The Lesley Riddoch Podcast

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 [https://youtu.be/PRwsXnBQaEo?si=3Ec1-kc0YGMARic0] Wales rally 18 October Rhyl https://www.auob.cymru [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 [http://lesleyriddoch.com/events] Missing Forests premier at the Revive Converence 8 November REVIVE: What Scotland Wants - Real Land Reform [https://www.perththeatreandconcerthall.com/whats-on/revive-what-scotland-wants-real-land-reform]. Available that evening on https://www.youtube.com/@Lesley_Riddoch [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 [http://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. hello@lesleyriddoch.com [hello@lesleyriddoch.com] ★ Support this podcast ★ [https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribe]

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 [https://youtu.be/GqLJA7sXD-c?si=C7L4iIkQ6ellKmwd] A Bleather O'Books  - Tickets [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-blether-o-books-with-lesley-riddoch-tickets-1304013191559?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1] 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/ [https://www.thenational.scot/news/17300143.cromwell-edward-robbed-scotland-centuries-history/] Lost to the Waves https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/08/stormy-past/ [https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/08/stormy-past/] ★ Support this podcast ★ [https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribe]

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.  ★ Support this podcast ★ [https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribe]

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/ [https://nora.fo/?_l=en] Lesley spoke with: https://nora.fo/participants-stornoway [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. ★ Support this podcast ★ [https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribe]

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/ [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 [https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52896-how-do-britons-see-reform-uk-ahead-of-their-2025-conference] ★ Support this podcast ★ [https://lesleyriddoch.com/podcast/subscribe]