch. This week - Gordon Brown wades in on food banks, new warships in Glasgow, Joe Lycett's challenge to David Beckham and a listener question about how the media reports on emergency services. Towards the end of the show...media recommendations! To listen to the full hour-long episode, and for a full list of recommendations, join the Talk Media Club (99p per week + VAT): patreon.com/talkmedia After I've joined the club, how do I listen? Download the Patreon app (iOS/Android) and login with your account details. For more information about Talk Media, go to: www.thebiglight.com/talkmedia

Finland has a 1300 km long land border with Russia, fought two wars in the 1940s to defend then reclaim territory, and is now applying to join NATO. There, most knowledge of the country ends.Which is a shame.Because a staple of Finnish life could offer a permanent solution to supply crises in Britain – using cooperatives not corporations to deliver. During a cycle on the Finnish-owned Aland Islands Lesley used cooperatively-owned ferries. This year, during a summer trip to the Sibelius Festival in the Finnish city of Lahti,  she visited the cooperatively run Housing Fair, the Metsalitto Forest cooperative (which has 100 thousand members), stayed at the cooperatively owned Solo Sokos Hotel in Lahti - part of the huge S-Group cooperative with more than 3 million members and passed cooperatively owned shops, businesses and banks at every stage of her journey.How does it all work?Lesley Riddoch went to Finland's seventh largest city to find out. With thanks to Risto Turanen, Kari Huhtala, VisitFinland, Finnair and Sokos Hotels.    ★ Support this podcast ★

This is a very special Community Pioneers Podcast  entitled " The Power of the Eigg Story, Yesterday and Today' . Moderated by Calum MacDonald with Camille Dressler of Comunn Eachdraidh Eige (Eigg history Society) handling the Q&A ; this event featured three Iconic Scottish Writers, Lesley Riddoch, Alastair McIntosh and Andy Wightman. As you will hear, they all played a part in the Eigg community buyout. Their stories and memories provide a fascinating glimpse to what happened 25 years ago and outline some lessons for the future. Organised by Communn Eachdrtaidh Eige as part of their "voices of the Eigg Community buyout" programme funded by Scotland's Year of Stories 2022, this is a unique audio insight. 

As we await the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing on 11th/12th October, Falkirk Friends of Yes arranged a public panel discussion and audience Q+A to discuss campaigning ideas. The panel members are: Lesley Riddoch, Broadcaster and author Grant Thoms, lobbyist, academic and SNP activist Neil MacLeod, Christians for Independence Gillian McKay , MSP  Scottish Greens There was a slight issue with the sound right at the beginning of the event but we pick up the discussion just a little way into the opening speech from the first speaker. Music is  Motivational Upbeat Corporate by RinkevichMusic https://soundcloud.com/rinkevichmusic Video Link: https://youtu.be/U78mgVaM12M  

It is a sad fact that fewer than 500 people own 57% of the private land in Scotland. The Scottish Government are consulting on a proposed Land Reform Bill.  This is open until 25th September, so we take a look at the proposals up for consultation.  With the help of two case studies - Flamingo Land's revised bid to take over Balloch and the Loch Lomond waterfront and the possibility of an islanders hostile buy out from the absentee landlord on Great Bernera - we look at some of the issues that this consultation brings to light - and many that it doesn't even begin to cover. We have contributions from Lesley Riddoch and Robin McAlpine via Commonweal's expert panel discussion plus excerpts from members debates in Holyrood. Find the Scotgov consultation here: https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/land-reform-net-zero-scotland/ find commonweal's website here: https://commonweal.scot/ Contains information licensed under the Scottish Parliament copyright licence. Music is "Inspired" by Kevin MacLeod 

Welcome to our monthly round-up of topical titbits!  This month regular presenter Fiona is joined by James, another member of the Indylive Podcast team to share our opinions on the issues arising in June 2022. Subjects up for discussion are: Alternative Jubilee events Westminster's agenda of shame including cost of living crisis, Rwanda deportation flight, the assault on the Human Rights Act and the colonial arrogance of the Scottish Affairs Committee Holyrood - another inspirational Time for Reflection, putting the record straight about the census returns, explaining the basics of devolved budgets to the finance committee The independence campaign heats up including activism from Dumfries, a positive take on the opportunities that borders bring,  Murdo Fraser's fantasy island and Lesley Riddoch having the last word Thanks for listening!  

Guests include: Welsh Conservative MP David Jones, who is a member of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, Mark Barry who is a Professor of Practice in Connectivity at Cardiff University, Lesley Riddoch is a journalist, broadcaster and columnist, Adam Morris, is a former head of media for the Scottish Conservatives and director of Shorthand PR, Catherine Nicholson is the European Affairs Editor for France 24 TV, Andrea Cleaver is the Chief Executive of the Welsh Refugee Council and Joel James is the Conservative MS for South Wales Central and the shadow minister for social partnership.

With guest Mike Russell, this week we look at the benefits of a written constitution for an independent Scotland.   Mike tells us about the work being done with grassroots groups to develop an interim constitution.  We also have a look at the Icelandic example of a crowdsourced constitution and take to the streets to hear from the citizens of Milngavie, Glasgow Icelandic clip comes from the Nation series of films from Phantom Power and Lesley Riddoch, you can see these on Phantom Power's Youtube channel.  The article about the Icelandic constitution which we mentioned in the podcast is: https://grapevine.is/mag/feature/2020/11/09/where-is-the-new-constitution/ You can watch the video versions of the Indy Jigsaw Show on Independence Live's Youtube channel  Visit our website https://podcasts.independencelive.net to see more of our podcasts, blogs and you are welcome to sign up to our monthly newsletter too! THANKS FOR LISTENING

Eamonn and Shona are joined by broadcaster and journalist, Lesley Riddoch. This week - police speak to Nicola Sturgeon about mask-wearing rules, the UK Government's Rwanda plan, the launch of TalkTV and a listener question on putting politicians on the spot. At the end of the show, Eamonn, Shona and Lesley share their personal media recommendations. To listen to the full hour-long episode, and for a full list of recommendations, join the Talk Media Club (99p per week + VAT): patreon.com/talkmedia After I've joined the club, how do I listen? Download the Patreon app (iOS/Android) and login with your account details.

Fascinating discussion in the wake of COP26 and a tantalising glimpse of the kind of future Scotland could be part of at this Nordic Horizon's event. Hosted by Lesley Riddoch, the panel of experts in the fields of renewable energy, district heating systems, fuel poverty and more are: Viktoria Raft, energy journalist, Sweden Tore Furevik, Professor in physical oceanography, Bergen, Norway Søren Hermansen, Director of the Energy Academy,  Samsø, Denmark Dr Keith Baker, Researcher in fuel poverty and energy policy, Glasgow Caledonian University Event organised by Nordic Horizons https://nordichorizons.org 

Round up of the most interesting jigsaw pieces this month, which was of course dominated by COP26, although there were plenty of other items too. 00:35 Nicola Sturgeon speech at Strathclyde Uni - Scotland's COP26 ambitions 08:33  Rhoda Grant MSP /Emma Roddick MSP - land reform and the threat of the "green lairds" 20:56   Nicola Sturgeon interviewed by Christianne Amanpour at COP26 about Scotland's climate change targets 31:06    Michelle Thompson MSP asks deputy FM John Swinney a question about the Supreme court judgement on Rights of the Child bill  34:00    Anthony Salamone at an AIM meeting on EU flexibility on issues of debt, currency and deficit of aspiring future member states 39:54    Nicola Sturgeon addresses the Global Assembly at COP26 47:49    Robin McAlpine chats to Marlene Halliday about the need for "a coalition of the willing" to combat climate change 51:57    Lesley Riddoch and Pat Joyce discuss the electrification of Scottish rail services Catch the regular broadcast of the Indy Jigsaw on Indylive.radio at noon on Tuesdays, and we'll be back with another round up of the best clips in next month's Indy Jigsaw Podcast.   

Chris Mason presents Any Questions from Stirling.

Welcome to the Indy Jigsaw Podcast, a monthly selection of the best clips from indylive.radio's weekly politics show,  building up the picture of an Independent Scotland piece by piece. This episode features Lesley Riddoch, James Hawes, Dr Philippa Whitford, Tony Guiliani, Lorna Slater, John Swinney, Joanna Cherry and George Kerevan. You can catch the Indy Jigsaw weekly radio show at Noon on Tuesdays on Indylive.radio and there are video versions of many of the clips on Indylive.radio's Youtube channel in the Indy Jigsaw Playlist   

Organised by the Edinburgh Yes Hub, the Big Indy Debate took place at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh on 21st September.  It was an excellent evening's entertainment with music and satire as well as debate.   The core of the event was a debate panel chaired by Lesley Riddoch.  Panel members were Robin McAlpine from Commonweal, Colin Fox from SSP, Michelle Thomson SNP MSP, Gillian Mackay Scottish Green MSP, Selma Rahman Edinburgh WFI and Mike Small from Bella Caledonia. This podcast focuses on the questions for the panel and their answers. The whole event is available to view on Independence Live's Youtube channel.    

David Pratt, Kevin McKenna and Lesley Riddoch join National editor Callum Baird to discuss "What next for independence?" ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/sun-shine-down License code: CPHVIWGTLIHJK0LU See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Indylive.radio are very grateful to Yes West fife for sharing their excellent event entitled "What progress has been made since the Holyrood election".  Attempting to answer that question plus Q and A from the audience is journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch #yesGroupSpotlight #yeswestfife #lesleyriddoch  

Stuart and Eamonn are joined by journalist and broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch. This week - reactions to Dominic Cummings’ evidence to MPs, the fallout from the Dyson Report, immigration policy in Scotland and the hijacking of a Ryanair flight. At the end of the episode, Stuart, Eamonn and Lesley go on to share their personal media recommendations. Bonus episodes are available via Patreon - join the Talk Media Club to access extra interviews with guests and in-depth discussions about significant media issues: www.patreon.com/talkmedia RECOMMENDATIONS: Stuart: ‘Atlantic: A Scottish Story’ - 8-part musical drama series from Noisemaker and The Big Light network. Subscribe now to be the first to listen to each episode - www.thebiglight.com/atlantic Lesley: ‘The Pact’ - 6-part drama - available on BBCiPlayer - www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09cwbzfThe Nevers - drama series on Sky Atlantic - www.sky.com/watch/title/series/dabfb2bb Eamonn: ‘The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune’ - book by Conor O’Clery - www.waterstones.com/book/the-billionaire-who-wasnt/conor-oclery/9781610393348 For more information about Talk Media, go to: www.thebiglight.com/talkmedia

With the Scottish parliament election less than a week away, Jack Blanchard looks back at the history of the Scottish nationalist movement and explains how it shifted from a fringe pursuit to perhaps the majority view in Scotland.Former First Ministers Alex Salmond and Jack McConnell — who between them ran the Scottish government for more than 13 years — discuss the collapse of Scottish Labour in the mid 2000s and the extraordinary rise of the SNP. Scottish Cabinet Minister Mike Russell explains what first attracted him to the nationalist movement in the 1970s, while independence campaigner and columnist Lesley Riddoch talks about her own conversion to the cause ahead of the 2014 referendum. Historian Dr. Ben Jackson discusses the movement's early struggles and the development of nationalist thought, while the Daily Record's Torcuil Crichton analyzes the cultural and global shifts behind the SNP's march to power. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Intelligence Squared (LS 60 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Debate: The Time Is Right for Scottish IndependencePub date: 2021-03-26Should Scotland be independent? In this week's podcast Alex Massie and Lesley Riddoch go head to head on the question of whether the time has come to break up Britain and for Scotland to go it alone. The debate was chaired by Manveen Rana. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Intelligence Squared, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Should Scotland be independent? In this week's podcast Alex Massie and Lesley Riddoch go head to head on the question of whether the time has come to break up Britain and for Scotland to go it alone. The debate was chaired by Manveen Rana. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the third of our four  Daytime Show Specials celebrating International Women's Day 2021, Val and Marlene chat with more  inspirational women including Sheena Wellington, Lesley Riddoch, Tina Yu, Anamisha McCoy, Jean Anderson and Eileen Budd,  also with poetry from Maya Angelou and Lorraine Sinclair. Happy International Women's Day to women everywhere!   

Adam Boulton and guests focus on the complicated row at the heart of politics in Scotland where - in the past week - Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have given lengthy evidence to a Holyrood inquiry investigating the handling of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond.What's been happening in the Scottish Parliament and where does it leave the First Minister, the SNP and the future of the independence movement?Joining Adam this week are the editor and publisher of Reaction Iain Martin, journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch and Sky's Scotland correspondent James Matthews.

The Scottish hutting tradition is enjoying a surge of popularity as people seek out a simpler way of life more in tune with the environment. But what has fuelled this new love for living for nature, and just how easy is it to get away from it all? Climate journalist Shaun Milne is joined by author and journalist Lesley Riddoch and hutter and campaigner Chris Ballance who share their experiences and also ask does Scotland need a new political party to campaign on the single issue of land reform?

Worst Excess Deaths in 129 yrs... That’s fake news broadcast by BBC Scotland BTW… Deputy FM John Swinney held the Covid press briefing supported by NCD Jason Leitch...The game was ‘let's compare vaccinations with England” and make ScotGov look bad on the day the UK death rate reached another awful peak…From the past came a poll about a prosecution of former PM Tony Blair…Alex Salmond’s former Chief of Staff, Geoff Aberdein, has been barred from giving evidence of a conspiracy against his boss to the Holyrood inquiry…Nicola Sturgeon is England’s favourite political leader...Who knew?…Lesley Riddoch analyses the detail in the latest poll by Scot Goes Pop…We all have a go at the threat to free speech from the woke division.

Foot on the Throat of Scotland   We begin with the Holyrood Brexit vote to refuse consent for Scotland to leave the EU.  Mike Russell made a barnstorming speech winding up for the Scottish Government.  There’s a clip at the end.   The rest of the show takes a familiar route linking topical issues/people as follows:-..  FT article offering advice to serious Unionists,  Occupied Scotland,  Trojan horse,  transport infrastructure..  Borders Railway to Carlisle,  direct European transport links,  North Sea electricity inter-connector,  Scottish water,  Lesley Riddoch wins award,  Stewart voted Tory,  Sicilian Mafia think London is more corrupt,  new gangster Lords,  Joanna Cherry,  wheesht for Nicola,  drive for democracy,  100% Scot  V  8% Brit.. you figure?,  no UK election for 8 years,  English foot on the throat of Scotland,  taxi full of weapons,  Holyrood campaign.. Nicola Sturgeon has no big idea,  Welsh Labour shame SNP Government. 

Comment on Alyn Smith OK? Nicola Sturgeon at FMQs .. ‘Phew! Vaccination Questions. Easy peasy’. We learnt more about the Covid jab logistics than UK media have provided. Schools Xmas holidays, exams under Covid, taxi drivers and grouse shooting featured. We then went on to discuss the reaction to the petulant article by Alyn Smith MP and other implications of the SNP NEC changes (don’t call it a revolution) especially a very good article by Lesley Riddoch. And finally we view a BBC rebuttal of the Tory claim that only a Brexit UK could deliver the Pfizer vaccine so fast.

Stuart and Eamonn are joined by Lesley Riddoch (broadcaster, journalist and fellow podcaster). This week - the Scottish Government’s response to COVID-19 and Christmas, the refugee crisis and, in the week a Scot wins the Booker Prize, the Scottish Book of the Year Awards are shelved. Stuart, Eamonn and Lesley go on to share their personal media recommendations.The Lesley Riddoch Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lesley-riddoch-podcast/id256574954Follow Lesley on Twitter: @LesleyRiddochRECOMMENDATIONS:Stuart: ‘Rockstars on their day off’ - by @Peej59 on Twitter - www.twitter.com/peej59Eamonn: ‘The Right Stuff’ - original 1983 film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s book by the same name - www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Stuff-Sam-Shepard/dp/B00EVMPQIOLesley: ‘The Bridge’ - crime drama series on BBC iPlayer - www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b03bnc34/the-bridgeSupport the podcast and gain access to bonus content: www.patreon.com/talkmediaKeep up to date with the show on Twitter: @TBLTalkMediaFor more information about the podcast, visit: www.thebiglight.com/talkmedia See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mark C is joined by Lesley Riddoch, David Maddox & Patrick Maguire.

Mark Stephen discusses the Nordic culture of huts with writer Lesley Riddoch

This week's podcast includes the Internal market debate, the necessity of a Scottish currency , Lesley Riddoch's "Huts" book launch and Clacks WFIs weekend adventures with the Yes Slates - get the kettle on and join us!  

This week the Clacks WFIs are mulling over Bozo's holiday adventures, the Internal market powergrab, and Lesley Riddoch's excellent advice about getting noticed in the media -  jump on a moving horse!    

Featured today;… The Covid press briefing and then the Gordon Brewer show starring Finance Secretary Kate Forbes. No deaths, 30,000 tests comleted yesterday, 80% success in contact tracing and quarantine compliance, Daily Heil skelped, TES skelped and a satisfied FM. GERS dominated the Brewer show and Kate Forbes sorted out Peter McMahon from ITV. “GERS is a picture of Scotland IN THE UK not an iScotland” Douglas Fraser unusually was sitting on the indy fence and even Brewer interrupted the Unionist MSPs bawling “Too wee, too poor” Lesley Riddoch suggested that post Brexit day, Hogmany 2020, Scotland could be a target for seduction. The EU, EFTA and the UK all bidding for an iScotland to join their club. “Lionel Messi is going to HIBS” says Andy Murray.

Welcome to the second episode of our new Indylive.Radio show Yes Groups Spotlight , this week featuring the Edinburgh Yes Hub who recently held am excellent zoom event featuring Lesley Riddoch and kindly gave us permission to feature that event our show. Find out more about the Edinburgh Yes Hub at https://www.edinburghyeshub.info/ email: theedinburghyeshub@gmail.com twitter : @YescafeEdSouth   New voices for a new Scotland on Indylive.radio

Part 1 of 2:  AUOB panel discussion with Lesley Riddoch, Catriona MacDonald and Charlotte Ahmed    originally livestreamed in June 2020, this is the indylive.radio podcast edit   Building the Scottish State is a regular programme on Indylive.radio looking forward to an Independent Scotland and how we build our new State.     New voices for a new Scotland

Part 2 of 2:  AUOB panel discussion with Lesley Riddoch, Catriona MacDonald and Charlotte Ahmed    originally livestreamed in June 2020, this is the indylive.radio podcast edit   Building the Scottish State is a regular programme on Indylive.radio looking forward to an Independent Scotland and how we build our new State.     New voices for a new Scotland

The lads discuss today’s press conference with Nicola’s turn in and get a bit heated and bitchy about Stewarts conspiracy theories. As nickel of the person to lead us into the second independence referendum with reference to Peter a Bell’s blog piece and Lesley Riddoch’s article in the National. Boris’s bonking bubble is also discussed.

Mark is joined by Lesley Riddoch, Alex Massie & Martin Kettle.

this week the Clacks WFIs have some questions for the wonderful Lesley Riddoch and we share a list of our favourite indy podcasts plus a visit to the virtual coffee shop

Obviously you weren't expecting there would be any UK wide celebrations of The Declaration of Arbroath, were you? However, the indy movement has stepped up and we've had the documentary by Lesley Riddoch and Charlie Stuart, and there will be an illustrated version too.For my own part, I decided just to read the whole thing, not the few quotes we usually hear, and make it available as audio, so here it is. Obviously I read the translation from the National Library of Scotland, not the original Latin.Doing it, it was easy to see how it is in part a plea, partly a statement of intent, in one part an offer, and in another part a threat.A truly interesting document. A pity that no one in British broadcasting seems to think so (I know there are other things going on right now, however if they had had any intention of doing anything it would have been planned and done before the coronavirus outbreak).Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videoshttps://twitter.com/mgreenwell

Jimmy, Norrie and Stewart discuss Lesley Riddoch's love of experts making up the opposition Nicola Sturgeon's daily press conference and airports.

Global, the UK's largest commercial radio company, has announced it will launch national breakfast shows on Capital, Heart and Smooth radio. The new programmes, produced in London, will replace local shows and lead to studio closures and job losses. Does the move mark the end of local commercial radio? Amol is joined by Phil Riley, former chief executive of Chrysalis Radio, and Gill Hind, COO of Enders Analysis. Also in the programme, the BBC launches a new channel just for Scotland. Steve Carson, head of the BBC Scotland channel, Bobby Hain, STV Managing Director of Broadcast and journalist Lesley Riddoch discuss. Presenter: Amol Rajan Producer: Richard Hooper

Mark Stephen meets Lesley Riddoch who thinks Scotland has become divorced from nature

At the moment there isn't really enough talk about choices. Everything is being presented as either a future in Brexit UK (with all the lack of choices that entails), or an independent future in the EU.However there are more options than that available. If one looks to Scandinavia it is possible to see many different types of engagement and activity with Europe, from full membership and trying to change things from within, to various kinds of halfway house.In this talk presented here in the 154th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast, Lesley Riddoch outlines the options, and there are many of them that are appealing.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

A recent episode of the Lesley Riddoch podcast mentioned a couple of things regarding what's going to happen to fishing and agriculture in Scotland post-brexit. I felt what they were talking about was so important that we should go straight to the horse's mouth, and then to the horses a***s (Mundell & Farage).So for the 149th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I've pulled together the relevant comments and something fishy does indeed seem to be going on.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

How do you move a city? Lesley Riddoch travels to Arctic Sweden to find out. Kiruna is gradually sliding into Europe's biggest iron ore mine. The city has to be rebuilt two miles away. That requires an extraordinary blend of planning, architecture, technology and stoicism. If anyone can do it then it's the Swedes.

How do you move a city? Lesley Riddoch travels to Arctic Sweden to find out. Kiruna is gradually sliding into Europe's biggest iron ore mine. The city has to be rebuilt two miles away. That requires an extraordinary blend of planning, architecture, technology and stoicism. If anyone can do it then it's the Swedes. Producer: Alasdair Cross.

Lesley Riddoch examines the changing relationship between man and nature in the North.

"The Land Reform Bill we have in front of us at the moment is just a start, and a pretty tentative one at that. It needs beefed up." - Lesley RiddochWhen it comes to land ownership and distribution it must be said that Scotland is an international oddball.A number of factors have contributed to the unusual situation we find ourselves in and in this episode I spoke with Lesley Riddoch about what those are and what can be done about the situation, both in the countryside and in the cities.Furthermore, is the Scottish Government in a compromised position or does the it lack the power, or indeed, the will.How do the local and city councils come into the story?We talked about all this and about some of the groups and people involved in trying to do something about the situation (links below). Hope you enjoyhttp://www.ourland.scot/http://www.scottishlandactionmovement.org/http://whoownsscotland.org.uk/https://twitter.com/LesleyRiddochhttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

In the third of the series of 2014 Reviews, we travel from M to S. We start with an example of 'M' and touch on politicians, newspapers, 'Question Times', boat festivals , TV stations and programmes as we finally land on 'S'.  As you can imagine, there is a fair bit of referendum but more happened. It is also worth pointing out that all the Lesley Riddoch podcasts are still there in the archive for you to download and listen to. So, if there is a topic you want to hear more about from 2014, please search the archive, it's bound to be there.   The final part of the 2014 Review will be posted on New Year's Day 2015, when we surface. So have a a happy Hogmanay and all the best for 2015 from us to you.

Can Scotland Be Future-Proofed? As the vote on Scotland’s future looms into view, commentators are turning their attention to what might happen next. Gerry Hassan’s Caledonian Dreaming questions some of the key myths Scotland tells about itself, while Lesley Riddoch’s Blossom wonders whether swapping a London elite for an Edinburgh one will make much difference to Scots' lives. Might Scotland flourish if we look elsewhere? Part of our Scotland's Future series of events.

As the vote on Scotland’s future looms into view, commentators are turning their attention to what might happen next. Gerry Hassan’s Caledonian Dreaming questions some of the key myths Scotland tells about itself, while Lesley Riddoch’s Blossom wonders whether swapping a London elite for an Edinburgh one will make much difference to Scots' lives. Might Scotland flourish if we look elsewhere? Recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Moonage Daydreams Could Scotland Blossom?

"Blossom is an account of Scotland at the grassroots through the stories of people I've had the good fortune to know – the most stubborn, talented and resilient people on the planet. They've had to be. Some have transformed their parts of Scotland. Some have tried and failed. But all have something in common – they know what it takes for Scotland to blossom. We should know too."The ScotIndyBook series features audio book versions, full books or selected pieces, fiction and non-fiction, of some of the books being written about the independence referendum, or using it as a theme.All the books in this series have been given by the kind permissions of their authors.This time it is part of Blossom, by Lesley Riddoch (who was also on the other podcast just before christmas).I'm sure you know who Lesley is but in case you aren't sure...An honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, president of the student union in 1981, founded and directed a feminist magazine known as Harpies and Quines, contributing editor of the Sunday Herald and assistant editor of The Scotsman. She was editor of a special one-off edition of The Scotsman known as The Scotswoman produced by the paper's female staff.Writing columns for The Sunday Post, The Scotsman, and occasionally The Guardian, shortlisted for the Orwell prize. From 1989 to 1994 she presented the BBC Radio Scotland programme Speaking Out and was one of the presenters of Radio Four programme You and Yours. In 1993 Riddoch won a Cosmopolitan woman award for Communication and in 1994 for the best talk show award. Her programme Speaking Out took the Silver Quill Law Society award that same year. Between 1999 and 2005 she had her own daily radio programme the Lesley Riddoch Programme on Radio Scotland.8392802340_fea0d5a957_zRiddoch presented TV programmes of which include The Midnight Hour on BBC2, and The People's Parliament and Powerhouse on Channel 4, runs her own independent radio, podcast and TV production company known as Feisty Ltd.Riddoch was involved in the buyout of the Isle of Eigg by the local community. She assisted in putting together the buyout plan and later became a trustee of the Isle of Eigg Trust. The trust bought the island in 1997.In 2008, Riddoch served as a member of the Scottish Prisons Commission. In 2009, she acted as Chair in Task Force, set up by the Scottish Government, to transfer the island of Rùm into community ownership from Scottish Natural Heritage.So there you have it. And she's donated part of her book, so here it is...Hope you enjoy...

The 55th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast is the first of two that aren't the usual interview format but rather some talks that are taken from here and there and will provide both useful information for campaigners, and I hope some enjoyable listening.This one comes from an event a few weeks back in Kirkcaldy and the speakers were Alistair Bruce, who is involved with Yes Kirkcaldy, Ross Ingerbergson who is a communications director for the SNP, Robin McAlpine who is the director of the Reid Foundation (I also interviewed him here) and writer and former BBC journalist Lesley Riddoch, who, apart from the excellence of the talk itself, in this speech deals admirably with a heckler (I also interviewed her here).It's quite long so you might not want to listen to it in one go but I'd recommend that even if you do it all in parts, you try to get through it.Also thanks to Two Thumbs Fresh Productions, for letting me reproduce it.LINKShttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/http://www.cmonscotland.org/https://twitter.com/ReidFoundationhttps://twitter.com/LesleyRiddochhttps://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://twitter.com/YesKirkcaldyhttps://www.youtube.com/user/twothumbsfresh?feature=watch

An exciting new year has begun, and, appropriately, we're looking to the future in this, our first edition of Book Talk for 2014! Host Ryan Van Winkle sits down with three very different people to chat about what the future may hold for books and for Scotland.To get things started, literary critic and Man Booker Prize judge Stuart Kelly discusses the most recent Booker winner, Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries and why it should be on everyone's to-read list this year. Find out how considering the future informs his judging decisions, what books he's most looking forward to this year and what recent changes allowing American books to be considered could mean for the Man Booker Prize.Are mind-reading books the future of literature? Sci-fi author Hannu Rajaniemi seems to think so. The author of The Quantum Thief is not content to merely dream about fantastical inventions--he wants to create them as well. He and his collaborator are working on something they call neurofiction: a system that joins neuroscience with stories by measuring the brain activity of a reader and changing the direction of the story they're engaged in accordingly. A Choose Your Own Adventure for the 21st century!Finally, Lesley Riddoch, author of Blossom, discusses the future of Scotland at the dawn of a momentous year for the country. Why, she wonders, is a country with so much promise so troubled? And what can be done about it? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Learn more about Lesley's hopes for the country and what can be done to make Scotland a fairer, even more vibrant place to live.

For the 43rd episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Lesley Riddoch, writer, blogger, broadcaster, podcaster and speaker.The conversation took in a number of things including what's to be done now, and why it can't wait for the referendum, the lack of empowerment in Scottish communities and why the official Yes campaign may or may not have to walk a tightrope but the rest of us should be getting stuck right into it.There's also a radical suggestion about what's to be done about the Scotsman, but you'll have to listen to find it out what it is.Hope you enjoyLINKShttps://twitter.com/LesleyRiddochhttp://www.lesleyriddoch.comhttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

Lesley went to Belfast and watched Margaret Thatcher's funeral from there. News of the Boston Marathon bombing came through during her visit and these topics feature in this week's Lesley Riddoch podcast.

Between the constitutional debates being largely male,  graduates being ‘too posh to stack’ and councils being cheap; this week’s Lesley Riddoch podcast is on the look out for heroes. We think we may have found them. Step forward, Cait Reilly, Stephen Jardine and Mike Small.

Between meetings that never took place in the snow and a night talking Dundee regeneration, there is a lot going on in the Lesley Riddoch podcast this week. Add another referendum and it's suddenly - it's action packed.

It's been hard to miss the impact the Olympics have had. In this week's, Lesley Riddoch relates a World Services experience , reflects on the Olympic gender issues and helmets. For cyclists.

Back in December 2011, Lesley wrote about Vitamin D, MS and clinical trials. Helga Rhein, an Edinburgh GP got in touch. She had a long standing interest in Vitamin D and its deficiency in her patients. It made a lot of sense to get together and talk through this issue. More information is posted on the Lesley Riddoch web sites .

Award winning broadcaster, journalist and commentator Lesley Riddoch casts her eye over this week's news.

The Clearances are a subject for discussion when Scots gather. When Michael Fry, Andy Myles and Lesley Riddoch met to discuss the week's current affairs; the Clearances came up but didn't get an airing. This subsequent recording is of the discussion that happened after the red light went off in the studio.

Andy Myles joins Scotsman Podcast regulars; Joyce McMillan, Peter MacMahon and Lesley Riddoch. To say, it's a robust display of fireworks is an understatement. Andy Myles is the former Chief Executive of Scottish LibDems and has some issues about the current "Nick Clegg" bounce and the media treatment.

This week in the pod, Kenny Farquharson and Joyce McMillan join Lesley Riddoch talk through how the election announcement was actually handled, what Coalition Government really means and the role of SamCam. As ever, strong opinions are expressed and if you listen carefully Lesley makes an appeal at the end that you could help with.

This week, Peter MacMahon, Joyce McMillan and Tiffany Jenkins join Lesley Riddoch in the pod. It all starts with 3 billion pounds cut from the Scottish Government, goes on to Tony Blair signing off, Tommy Sheridan stepping up and Alex Salmond standing down. As ever, good craic, some unusual opinions and more from Scotsman columnists.

Northern Horizons is an informal campaign group which aims to rejuvenate Scotland by examining the more rational, balanced and equal thinking and practice that’s contributed to the success of our Nordic neighbours. Our first “sell-out” event at the Scottish parliament on March 16th was a great success. Here NH co-founder, journalist and broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch discusses kindergarten, human capital, active citizens and truly local councils with two of the meetings feistiest contributors Dr Ingela Naumann and Eberhard (Paddy) Bort.  

Get opinionated writers in a room and get'em talking about the week's issues. This is the simple mission of the Scotsman podcast. This week, as the series kicks off, Lesley Riddoch is joined in the pod by 5 Scotsman columnists. Peter MacMahon, George Kerevan, Joyce McMillan, Bill Jamieson and Tiffany Jenkins.  There are some very interesting revelations.

After a fairly spiky Riddoch Questions, the crew discuss politicians having a go at each other, car lights and Lesley makes a plea to anyone holding a 'Question Time' type event. We can come and record you and you get Lesley Riddoch.

Irvine Welsh, the author of 'Trainspotting' was pretty forthright about drink; it is a human right to get intoxicated. The phone lines lit up and the debate was heated as Lesley Riddoch steered everyone around the subject of the demon drink.

 The Scottish raj or the macmafia; whatever it is, Jeremy Paxman has strong views. The conversation starts with the Queen, Royalty and some revelations. The phrase 'you are a lazy journalist' is thrown in at one point. Lesley Riddoch meets Jeremy Paxman and fireworks do happen.

This was the first outside broadcast of the Riddoch Questions series in Glasgow. Lesley Riddoch and an audience pondered the waterfront, the buildings and the renewal of Glasgow. All from the new riverside setting of the BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay.

Alex Neil joined Lesley Riddoch to talk about Scottish Enterprise. Alex has strong views and is put under some pressure as Robert Crawford former CEO of Scottish Enterprise and Allan Wilson former Enterprise Minister join the debate.