The Scottish Independence Podcast

"Good Morning Scotland were almost shameless".

It has rightly been mentioned in some quarters that before we proceed to indyref 2, the Yes side are going to have to seriously look at what could have been different in indyref 1, and look at how to improve or counteract. In that spirit then I spoke to Professor John Robertson about the book he has written focusing on the media coverage of the referendum and the report on this year's general election.

You can download the book here - propagandascotlandreferendum2014

and the election report here - Propaganda or Professionalism

We talked about how bias can be caused by different factors and how it can manifest itself in different ways, John explained why he thinks devolving the BBC is not perhaps the solution we are hoping for and, as you can see above, we had a few words about Good Morning Scotland.

Hope you enjoy…

For the 110th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Neil Davidson, an academic and writer, and Colin Fox, leader of the Scottish Socialist Party.

It's a slightly different episode in that it is 2 discussions about the EU, both from a socialist perspective. One of the interviews makes the left wing case for leaving the EU, and the other makes the left wing case for staying in the EU.

These interviews were conducted a couple of months ago for the SSP podcast, who asked me to do a few interviews for them and I accepted (NB - as ever, the Scottish Independence Podcast is unaligned with any party or group and regular listeners will know we regularly feature SNP, SSP, GREENS, Labour for Indy, Libdems for Indy and all sorts of unaligned people and independent groups).

The reason for doing these interviews is that in the coming months we are going to hear a lot about the merits and problems of the EU, but they are mostly going to come from rightwing perspectives - this is why it is important to start giving some perspectives from the other side of the argument early.

Hope you enjoy…

If you'd like to help the podcasts please go to www.michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com and make a donation.

For the 109th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Dr Iain Black of Heriot-University and also of Yes Edinburgh North & Leith. Iain has been conducting some research which you can take part in online either on Bella Caledonia or at Common Space.

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2015/06/29/yes-campaign-survey/
https://commonspace.scot/articles/1823/professor-launches-online-study-into-motivations-of-scottish-independence-activist-groups

As the page on Bella Caledonia says, the research is...

"an academic survey to capture who took part in the Yes campaign, what they did and why they took part. The results will be published widely and shared with the main Yes supporting groups to help them understand their volunteers and to understand who changed politics in Scotland."

Our conversation took in the academic work, his personal feelings on the matter of Scottish Independence and how he keeps the two things separate.

Oh and he passed up an open goal as well, but you'll have to listen to find out what that was.

Hope you enjoy…

http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/

For the 108th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I checked in again with Ivan Mckee. Moodie. Ivan has been down in Westminster to help some of his SNP colleagues and since he has been down there he has had the time to have a look at the place and has some interesting observations on what goes on down there.

More specifically, is the place fit for purpose as a building, does an obsession with procedure get in the way of good governance, what's the most useless way you can think of to use an ipad and more.

Oh and he also had a little announcement to make...

Hope you enjoy…

For the 107th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Chris Cairns & Greg Moodie. Chris and Greg have come to prominence in recent years with their cartoons and illustrations depicting the various actors and their activities on the Scottish and UK political stages, and you'll probably have seen their work on Wings Over Scotland, Bella Caledonia and many other places.

I asked them both if they became politicised before beginning their artwork or if it was the other way round. We talked about where the inspiration for the work comes from and whether it is fair to kick someone when they are down. Chris had something to say about the downplaying of the electoral earthquake that hit us a month or so ago too.

We also threw in something about Steve Bell.

Finally, as usual, I asked them why they support Scottish Independence.

Hope you enjoy…

For the 106th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Allan Grogan. Allan was the founding member of Labour for Indy, a campaign group during the referendum which was in an almost unique position of campaigning against the policy of its own party's stated position.

We talked about that and the accusations that were levelled at the group that they were an SNP front. We also talked about where the Labour Party can now go from the difficult position they find themselves in.

Alan explained his reasons for resigning from Labour and joining the SSP too.

Near the end we got on to Indyref 2 - when, if, how and what?

https://twitter.com/allangrogan
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/mgreenwell

Where to for the Labour branch office in Scotland and down south? What, if anything, will the Tories give to Scotland? Do we need to bother talking about the libdems? These were just some of the questions we got onto it, and I resisted the temptation to say something unspeakable about Ian Davidson, though I did say something about him.

As a little aside, I'll be going back to the Scottish Independence Podcast format very soon, so watch out for those.

Hope you enjoy…

In what podcast can you get Errol Brown, St Enoch's, Nick Clegg and the Institute for Fiscal Studies? This one. Ivan and I give a last wee run round the stories before the polls open, and William makes the nonsense drummed up by someone (pending investigation) in Glasgow yesterday, seem exactly what it was.

In this episode Ivan and I talked about Ed Miliband's monorail, sorry, monoLITH, and then ran through what people seem to be up to in order to create news stories today.

William Duguid has his say on Full Fiscal Autonomy too.

In this episode Ivan and I talked about what mechanisms are in place to actually get a government going in the event that there is no majority for any party and William Duguid opines on the by turns infuriating or slightly unsettling spectacle that is First Minister's Questions.