Lesley Riddoch

And the next episode of the Scotsman Podcast is available

The panel were in good form as Bill Jamieson, Joyce McMillan, Peter McMahon and Lesley met to record this week's podcast. You can hear the results here. The topics include bullying, literacy and an plea for the fat czar.

A date for your diary

 

It's lonely at the top – because there is nothing there

What do Tiger (Sex Addict) Woods and Nicholas (First Class) Winterton have in common?

They are living proof that beyond a certain level of income – perhaps £40 k -- individual wealth does not bring extra happiness and provides only temptation, isolation and judgement-warping pomposity.

The Scotsman Podcast series.

 Feisty Productions in partnership with the Scotsman is producing a series of podcasts. Each week, on a Wednesday, Scotsman columnist will join Lesley in the pod in Edinburgh and bring their notebooks. together, they'll go over the stories in the news and give their insights as journalists and commentators. Lesley is there to ensure revelation and fair play. This week, she brought 5 together in one place and the results were interesting.

 You can play and listen to the Scotsman Podcast Number 1 right here. 

Alternatively, you can visit the Feisty repository for all things Riddoch.

Is Scotland’s future Nordic? An event for your diary.

If Scotland seems just fine as it is, ask yourself………

• Is high quality affordable kindergarten care for all children possible?
• Is all waste recycled?
• Is business prosperity combined with good working conditions?
• Do voters believe a more equal society creates a richer society?
• Is hypothermia amongst elderly people unheard of?
• Has wealth been invested for the future?
• Does almost everyone play a sport - even in winter?
• Can a journalist expect a reply from government the same day?
• Is it ok for children to play outside in temperatures of minus ten?

People living in the Nordic countries are amongst the smartest, wealthiest, fairest, least violent and most healthy people in the world according to most research. Why is Scotland so different? And should Scotland pursue a Nordic path?

Come and debate this exciting proposal for social and political change with our panel of high profile speakers and invited guests.

Tuesday March 16 in the Scottish Parliament

Tea, coffee & Danish pastries from 5.30pm

First speaker at 6pm

For tickets and more details

Please Gordon, don't Brown nose to the culture of trivia

Did Gordon Brown’s Valentine Day gamble pay off? Who knows.

Having sampled a You Tube clip of the Piers Morgan interview I could no more watch the whole programme than witness Mel Gibson being hung, drawn and quartered in Braveheart or Jordan being made to eat maggots on celebrity TV.

Asked if he got down on one knee to propose, the Prime Minister writhed like a crab being winkled from its protective shell.

Chilling threat to efforts to bring Russia in from the cold

Shale Gas. Two small words that could transform the world.

According to Tony Hayward, BP’s Chief Executive at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a “gamechanging technology” has arrived which “transforms the US energy outlook for the next 100 years."

American companies have discovered how to exploit new reserves of gas and coal by breaking up rock formations with a mixture of water, sand and chemicals in a process called hydraulic fracturing.

A date for your diary

If you bought the Scotsman over the last few days, you will have seen an advert like this one with Joyce McMillan. On 17 February, the Scotsman will launch a weekly podcast which will be produced by Feisty Productions. Lesley Riddoch will be joined by a posse of Scotsman journalists to discuss, dissect and debate the big issues. The podcast will be available on the Scotsman website. And here. 

Put the date in your diary now.

Coming up on February 17th !

 

The ultimate outcasts are coming in from the cold

He’s a blood sucking parasite whose power over ordinary mortals is eternal. He has yet to be exposed for murderous acts committed years ago. And yet in the hit BBC series Being Human the vampire is the vulnerable, courageous and moral hero in a petty, vindictive world of human spite.

Best Foreign Language Film award winner, Let the Right One portrays the struggle of a lonely, bullied, isolated boy befriended by the little girl next door, who happens to be a vampire. Where the Wild Things Are tells the story of a lonely boy who runs away to find acceptance on an island full of other “wild things” -- and the strength to re-enter “conventional” society.