Lesley Riddoch

'Best value' deal putting putting Scotland on the back Foot

Strange there is so little left to say. Pundits have been expecting Wendy Alexander to step down as Scottish Labour leader for months. There is no new broom waiting in the wings to rejuvenate the "people's party". And that means a fresh look at old policies isn't likely because the probable candidates created them.

But a new look at New Labour is vital because some of its founding policies are fast becoming shibboleths – mantras inherited by the SNP government that cannot be tackled or question openly.

There's a new Aftermath available

After the recording for June 27 Riddoch Questions finished, the audience and panel stayed on to debate education, Gaelic and de-population. It's about 20 minutes long and features contributions from audience and panel alike. Click here to listen and download 'the Islands Debate Aftermath

Island frustration

Just a quick note from the Outer Hebrides, thanks to everyone who was part of the Island Debate, feedback has been very good. Except that it was not broadcast on the islands and Highlands. However, courtesy of the BBC Listen Again service, you can listen to the Island Debate by clicking here.

Young cyclist/busker needs support ...sets off Monday

This young lady is cycling from Moscow to Edinburgh setting off on June 30. Not only that; she intends to busk all the way to raise money for street children in Ethiopia. Isla is the daughter of a good friend of mine, Andrew Wightman. She has written a little bit about this trip here on her website.

Isla is looking for sponsorship and I am sure she would be grateful for any contributions you could make. Details of how to give are on her web site at buskingforchildren.org  or sweetypops.net

And, just in case you were worried, mum and dad will be coming along too. I know there are a lot cycling fans out there and I do hope you can support Isla. Having seen the route, I am impressed and a wee bit jealous !

The Islands Debate Panel for today's Riddoch Questions

The panel for today's Riddoch Questions - from left to right: David MacLennan of SNH, Lionacleit S6 student Kevin Donkers, Jane Farmer of UHI, Lesley (but I'm sure you got that one), Gaelic columnist Angus Peter Campbell, Storas Uibhist Chairman Angus MacMillan, and Lochboisdale Community Council chairman Ronald MacKinnon.

The photo is courtesy of Eileen Bell at the Stornoway Gazette.

Oh what a night !

Benbecula and the Islands Debate...phew what a night ! The debate was a corker and you will be able to hear the edited highlights on this week's Riddoch Questions.
This picture of the Lionacleit audience is courtesy of Eileen Bell at the Stornoway Gazette.

RIDDOCH QUESTIONS, Friday 27th June: Can islands work -- special debate on Benbecula

Riddoch Questions has taken the road to the isles this week for a special debate on the future of Scotland's island communities. The show, with a live audience on Benbecula in the Western Isles, featured a vote on plans for a local wind farm, a plea from young women about to leave the islands, and a challenge to mainland nature and gaelic quangos to site their headquarters on the islands. The panel included local Scottish National Heritage Area Manager David MacLennan; UHI expert on rural health policy, Professor Jane Farmer; Chairman of Storas Uibhist (the Uist community buyout company) Angus MacMillan, gaelic poet and writer Angus Peter Campbell, local crofter Ronald MacKinnon and school pupil Kevin Donkers.

This is a pre-recorded show so there is no opportunity to use calls, texts or emails this week during the programme. But the team welcomes your views on the debate by email on riddoch@bbc.co.uk.

The Iceland Aftermath

Last week when Pennie Taylor held the fort on Riddoch Questions, Lesley Riddoch herself was in Iceland on an ICHI sponsored cultural exchange. That’s an EU programme and it allows people to explore other cultures – Lesley’s big mission was to find out how a community on an isolated fjord in an isolated country can be confidently developing natural and cultural heritage when similar communities in Scotland seem overwhelmed by red tape, regulation, health and safety rules and a shortage of volunteers. The place is Skalanes --  bought four years ago by the family of Elfa Hlin Petursdottir -- a young historian and Museum curator in East Iceland.

The 3000 hectare estate lies 17 kms beyond Seydisfjordur – now known as the “turn of the century town” after a group of local women blocked a project to create a sterile new harbour and instead refurbished the old Nordic wooden and tin pier buildings to house hotels, museums and young families.

At Skalanes. Elfa’s family are managing their native arctic tern and eider duck colonies successfully, and have boldly gone where “professional” conservationists fear to tread, exploring local archaeology, culture, place names, genealogy, wildlife and botany in one combined heritage project.

Aided by teams of volunteer zoologists from Glasgow University and by our ICHI bunch of Scottish heritage experts, the owners of Skalanes have cheerfully cut across funding streams, bureaucracies, specialisms, national boundaries and areas of expertise to offer a new model of human and natural development.

This podcast features a discussion between Lesley, Elfa, Sharon Webb, of Kilmartin Museum in Argyll, Mia Scott of the Highland Buildings and Preservation Trust and Annie MacSween of Lews Castle College in Stornoway. They’re discussing how best to lead visitors around the amazing rugged natural environment of Skalanes without having signs everywhere…….. Click here to listen to the Iceland Aftermath.

Chilling decisions that imperil Iceland's reputation

It’s snowing gently at Midsummer in the world’s most peaceful country. But it’s not just the weather that’s turned unseasonally nippy in Iceland.

The Kroner has fallen to its lowest ever level against the Euro (down 50 per cent in 12 months). And admirers of the plucky, carbon neutral Vikings are shifting uneasily after a serious of “green gaffes” that have dented Iceland’s image as the proud protector of wild animals and wild places.

Last week, Icelandic police killed a polar bear that had travelled hundreds of miles from Greenland on an ice floe -- the second such polar arrival in two weeks.

Riddoch Questions 20th June, BBC Radio Scotland 1.15-2pm

Pennie Taylor will be sitting in for Lesley on this week’s Riddoch Questions and she’ll be joined by Minister for Public Health Shona Robison, Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Mary Scanlon and Scottish Editor of the Daily Telegraph, Alan Cochrane.

The headlines so far this week include –

• Hospital superbugs – following 54 cases of C Diff and 8 deaths at Vale of Leven hospital there are calls for an independent inquiry into the outbreak. Could action have been taken earlier to prevent fatalities?

• Health inequality – with a new report looking at Scotland’s healthcare inequalities, is there any hope of closing the gap between rich and poor?

• Alcohol – the government’s planning a crackdown on Scotland’s binge-drinking culture by banning under 21s from buying booze and raising the prices of some wines, spirits and beers, but with alcopops and Buckfast unchanged, will it really make a difference?

• CalMac ferries – the Scottish Conservatives claim Caledonian MacBrayne’s network of ferry services should be broken up and offered to private companies who could provide better services. Would it benefit the island communities who use the boats, or would it mean a loss of continuity vital to the service?

Email your questions on these stories now to riddoch@bbc.co.uk. Add your phone number if you want to put the question in person. On Friday text your views to 80295 and call 0500 92 95 00.