CommonSpace Podcasts

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

In this weeks podcast Jamieson speaks to Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, a lecturer in the Eastern and Central-European studies department at Glasgow Univeristy, speaks to David Jamieson about the legacy of the Kosovo War.

They discuss:

1:54 – How great power conflicts shaped the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and promoted conflict in the Balkans.

14:49 – How did the West seek to intervene into the collapse of the state?

17:45 – How the pro-war factions of the war on terror cut their teeth in the Balkans.

29:56 – How the anti-war movement also began to cohere.

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines

IN this special edition Jamieson speaks to Dr Nick McKerrel, an expert in constitutional law at Glasgow Caledonian University about the Tory party's self-cannibalisation and the consequences for the UK constitution.

They discuss:

0:58 – What is the meaning of the defeat in Scottish courts for petitioners against prorogation of parliament in the context of wider events?

4:56 – Will elements of the British establishment now start calling for constitutional reform?

7:45 – Can the British constitution work without a ‘pragmatic’ Conservative party that routinely complies with the ruling elite.

12:14 – Why this situation also destabilises the Labour party.

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines

This week Jamieson is joined by Pensioners Forum campaigner Elinor McKenzie to discuss a new paper circulating the Tory party by the Centre for Social Justice. It argues for the raising of the pension age to 75 by 2035, indicating a new strategy among the ruling elite in the face of demographic changes:

Jamieson and McKenzie discuss:

1:27 – What have been the effects of a decade of austerity on the social and economic position of pensioners and older people?

3:45 – What kind of policies are pursued in the Centre for Social Justice report?

11:35 – Why social class takes precedent over the politics of generation when it comes to pensions.

20:39 – What pensions tell us about the internal dynamics of modern capitalism.

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

In this special edition Jamieson speaks to CommonSpace editor Ben Wray about Boris Johnson's plans to suspend parliament and the spiralling constitutional crisis:

1:06 - Why the crisis indicates the dismal nature of the British constitution more than an actual coup.

6:00 - How the idea of democracy was cheapened in British politics.

11:46 - The problem with defending the British parliament.

22:56 - Hoe the crisis is impacting Scottish politics, including Ruth Davidson's resignation and Scottish Labour's latest turn.

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

This week Jamieson speaks to Layla-Roxanne Hill, a director at the Ferret, Scotland's investigative journalism cooperative, about the state of the media in Scotland and the role of new media.

They discuss:

0:51 – How are The Ferret and other forms of new media contributing to the struggling media landscape in Scotland?

6:03 – How has the model of media as profitable business undermined media ecology and how can we construct a different model?

10:54 – Is the decline of the media business model connected to its failure to understand political ‘shocks’ and social dynamics?

19:00 – Can new media address the decline of local media and the geographical retraction of public information to big cities?

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

In the latest episode of Beyond the Noise Jamieson speaks to Dr Nick McKerrell, an expert in constitutional law and a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University. At a time of acute crisis for the British state they discuss:

1:26 – How does Boris Johnson expose the crisis of the British constitution and state?

7:33 – How has the traditional stability of the British political system come to an end, and what are the consequences?

16:05 – What is the role of the monarchy, and why have people started to flag-up the idea of the intercession of the Queen into the political crisis?

26:05 – How have the British ruling elite historically toyed with authoritarian solutions to constitutional and political crisis, and what are they thinking now?

30:16 – How does the wider constitutional crisis impact independence strategy?

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

IN the latest episode of Beyond the Noise Jamieson speaks to Jonathon Shafi, a co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign, about the how Boris Johnson becoming PM and his pursuit of a new Brexit strategy impacts the dynamics of the independence movement.

They discuss:

0:54 - What are the options facing a Boris Johnson’s government in the coming months?

8:18 – Does the independence movement require a ‘plan b’ in the face of an intransigent British state?

11:34 – Has the People’s Vote strategy harmed the independence cause?

16:33 – What have we learned about how the British establishment will oppose independence from the Brexit mess?

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

IN the latest episode of Beyond the Noise Jamieson speaks to Cleo Goodman, director of the Citizen's Basic Income Network Scotland.

They discuss:

0:55 – What social tasks is the idea of a universal basic income supposed to achieve?

6:31 – How would it be funded, and could it lead to the atrophy of other benefits or public services?

13:41 – Is it really the case that the workforce wouldn’t shrink if people were provided with a regular guaranteed income?

19:54 – Why wouldn’t universal free services be a better way to approach poverty and inequality?

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

In a special live edition of the podcast at Dounne the Rabbit Hole festival, David Jamieson, activist and writer Cat Boyd and a festival audience discuss identity, alienation and individualism in the modern west and Scotland.

They discuss:

1:45 - What does the increase of mental ill-health tell us about the state of modern alienation?

8:55 - The importance of the decline of religious belief for the rise of individualism.

33:00 - How social movements like the 2014 independence referendum provide people with a glimpse of a non-alienated society.

45:25 - What Scotland's problem with addiction tells us about the failure of the political system to address fundamental social problems.

To mark Pride season, TIE (Time for Inclusive Education) and CommonSpace held a special event, with a guest panel sharing their defining Moments and Icons from LGBT history. We discussed what can be learned from them today in the quest to advance LGBT rights.

Guest Panel:

- Bryan Simpson, Unite Hospitality Organiser

- Pam Currie, EIS-FELA President

- Ged Killen, MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West

- Mridul Wadhwa, Forth Valley Rape Crisis

Chaired: Rhiannon Davies, CommonSpace Journalist