A slightly delayed episode of the Bits & Pieces Podcast for February 2023. Another month, another Party Leader? Well, not quite, but after months of toppling UK prime ministers and monarchs, this month it was Scotland’s turn. Unlike the revolving door in Downing Street, Nicola Sturgeon has been First Minister for 8 years and looked set to go on for many more.
We hastily rearranged our intended February podcast schedule to include a special episode of the TNT Show. John Drummond interviewed Lesley Riddoch and Gordon MacIntyre Kemp the day after the FMs announcement and you can listen to that discussion here
So, would we find anything else to talk about in February’s Bits & Pieces Podcast? Turns out there was plenty of business as usual going on.
Topics covered in this podcast are:
- Time for Scotland marks the Brexit anniversary
- Options for a plebiscite election
- Positive vs negative campaigning
- Changing US attitudes to EU, UK and Scotland
- Orkney Islands Council ferries taskforce
- Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation announcement
- Alister Jack struggles to explain the effect of the retained EU laws on Scotland
- Holyrood refuses legislative consent to the retained EU laws bill
- Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme – the next Tory dogwhistle topic?
- Sunak attempts a cheesy joke at Scotland’s expense at PMQs
By the time next month’s Bits & Pieces Podcast goes out, we will have a new First Minister and the SNP will have a new leader. Significant changes, certainly, but the Yes Movement has always been bigger than one person. Independence is not about personalities it is about the kind of country we aspire to be.
Contains information licenced under the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence.
Has the SNP ceased to be the main vehicle for independence now that it is obviously been infiltratrated by Unionists. Should we all now vote for a national liberation front. Should their be a way to deselect MPs and MSPs who dont not want independence or operate against the Scottish peoples interests. This should particularly apply to Politicians who change the narrative from independence to whatever distraction politics they wish to project.
You’re asking a lot of questions there, Alastair. Maybe you could help people respond by laying out your reasons for thinking SNP has been taken over by Unionists. Cos obviously were that to be the case, we’d definitely need to be doing something about!