'Any Questions' Uncovered - the podcast

It was a week where fiesty women were much in evidence. Joan McAlpine had a tweet flare up, Margaret Curran and Nicola Sturgeon faced off on Question Time and Lesley joined the panel at 'Any Questions'. So, lots to talk about this week in the Lesley Riddoch Podcast. And some revelations about 'Any Questions'.

 

Comments

[Gortch]

Hi Lesley et al.
Just listened to your podcast regarding Any Questions. I agree it was a good show, refreshing, conciliatory in a way, and constructive, and I would also add that your role in all that was instrumental. Well done.

But, before we get too carried away, I must ask if you listened into Any Answers, the follow up show? Some of the comments on that show were borderline racist in terms of the tone towards " those bloody Scots..."

They forget that the English regions were offered devolution too by Prescott who with the approval of Blair tried to shove it down their throats and there was absolutely no appetite for it. Maybe that says more about John Prescott than anything else, but it annoys me that nobody is standing up to the tsunami of insults directed towards Scottish people in the media etc right now and reminding them of stuff like that.

The abuse being directed at Scottish people right now in blogs, discussion forums, the media, newspapers, radio, and TV, really is something else -- I'm surprised nobody has addressed that specific issue yet. It's out of control and quite scary.

I wonder what Scottish labour and Scottish lib dem people inside and outside the parties think about that -- for SNP people it's just one of the reasons for supporting independence. It must be difficult for them watching Scotland and Scottishness being trashed like that.

[Mike Vickers]

Not sure how you define feisty but one of my clients was late this morning as his wife had just phoned in from the top of Kilimanjaro in a party with Gavin Hastings.

[Angus Mac Rury]

Lesley Riddoch provided a voice of reason on any questions where you actually wanted to listen to what she had to say as it was put across in such an assured and almost empathatic manner with common sense. I didn't think the repeated mantra of Michael Moore and Margaret Curran revealed too much as it always feels like innuendo driven rhetoric that didn't as such represent the varied views of Scotland.

John Swinney is good in a debate but he is a tad too nice sometimes- you want to see the "interview" with Andrew Neil where it was religion about "what currency" etc etc with no intention of looking seriously at either Independence for Scotland or Devo Max as the scaredy cat option for the voters.

I want to hearunionist politicians articulate fully what the status quo means for Scotland as it is something that not too many people here appear to be overly interested in and the defence of it (by default without much detail on the constitutional drabness of it all) is not forthcoming with the Westminster based parties just going on about "illegality" which really means they don't want the referendum and want to attach as much distractive negativity as possible.

The points about how the BBC discusses Independence by interviewing people who oppose it or the SNP rather than the SNP is one many Scots notice- it is a direct reflection of the Calman Commission designed not to reflect constitutional change as it might be viewed by the electorate here in Scotland, but as a way of staging off the advances of the SNP and Independence with nobody there to discuss the virtues though plenty who have the opposing view sticking their oar in.

Tis is my second listen to the blog discussion and I find the relaxed discourse very interesting and informative and whatever is duchesse I usually agree with one of you!

Cheers

[Angus Mac Rury]

Sorry, iPad spell checker changed a few words there-should have previewed it!

[Gortch]

I have a question for Lesley. I mean one that I think she should be asking rather than trying to answer...

In the run up to last May's Scottish Parliament election the labour and liberal party politicians, not to mention the Tories, were arguing that a vote for the SNP was a vote for breaking up the UK. They were very adamant on that point and repeated it strenuously right up until the last minute.

However, the second the votes were counted, all of those same people were vehemently arguing that this result in no way indicates that the Scottish people want independence... A completely opposite stance, clearly.

Nobody as far as I know in the media or in politics picked up on this lack of coherence.

The question then Is this: were the being honest and truthful before the election or after it? They cant both be true since they are polar opposites.

It's a serious question and deserves consideration, when you think about it. It introduces all sorts of questions about the stances taken in regards to the forthcoming referendum and speaks volumes about the deceptive scaremongering and twisting that unionist politicians are prepared to resort to.

[Iain Macdonald]

I thought there were some very good points discussed in this podcast. There is a distinct lack of current affairs discussion going on in Scotland at what is such an important time, politically, (with cuts to what is available on the horizon, if recent reports with regards to BBC Scotland are to be believed) and it was indeed good to hear Any Questions handle the issue in a fair and intelligent way. Contrast this with Question Time in the same week.

What this highlights is the real need for a 'Scottish' Question Time. The weekly efforts of BBC Radio Scotland at lunchtime on a Friday (no podcast option and no 'any answers' phone in afterwards) are not really sufficient for the discourse that the current political climate demands. There is no opportunity for the public to take part in this discourse regularly at the moment, with Question Time grudgingly venturing north about once a series (only to smack down questions on devolved matters).

I have listened to these podcasts over the years in their various incarnations, and they are an extremely welcome analysis of Scottish politics and current affairs. In fact, I struggle to think of even one other such programme available. I also think that the new conversational style works well. Chris balances out the tone and it's really good to have contributions which one would expect non-journalists or politicians to add to the debate.

Here's hoping for more.

[The Feisty Team]

Iain,
Thanks very much for your points. We try and do what we can and your compliments are much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to get in touch and posting your comments.