Lesley Riddoch

Riddoch Questions 1st May - UPDATE

Here's the final line up for Riddoch Questions this week:  Eric Joyce, Labour MP for Falkirk, Jo Swinson, Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire and Mary Scanlon, Highlands and Islands MSP and the Scottish Conservatives’ spokesperson on health.

They'll be talking to Lesley about:

• SWINE FLU – another animal related flu scare has got the tabloids in a frenzy, but is the public just as alarmed? Or are we becoming too blasé to panic about yet more rumours of a flu epidemic?

• GURKHAS – Joanna Lumley’s tears melted the hearts of the Labour backbenchers and the government’s suffered an embarrassing Commons defeat. Why does anyone seem surprised when the public’s sympathy clearly lies with the Nepalese soldiers?

• MPs EXPENSES – another day, another vote – will this one cap what’s been a ‘bit of a week’ for the Prime Minister?

• EQUALITY BILL – the British government’s new legislation will encourage firms to carry out ‘gender pay audits’ and allow ‘positive discrimination’ – but how do Britain’s businesses feel about the new measures?

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.

Riddoch Questions Friday 1st May

Lesley’s guests on Riddoch Questions this week include Director of WWF Scotland, Dr Richard Dixon and Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire, Jo Swinson.

Making the headlines so far this week:

• SWINE FLU – another animal related flu scare has got the tabloids in a frenzy, but is the public just as alarmed? Or are we becoming too blasé to panic about yet more rumours of a flu epidemic?

• EQUALITY BILL – the British government’s new legislation will encourage firms to carry out ‘gender pay audits’ and allow ‘positive discrimination’ – but how do Britain’s businesses feel about the new measures?

• ENERGY APPRENTICES – one hundred apprentices are to be trained to help people in Scotland make their homes more energy efficient – but should they also be telling people they could be prosecuted if they don’t insulate, as suggested by Dr Richard Dixon of WWF Scotland?

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.

Swine flu shows need to tackle digital divide

Swine flu in Mexico – it’s as if a vengeful God has opted to finish off humanity by pandemic while it’s reeling from the effects of global recession. This strain of swine flu seems to be transmitted by human not just animal contact and affects the relatively young and healthy not just those with weakened immune systems. All the Mexican authorities can do is distribute breathing masks, close schools, cafes and restaurants and cancel public gatherings.

Riddoch Questions 24th April: How will Scotland's economy recover?

A special edition of Riddoch Questions this week discusses the Scottish economy, the budget and the future of capitalism and asks how will Scotland’s economy recover?

Recorded in front of a live audience of social entrepreneurs at the S2S Trade Fair at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, the panel includes Laurie Russell, Chair of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition; Andy Kerr, Shadow Finance Minister and Labour spokesman on sustainable growth; Fraser Doherty, creator and owner of SuperJam at the tender age of 14 and now at 20 a top entrepreneur. They’ll be facing questions including:

• Will the 50% tax rates announced in this week’s Budget send entrepreneurs and business people elsewhere?

• Where will there be growth in the Scottish economy?

• Has the profit motive brought Britain to its knees?

• Has the takeover of Scottish banks by English institutions made independence less likely?

• Are Scots risk-averse?

Listen to the programme from 1.15pm tomorrow. As it’s a recording, there’ll be no calls, emails or texts but you can leave your comments at www.lesleyriddoch.com.

We should hope Susan Boyle stays immune to fame

"I can't ever see her coming back one day looking like Beyoncé. The whole village is saying, 'They can try, but they'll never change her.'"

So says the landlady at the local (lounge) bar frequented by Blackburn’s singing star Susan Boyle. The 47 year old has not yet won Britain’s got Talent – but since she’s about to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show – the result is surely a formality. The big question is – will she change?

How will Scotland's economy recover? -- Riddoch Questions special - next Thursday 23 April

Come along to be in the audience of this panel programme at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange at 4pm on Thursday 23rd April. Its being recorded at the annual trade fair of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition and broadcast in the Riddoch Questions slot at 1.15 the following day (Friday 24th). It's your chance to quiz the experts about the future for Scottish industry and commerce. We need you to be in place for 3.40pm at the latest!

The panel to date is....

• Laurie Russell - Chief Executive of the Wise Group and Chair of Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition
• Andy Kerr - Shadow Finance Minister and Labour spokesman on sustainable growth
• Fraser Doherty - creator and owner of SuperJam at the tender age of 14 and now at 20 a top entrepreneur.
• Shaf Rasul - Edinburgh businessman worth £82 million...newest judge on BBC's Dragons' Den.

The questions to date are

• Where will there be growth in the Scottish economy?
• What has been the most successful social enterprise in Scotland, and why?
• Has the profit motive brought Britain to its knees - and Is capitalism dead or just resting?
• Do social enterprises reach the parts capitalism fails to reach or just undercut 'real' enterprise?
• Has the take over Scottish banks by English institutions made independence less likely?
• Have Scots got the skills it takes to survive?
• Are Scots risk-averse?

Riddoch Questions - 17th April

Lesley’s guests on Riddoch Questions this week are political commentator and spin pundit Nicholas Jones; Conservative blogger Iain Dale and business consultant and former Fife Labour MSP Christine May.

Making the headlines so far this week:

• ‘SMEARGATE’ – the scandal refuses to go away after one of the Prime Minister’s top aides, Damian McBride, was forced to resign when an email he sent smearing senior Conservatives fell into the hands of a prominent blogger.

• NO BENEFITS FOR ALCOHOLICS – the work and pensions secretary’s suggesting addicts should have their benefits taken away unless they agree to treatment for their alcoholism

• G20 VIOLENCE – a review of public order policing’s been ordered as another video’s emerged of a police officer apparently attacking a protester at the G20 demos in London

• CABINET IN GLASGOW – an historic day for Glasgow as the British Cabinet meets in Scotland for the first time since 1921

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.

Sousveillance means we watch the watchers

Forty seconds of jumpy film have challenged Britain’s senior police in a way courts, inquiries, MPs and grieving families have generally failed to do. Citizen journalism is in the news and the Metropolitan police is in the dock because of phone video evidence showing the last moments of Ian Tomlinson -- the London news vendor who died during the G20 riots. The footage was recorded by an unlikely people’s hero -- an American fund manager on a business trip from New York – and unlikely bedfellows have been created as a result.

Here's what made Police Chief Bob Quick stand down

This is the blow up of the document about an imminent Al Quaida raid that prompted Asst Commisioner Bob Quick of the Metropolitan Police to resign this week and arrests to take place prematurely across northern England

Riddoch Questions update - 10th April

Joining Lesley for Riddoch Questions this week are Dr Richard Simpson, Labour MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, Aileen Campbell, SNP MSP for the South of Scotland and Joyce McMillan, columnist for the Scotsman.

They’ll analyse and discuss the week’s main news stories, including the Moira Jones murder case, G20 and its policing, the resignation of anti-terror chief Bob Quick and MPs’ expenses.

Email any 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.