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PODCAST

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast

Lesley Riddoch and Fraser Thompson

Scottish politics dissected from a left, pro-independence stance. Each week, award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Lesley Riddoch chews over the week’s news with co-host Fraser Thompson. If you like intelligent, quirky chat about Scottish society and culture, and Scottish, UK and international politics analysed from a Scottish perspective; this podcast is for you.

news politics

All Episodes

24:18

Yes Cymru - Podcast Extra

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/10/23

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

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68:01

To The Top Of The Hill

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/10/21

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

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78:47

That's Entertainment!

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/10/14

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

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64:00

Hollow Speeches In Empty Halls

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/10/07

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

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65:24

Get Your BritCard Out

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/10/01

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

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67:42

Be Prepared!

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/09/23

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

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24:03

Nora Conference - Podcast Extra

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/09/16

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

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57:16

Three To Get Ready and Go Ange Go

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/09/09

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

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58:16

Back to School

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/09/01

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

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66:08

The Right to Protest Against Wrong

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/08/26

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

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64:48

Scots culture - Stuart McHardy and Roger Emmerson -...

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/08/19

This is a special podcast about Scotland’s culture and its tenacity over centuries of denial, marginalisation and nae seemin posh enough.Lesley heard these two in action at an Independence Forum Scotland event in Perth and thought the craic was so good it deserved this wider audience.So Stuart McHardy a writer, occasional broadcaster, and storyteller who has been Director of the Scots Language Resource Centre in Perth and President of the Pictish Arts Society is in conversation with Roger

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64:35

Frankly My Dear

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/08/13

Nicola Sturgeon and her book is absolutely everywhere with the press full of the tiniest revelations. We have a look, neither of us having read the book, but take a look at really what's sitting behind some of the more serious revelations, particularly over the wisdom of pressing on with the gender recognition reforms, and behind the scenes, what was really happening. We ask the whether we going to learn anything that helps us with creating a more democratic country in Scotland that isn't

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68:18

Blown Away

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/08/05

A blowy week in Scotland and for Scottish Politics, we speak about Kate Forbes's decision not to stand in next year's Holyrood Election. We look at the huge question of childcare, not just for her, but for everyone, speculate on who might stand in her constituency. We analyise the the disagreements on concience and policy issues from the stance gay marriage to Kate's economic strategy, and look at the suggestion that infrastructure has to come first before you can get to wealth creation,

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65:53

Stars, Stripes and Saltires

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/07/29

Donald Trump comes to Scotland and don't we know it! President Trump, with saltires fluttering on his motorcade instead of the union flag descended this week on Turnberry in Ayrshire and then up to Aberdeenshire. He's described John Sweeney as a terrific guy despite not really having met him yet and he suggests that all the proceeds from removing tariffs should go to Scotland, not to the UK. We discuss whether he's just mixing it, whether he actually favours Scotland in some way or is it

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71:08

Precious Few Heroes

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/07/21

There's a bit of a protest theme in this week's podcast. Obviously the Gaza Palestine demonstration at the weekend where Lesley was speaking. Thankfully there weren't arrests at the time, but could they be yet to come? There was also, if you like, the protest of Richard Murphy on Radio Scotland, interrupted continually on a program about bias and trust in the BBC.We discuss the rebels who've been booted out of the parliamentary Labour Party, but oddly not all the rebels that voted for axing

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67:17

Electrifying

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/07/15

Donate to support the podcast There's been a lot of missing in action in this week's podcast. Where is the Scottish government and the SNP when an energy supplier, Octopus, calls for zonal pricing that would give Scotland the cheapest energy in Europe? They're kind of missing in action. We talk about the latest proposals by Rachel Reeves, which looks like a bonfire of the regulations on the banking sector, which kind of prompted all the chaos post 2008.Is that really going to be such a

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72:09

Left foot forward

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/07/08

On this week's episode, we talk about the putative new Left-wing party possibly headed by Jeremy Corbyn. We speculate on why he hasn't said he will join it and what is happening on the Scottish front with a group that's promising a meeting in October. It's not very clear whether it supports independence or not.We talk about the victory of a left candidate for the Democratic nomination in New York City with a program that would probably make Jeremy Corbyn's heart sing.We're still talking

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62:43

Sting like a..wasp

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/07/01

You can donate to support and keep the podcast going by becoming a Pal or Buddy of the Podcast at https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribeBy the time you listen this, you'll know what we don't, which is the result of the disability cuts vote in the House of Commons, the revised package, which will now only put 150,000 people into poverty. And that's this year. Because next year, of course, is a whole new ball game for those wishing to sign up to PIP.We speculate on what these reforms and

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78:32

Trouble in the Glens

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/06/24

In this week's podcast, we discuss Trump's attacks on Iran facilitating attacks by Israel and then demanding a ceasefire. It's an odd way to get diplomatic results. We react to Donald Trump's four-letter outburst as he baulks at Israel's flouting of the cease-fire and Iran's response.We also look at the attempts to proscribe Palestine action, which look very destined to simply encourage support for this soon-to-be-banned group. And we also look at the likely rebellion against labour's cuts

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70:59

The Last Waltz

The Lesley Riddoch Podcast ·

2025/06/17

As the hostilities go on between Israel and Iran we try and get beneath the "We support the right of Israel to defend itself" to why Israel decided to launch its attacks, why now , and the realities of nuclear proliferation in the region.Meanwhile a report by the Centre For Media Monitoring has forensically examined the BBC's coverage of Gaza. The results are damning in terms of revealing BBC bias.We take a look at the spending review not only the decisions made but especially what impact

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