In this Podcast Extra, Lesley travels to Rhyl to speak at a march and rally organised jointly by YesCymru and AUOBCymru (All Under One Banner Cymru), the march brought people from every corner of Wales to the north coast, filling Rhyl’s streets with a sea of Welsh flags, banners and music. Lesley is blown away by the everyday and natural use of the Welsh language by so many Welsh speakers from all walks of life and from different ages. She interviewed some of the organisers of the march to find out more. 

There's a bit of Welsh theme in the podcast this week. Lesley, having just come back from speaking at an all-under-one-banner Cymru rally in Rhyl gives us the low down on all things Welsh, the Welsh indepdendence movement and the revival of the Welsh language.  We talk about up coming changes to the Welsh voting system, scrapping what we've got for the Scottish elections which still has the first-past-the-post and the move to a completely proportional system. Why aren't we talking about that here in Scotland? We also discuss the separate Yes movement, Yes Cymru, which was set up in 2014 and is separate to the Welsh indpendence supporting parties.

We also look at more authoritarian moves by UK Labour and breifly discuss the fall out over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans traveling to the watch a game against Aston Villa. And the Prince formerly knows as Duke of York and the timidity of the UK Labour government to just deal properly with stripping his titles.

Links

REVIVE’s national conference, a landmark event that is set to be a pivotal moment in Scotland’s land reform journey.
https://www.perththeatreandconcerthall.com/whats-on/revive-what-scotland-wants-real-land-reform

Senedd Elections changes

https://senedd.wales/senedd-now/senedd-blog/how-will-the-new-voting-system-work-at-the-next-senedd-election/

Welsh placename project

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/19/welsh-placenames-submitted-to-wales-project-protect-linguistic-heritage

In this week's episode we discuss the SNP conference which has been something of a triumph for John Swinney. His position on independence was accepted and he made a pretty bouncy closing speech. But what if next May the elections have a result that the combination of independence parties exceeds the 65-seat majority when the SNP alone does not?

In this conference episode we also look at the energy policy that was discussed. Is it time to have a really bold policy as Tommy Sheppard and the SNP Trade UInion Group proposed. That is to set up local heat companies, which is something that can be done now under the powers of devolution.  Since nobody's arguing against this will it actually happen?
We look at the walk-in GP centers idea. Fraser has had some actual experience this weekend of the provision down south in England, and we talk about much else besides.

Links
An Evening With James Robertson
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-james-robertson-tickets-1574320477929?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&sg=42fc24f2dc22940e664f8ea8e93a5321ec02c2b5597bcbbd9c5e23fbde563cf32509b26d31f24d323588f4a7cee2f6ce4019bfcceb73dfe7a3816972a5c2f0efce72947d8ca626c06afa44b8 

In this week's episode we chew over the UK Home Secretary's plan to give police in England extra powers to curb repeat demonstrations for Gaza, Palestine, or indeed anything else. We look also at the prospects for peace in Israel-Palestine.

We compare party conferences with Conservatives speaking to empty halls to tiny numbers of activists who bothered to turn up. And the Greens Conference in England, which really had quite a zingy kind of speech from the Jewish leader, Zak Polanski, who nonetheless upholds the right to protest for Palestine.

All of that, plus looking ahead to the SNP at the weekend.

Links
Mark Thomas My Life in Serious Organised Crime - https://youtu.be/PRwsXnBQaEo?si=3Ec1-kc0YGMARic0

Wales rally 18 October
Rhyl https://www.auob.cymru

Denmark film showing 19 October
Caernarfon The Institute, The Carlton, 14 Bangor St, Caernarfon LL55 1AT 2pm More details soon on lesleyriddoch.com/events

Missing Forests premier at the Revive Converence 8 November
REVIVE: What Scotland Wants - Real Land Reform. Available that evening on https://www.youtube.com/@Lesley_Riddoch 

Highland Windfarm Revolt screening plus Q&A - 29 November at 2pm
Phipps Hall Beauly Free with donations. lesleyriddoch.com/events

Finland Film
The film will hopefully be ready in early November. My first priority is to book into cinemas which have very long lead times. But if any group wants to host a screening plus Q&A in late Nov/ early Dec or maybe more realistically Jan 2026 - please get in touch. [email protected]

In this week's episode we consider the Labour Party conference and what it all meant. We reflect on the odd goings on, like Labour Home Secretery Shabana Mahmood saying her political hero is Margaret Thatcher and we tackle Kier Starmer's conference speach. With Labour and Reform facing off on migration policy and plans for so called Brit Card compulsory ID Cards we look at what is motivating these policies and whether this is the type of country that you'd want to live in.

We also ponder some interesting history that saw the archives of Scotland sink in a boat in the 17th century off the Northumbrian coast with no report very little knowledge or understanding of this event in Scottish consciousness.

Links
Estonia The Baltic Tiger - YouTube

A Bleather O'Books  - Tickets
Sunday, November 2 · 10:30 - 11:30am (Doors at 10:15am)
Robertson Room, Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

Murdoch's Lone Alloway KA7 4PQ

How Cromwell and Edward I robbed Scotland of centuries of its history

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17300143.cromwell-edward-robbed-scotland-centuries-history/

Lost to the Waves
https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/08/stormy-past/

Lesley is back and Finland's in the news, not just because Russian jets invaded Baltic airspace as well as Estonian earlier last weekend, but because they are prepared for a future that perhaps all of us are suddenly having to focus on. Oslo and Copenhagen airports both experienced Russian drones wandering through their airspace and closing those airports and there was an alleged cyberattack in Brussels.

It feels like the problems of the continent are certainly coming home to roost. We talk about all of that, and the many ways in which Finland is a country that just actually functions extremely well because it is prepared and it never gave up the good old stuff that many other societies, Britain in particular, just dispensed with, things like trams and affordable housing. So there's a lot of Finland in this week's episode. 

We also discuss Your Party and its travails and a a bit of Andy Burnham and chanllanges to Kier Starmer. We look too at Palestine and whether recognition will actually aid some sort of progress there. Not to mention Donald Trump and his paracetamol and Seagull gate and the SNP's new CEO. 

This podcast extra was recorded at the NORA conference in Stornoway. This was the first conference of its kind in Stornoway. It included Scotland and Scottish Isles, and the NORA countries: Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and coastal Norway. The title of the event was Building Sustainable Futures for Island communities.

NORA, or Nordic Atlantic Cooperation, is an intergovernmental organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers, uniting Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and coastal Norway. Established in 1981 and formalized as NORA in 1996 when coastal Norway joined, the organization strengthens regional cooperation to make the North Atlantic a dynamic part of the Nordic region.
https://nora.fo/

Lesley spoke with:
https://nora.fo/participants-stornoway

Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, a researcher at Bifröst University, Iceland, focusing on rural Iceland, gender, and equality.

Ondrej Spala, Project Manager for ICE Kirkenes, Norway, and Director of the Arctic Circular Economy Summit. His role in fostering entrepreneurial networks in the Nordic Arctic.

Karin Marie Funding Lyster, an entrepreneur from the Faroe Islands, founder of MAI Learning AS, an EdTech company focused on AI integration. She has won awards for Arctic youth entrepreneurship.

The Labour Party dominates this week's podcast, which might be a bit of a shock for followers of Independents, but not in a very good way for Keir Starmer. We discuss the fall out of Angela Rayner's resignation and the further collapse in confidence since the departure of the golden girl of the working class side of Labour stepped out. We look at the fall out over her stamp duty debacle on her what actually was a third residence.

We also take a look at the race for the deputy leadership and what that might mean for UK Labour and for Scottish Labour's chances in next year's Holyrood election. The election campaign which will be masterminded by Douglass Alexander after poor old Ian Murray, who sacrificed life principles actually over nuclear weapons to be loyal to Keir Starmer was brutally sacked on the phone. Have a wee look at Douglas Alexander and how liked he is north of the border by his own folk.

And flags and more flags from the use of the Saltire in Scotland and English politicians obsession with mentioning the Union Jack in every press conference.

Links
Birthplace of Scotland's Saltire - https://saltire.scot/

Public opionon Frage and Reform
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52896-how-do-britons-see-reform-uk-ahead-of-their-2025-conference

With both the Scottish and UK Parliaments back in session today, there is a back to school vibe for this week's podcast. After a quite week last week everything is kicking up a gear. We look at the Keir Starmer's mini mini reshuffle, which is a lot less sensational than expected, but seems to be centralizing power in Number 10. We talk about the number of departures from the Scottish Conservatives, and the fact that one of them, Graham Simpson going to Reform, might jeopardize the recall petition idea that he is pushing through as a private member's Bill.

We also talk about the Scottish Green's leadership election and what that might mean in terms of new leadership, the energy price cap, and Kemi Badenoch: drill, baby, drill. All of that and more.

Home Truths for Home Rule
3pm Kirkcudbright Parish Church Saturday 6th Sept
https://kbtfringe.com/events/06-09-2025-15-00-home-truths-for-home-rule-scotland-after-25-years-of-devolution

Scotland’s Parliament, established over 25 years ago, has changed how we do politics. But has its record and impact been as significant as its advocates claim? What have been its successes - and what could it do better? People feel increasingly alienated by party politics and the centralisation of ‘Edinburgh knows best’. How if at all can this change? Join journalist and campaigner Lesley Riddoch and former First Minister Henry McLeish assess the impact of devolution, the contours of next year’s Scottish elections, and what Scotland’s future should look like and how we might get there.

Links
On Sept 13 & 14 at Netherbow Theatre in Storytelling Centre Royal Mile Edinburgh 7pm.
https://scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:6226/

“The Invaders’ Fear of Memories” is a theatre piece based on the life and diaries of Yosef Nachmani – a Russian Jew who migrated from Tsarist Russia to Ottoman Palestine in 1907. Nachmani became Director of the Jewish National Fund in the Galilee and subsequently played a central role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s indigenous people. The play offers a perspective into the origins of settler-colonialism and apartheid in modern-day Israel, exploring themes of loyalty, violence, ideology, and grief.
The Invaders’ Fear of Memories is performed by Benjamin Rivers, the great grandson of Nachmani. Over the course of the play, Rivers performs 12 characters and sings in Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, and Yiddish.

Tam Dean Burn as guest actor and a panel of distinguished academics for post screening Q&A
Since August 2023, The Invaders’ Fear of Memories has been performed to audiences across four continents.

Also Peter Kennard’s new exhibition “GAZA” from 6pm on Friday August 8th at 13A Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6QG extended till end September.

FREE SPEECH AGAINST THE GENOCIDE rally
2pm Saturday Sept 6th Queen Elizabeth House (Scotland Office) Edinburgh
https://www.scottishpsc.org.uk

The Promise
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-promisehttps://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-promise
Claire Foy and Christian Cooke star in Peter Kosminsky's BAFTA-nominated drama. Eighteen-year-old Erin sets out on an emotional journey when she retraces her grandfather's footsteps in Palestine.

Is it time for John Swinney to do something robust and clear to make it obvious to everyone that Scotland is really got a different outlook towards the whole question of Palestine and Palestine Action than Westminster? We discuss the call from Ross Greer MSP to explore legal ways to stop arrests and prosecutions like the ludicrous situation of award-wining sreenwriter Paul Laverty.

We talk also about the asylum protests that have been going on in Perth and elsewhere and ask where they largely the product of people being bused in or are there deeper problems with asylum and housing. We look at the electoral commission's publication of the annual accounts of Scottish politial parties and look at the numbers. And we discuss the Great John McLean and the campaign to create a permenant memorial to him in Glasgow.

Links
Paul Laverty arrest https://youtube.com/shorts/1PCYk92UtpE?si=5s5vkpMC2-qYoDQv

Saturday 6th September at 2pm outside Scotland Office (off Royal Mile) Edinburgh

More info soon on

https://www.scottishpsc.org.uk

John Maclean statue
Crowdfunder - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/john-maclean-statue-campaign-2
Article - https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/25415449.crowdfunder-bid-statue-revolutionary-john-maclean-glasgow/

"I wish no harm to any human being” 

"No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind,” 

“I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.”

John Maclean March - Hamish Henderson
https://youtu.be/4gaUezjN87w?si=vKgb-8SzFGZ6ALrQ