The Scottish Independence Podcast

This time Ivan and I got round to SNP economic policy in a UK election. How does it differ from that of the main parties and what influence could it have. On the Scottish side of it, what happens to the oil money if there is full fiscal autonomy/responsibility?

Also, William Duguid speaks of Oor Jim and Naebody's Piers Morgan.

In today's episode I am joined by Mark Frankland, writer. Neither Mark nor myself are members of any party, which frees us up to discuss some matters that others may not be free to discuss.

And even though the SNP didn't discuss the prospect of IndyRef 2 in their manifesto, and Sturgeon said she wasn't planning one, it didn't stop some of the unionist parties from having a go on the matter. This has of course predictably led to the very funny #NotRuledOutByTheSNP hashtag on twitter.

We discussed if the SNP are being too cautious on the matter, what could be the triggers for a new referendum and what's so bad about asking for some more democracy anyway?

Today marks the start of a new feature. From today on William Duguid will be giving us his Terminalogical Inexactitude of the day, and the first one features David Cameron.

However, before you get to that Ivan and myself talk about the House of Lords, and I admit that we didn't talk about it in glowing terms.

Why not come on a lazy train ride this Sunday. Well, I assume most of you would like to, but think it is just too bloody expensive. Why should that be? What can be done about it?

Good things come to those who wait, and I'm not talking about your train being late, I am in fact referring to how renationalising the train system may be much cheaper and easier than many suspect.

These were our topics for this Sunday...

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

This time we talked about the polls both north and south of the border. In Scotland some prominent types could be in trouble, as you can see in the image above. Down south it seems it is all to play for.

Hope you enjoy…

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

In this episode we look at UKIP and their attitude to Scotland, as well as some of the more unusual declarations from some members or former members of that party. That of course brought us onto immigration, which was the main focus of the discussion. With such a poisonous atmosphere surrounding the issue, it can be hard to come out and say that Scotland could actually do with more, not less, immigration.

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

In this episode we look at the plans to replace Trident. Is it worth the money? Is it good military strategy? And what about the Red Menace. What about the SNP red line?

Oh, and a bonus point for anyone who can tell me why I stuck that little bit of music on at the end. It wasn't because there will be another episode tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy…

Hope you enjoy…

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

In this episode we look at the Labour and Tories occupying the same space but frantically trying to steal each others thunder. More importantly however, we talked about why austerity doesn't work.

Finally, is the Better Together love affair over? How bad do things have to be if Willie Rennie is calling YOU confused?

Hope you enjoy…

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

The Polling Station is a new podcast of around 5 minutes in duration which we hope will come out every day between now and the election.

We will do short informative little pieces on the election matters that are being missed, evaded, obfuscated or terminalogically inexactituded in the normal election coverage.

This is the 2nd episode, you can find the others here.

This time we spoke of the rather rough day that Jim Murphy's had yesterday, mostly caused by this quote from Chuka Ummuna...

"The leader of the Scottish Labour Party will not be in charge of the UK budget. The leader of our country, our next prime minister, Ed Miliband, will be in charge of the UK budget and he has just answered the question, when that was put to him - will there be any cuts over the course of this parliament not just in the first financial year, but in the following financial years? And he was absolutely clear - there will be the need for further consolidation and cuts throughout the rest of the parliament."

So was Jim hung out to dry or was it just the head office getting the branch manager back in line?

We also talked about the idea of No Detriment and the fact that the Independent ex UK nation of Ireland seems to be doing rather well at the moment.

Hope you enjoy…

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

The Polling Station is a new podcast or around 5 minutes in duration which we hope will come out every day between now and the election.

We will do short informative little pieces on the election matters that are being missed, evaded, obfuscated or terminalogically inexactituded in the normal election coverage.

The aim is also to provide people with information they can use to help them make their minds up on the issues and/or use as they campaign on those issues.

I'll be doing these with Ivan McKee, but we'll also have help from others along the way.

In this first episode we (mostly) spoke about the concept that Jim Murphy, in this video in which it is completely impossible that the backdrop of doorknocking is a setup, seems to think is too complicated for you all to get your pretty little heads around, namely full fiscal autonomy.

Hope you enjoy…

LINKS
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/Ivan_McKee
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell