Lesley Riddoch

Interested in having Riddoch Questions at your event ?

We’ve been asked by the BBC to have two outside broadcast with panels per month. We’ve already recorded three such events – a Scotsman Islands debate in Benbecula and a Question Time organized by Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA). On October 14th we recorded a Scotsman debate on Renewables in Jedburgh and last week we recorded a Glenrothes By Election hustings organised by a poverty group there.

The basic idea is that a group that already wants to have a Question Time or panel type event and has contacted guests and booked a hall can invite me to chair the event (free of charge), and our team record it and broadcast 45 minutes of the highlights in the Riddoch Questions slot on Radio Scotland every Friday.

We don't have to share the American dream, or private investment

The news was delivered in a midnight whisper on Saturday night. Bradford and Bingley is nationalised. And Paul Newman’s dead. The words prompted surprise and shock. How can Paul Newman possibly be dead?

Then followed a lengthy moon-lit conversation with a late-returning spouse about Newman’s age, health, films, style, salad dressing-backed philanthropy and un-fashionably long marriage to Joanne Woodward. And all the while his jaunty flashing smile hung over our words like a fading neon sign.

Paul Newman is dead. The end of an era.

Bradford and Bingley nationalised?

It wasn’t in the same league.

The great turnip swindle

The surge in turnip sales isn't all it seems – south of the border, the neep has been usurped by something less flavoursome. To read the whole article - click here.

Why we should say no to under-21 alcohol ban

Drug dealing is illegal. Shortselling’s been banned. But across Scotland this week young people will be short-sold the world’s most damaging drug without a care for their long-term future.

Fresher’s Week means student unions, supermarkets, corner shops and off licences will offer four bottles of wine for the price of two, five vodka shots for £1, and double measures for an extra 50p to make sure a “normal” students first habit is the drink habit and their brand or outlet is the preferred choice. Alcohol retailers during Fresher’s Week exhibit as much care for young people as the short-term-minded spivs and speculators who brought down HBOS -- but there’s no outcry about the impact of their irresponsible behaviour.

Riddoch Questions 19th September, BBC Radio Scotland 1.15-2pm

Riddoch Questions this week will be a special pre-recorded debate from Edinburgh University. The live audience, including students and members of the public, will quiz the panel on the week’s main news stories, as well as the burning issues affecting education and student life.

The guests in the hot seats are the new Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott, in one of his first major public outings since taking the party’s top job. He’ll be joined by Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Labour MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith Malcolm Chisholm, Conservative Lothians MSP Gavin Brown and lecturer on social change at Queen Margaret University and former health minister Susan Deacon.

The topics up for discussion are:

• Brown’s leadership crisis – Should the labour party hand out nomination papers for the leadership? And if there was a contest, who should stand?

• Scottish Labour – has a new leader. Will Iain Gray and his new shadow cabinet restore the fortunes of the party north of the border?

• Lib Dems – another new leader, another party with popularity issues. Will the suggestions of a 2p cut in income tax help?

• Student debt - With the cost of living continually rising, what hope is there for young people struggling financially?

• Drinking age – would raising it to 21 help or hinder the fight to curb Scotland’s alcohol problems?

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 Neil Gunn Trust Lecture

I will be delivering the Neil Gunn Trust Lecture at the Inverness Book Festival at 7pm on Friday October 3 at the Eden Court in Inverness.

Health and safety the twin gods that put nonsense before care

I was waiting in the accident and emergency department of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee last week, staring idly at the feet crossing and re-crossing the room. Suddenly, I realised all the A&E staff – men and women, young and old, local and foreign – were wearing Crocs, the foam, clog-like sandals that supposedly mould to your feet. I'd been "converted" on holiday and was still wearing the pink flowery item...

The Aftermath comes back from its holidays.

The Riddoch Questions crew sat down after the long summer break and talked through the day's Riddoch Questions which had concentrated on prisoners ...seemingly. Check out the new Aftermath here.

Great Lives on Radio 4 tonight

Tonight (Friday) at 11pm on Radio 4 , former loyalist paramilitary turned Northern Ireland politician David Ervine is Lesley's controversial choice in the series Great Lives. It's presented by Matthew Parris and features Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by a Loyalist terror gang, together with the Guardian's Belfast correspondent Henry McDonald.

QUESTION TIME – Edinburgh University Thursday 18th September

Next week we’re assembling a panel for a special programme to be recorded on Thursday night. The audience will be able to put questions to the new Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott, in his first major outing since taking over at the helm of the party.

Also in attendance will be Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm, Conservative MSP Gavin Brown and Susan Deacon, the former MSP, now lecturer of social change at Queen Margaret University.

VENUE: George Square Lecture Theatre, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LK

TIME: recording starts at 6.30pm – be in your seats at 6.15pm