Skotia Media

In the latest episode of Skotia's podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Coll McCail, Rory Hamilton, and Sophie Johnson discuss the stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on Patreon.

Scotland's universities are facing a profound funding crisis, with devastating consequences for staff, students and wider society. In March 2026 alone, workers at Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Dundee, and Heriot-Watt universities have taken industrial action. Meanwhile, staff at Glasgow Caledonian University and Edinburgh Napier face redundancy. To discuss Scotland's collapsing higher education sector, Rory Hamilton is joined by  Ross Gibson and Robin McAlpine on Nest of Fearties. Robin McAlpine is the founder of CommonWeal and a former Deputy Director of Universities Scotland. Ross Gibson is secretery of the University and Colleges Union at Strathclyde University. Help make media for a better Scotland by supporting Skotia on Patreon for as little as £5 per month.

In the latest episode of Skotia's podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Samuel Rafanell-Williams, Rory Hamilton and Niall Christie discuss the stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠.

In the fifth episode of Skotia's new podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Samuel Rafanell-Williams and Coll McCail discuss three stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠.

In the fourth episode of Skotia's new podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Rory Hamilton, Matt Kerr and Coll McCail discuss three stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on ⁠Patreon⁠.

In the third episode of Skotia's new podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Rory Hamilton, Dr Rosie Hampton and Samuel Rafanel-Williams discuss three stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on Patreon.

When Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, opened Glasgow’s People Palace in 1898, he declared it "open to the people for ever and ever".The building stands as a monument to the men and women whose lives, labour and struggles built Scotland’s largest city.This week, however, Glasgow Life – an arms-length body of Glasgow City Council – announced that the reopening of the People’s Palace, which had been closed since 2024, had been delayed indefinitely. The news mirrors similar – but ultimately unsuccessful – efforts to close Edinburgh’s People’s Story Museum in recent years. This week, Coll McCail is joined by  Jim Slaven and Dan Hutchison to discuss the campaign to protect Scotland’s working-class historyJim is a member of the James Connolly Society and was heavily involved in the campaign to save the People’s Story. He writes the Solidarity Not Charity substack. Dan is a Glasgow City Councillor for Ibrox who joined Your Party and left the Scottish Greens in October 2025.Support Skotia on Patreon.

In the second episode of Skotia's new podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Coll McCail, Sophie Johnson and Samuel Rafanel-Williams discuss three stories shaping the Holyrood campaign.Election '26 will be published every Monday before polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode.Support Skotia on Patreon for as little as £5 per month.

In the first episode of Skotia's new podcast dedicated to the Scottish Parliament election, Coll McCail, Frances Curran and Rory Hamilton discuss three stories shaping the Holyrood campaign. Election '26 will be published every Monday prior to polling day on 7 May 2026. Follow us to make sure you never miss an episode. Support Skotia on Patreon.

On Sunday 8 February, Jeremy Corbyn MP joined Skotia's Coll McCail in Dundee to discuss Peter Mandelson, the crisis in the global order and the founding of Your Party Scotland. Support Skotia on Patreon.

Scotland, said the Labour MP Torcuil Crichton earlier this month, is now on the “front line” of NATO’s war with Russia. His comments followed the seizure of the Marinera – a Russian-flagged tanker – in the North Atlantic by US forces, with British military support, as the Trump administration continues to enforce its oil blockade on Venezuela. The apparent legal basis for the operation, which used Scottish Government-owned airports in Wick and Benbecula, was that the vessel was in breach of US sanctions. The Marinera episode, an effective act of state-sponsored piracy on the high seas, has taken place amidst historic shifts – or in Mark Carney’s words, “ruptures” – in the world order. On Nest of Fearties, Coll McCail is joined by Jonathon Shafi and David Jamieson to talk about Scotland and the future of Atlantiscism.Support Skotia on Patreon. Read Conter online.

On 15 January, Reform UK unveiled their new leader in Scotland.  Baron Offord of Garvel was not the only Tory defector to join Nigel Farage's Party this week. He was joined by Robert Jenrick and Nadhim Zahawi. In the first Nest of Fearties episode of 2026, Coll McCail is joined by Taj Ali and Dr Gavin Brewis to discuss the growing support for the far-right among working-class communities in Scotland and across Britain. Taj Ali is a journalist and historian. He is the former editor of Tribune Magazine and is currently writing a book on the history of British South Asian political activism, for which he has recently submitted the manuscript. Dr Gavin Brewis is a research fellow at Queen’s Communities and Place. Support Skotia on Patreon.

A lot has happened over the last 12 months. In London, the UK Government continues to flounder. Despite his sizable majority, Keir Starmer has achieved the impossible: He is now the most unpopular Prime Minister in British history. More unpopular even than Boris Johnson on the day he resigned. In Edinburgh, the result of next year’s Scottish election looks like a foregone conclusion. Recent opinion polling places John Swinney’s SNP at least 10 points ahead of their competitors on both regional list and constituency voting. On the final episode of Nest of Fearties of 2025, Coll McCail is joined by Matt Kerr and Chris Stephens to look back at the year just gone. Matt Kerr is a Glasgow Labour Councillor and the Morning Star’s Scotland Correspondent. Chris Stephens was the MP for Glasgow South West between 2015-2024. Support Skotia on Patreon.

To discuss the genocide in Palestine, its global consequences and where next for the solidarity movement, Coll McCail is joined on Nest of Fearties by Jonathon Shafi and Toufic Haddad.Jonathan is the Co-Chair of Stop The War Scotland, an editor at Conter and a columnist with The National.Toufic is a Palestinian academic and the author of 'Palestine Ltd.: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territories'. He has worked in various capacities across the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a journalist, researcher, consultant, editor, and publisher. Support Skotia on Patreon. 'Palestine Ltd.' by Toufic Haddad.'Israel in the Cold' by Jonathon Shafi.

In 2011, months after the SNP formed its historic majority government in Holyrood, Alex Salmond declared that Scotland was to become ‘the Saudi Arabia of renewables’. The development of the green economy, so the former First Minister argued, would not only offer skilled employment but underpin the foundations of a future, independent state. A decade and a half later, this promise is yet to materialise. Following the ScotWind auction of 2022, Scotland’s seabed was leased to a selection of large fossil fuel companies, state-owned energy firms and asset managers.The SNP having junked its commitment to establish a national energy company, Ireland's government today owns more Scottish offshore wind than the Scottish Government does.  Meanwhile, of the 1,000 jobs that the UK Government’s much-lauded GB Energy promised to bring to Aberdeen, just 13 have materialised. To discuss the opportunities and challenges of Scotland's offshore economy, Coll McCail is joined by Laurie Macfarlane and Dave Moxham. Laurie is a co-director of Future Economy Scotland, a non-partisan think tank that aims to create a new economy that is democratic, sustainable and just. Dave is the Deputy General Secretery of the Scottish Trade Union Congress, which represents 550,000 workers through 40 affiliated unions. Support Skotia on Patreon Future Economy Scotland: Who Owns ScotWind? STUC report on Scotland’s low carbon and renewable energy economy

As Buildings across Glasgow crumble, gentrification strips the city's working-class neighbourhoods of their core identities. In Scotland's largest city, the legacy of the Thatcher years looms large. For instance, in 2021, if you lived in Pollokshields West, life expectancy was 83 years, while in nearby Greater Govan it was 65 – a gap of 18 years for a mere 3 miles. It's a bleak picture.However, Glasgow's residents refuse to accept the status quo. Workers, tenants, and commuters from Drumchapel to Dalmarnock have taken action over rising rents, damp flats, soaring bus fares, and collapsing services.Now with rent controls won in the Scottish Parliament and the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) moving forward with bus franchising, could ‘The Dear Green Place’ be just around the corner? To answer this question, Rory Hamilton is joined by Paul Shaw of Get Glasgow Moving and Stella Rooney of Living Rent Glasgow. Join Living Rent. Support Better Buses for Strathclyde. If you enjoy the podcast, support Skotia on Patreon.

Scottish politics is paralysed. The SNP govern in suspended animation while dangling the prospect of independence before their supporters’ noses. Scottish Labour is in tow to Starmerism, and the Scottish Greens remain tainted by the Bute House Agreement. In this context, Support for Reform UK grows by the month. Ahead of a sold-out rally in Glasgow, Rory Hamilton is joined by Zarah Sultana, Member of Parliament for Coventry South and Co-Founder of Your Party, to discuss whether a new left-wing political party can offer Scots an alternative — and what it might look like. Support Skotia on ⁠Patreon⁠.

Earlier this year, the 18th June edition of the Daily Record carried the headline “Justice Ministers’ war on yobs: Thugs up in smoke”. The words referred to an intervention from SNP MSP Angela Constence, who had promised to crack down on football fans following the Old Firm League Cup Final in December 2024. The Record’s prejudice, however, speaks to a more general effort to demonise Scottish football fans from this country’s political and media class. At its most serious, this demonisation has resulted in awful legislation like the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act. At its most ludicrous, it has resulted in the mainstream media alleging that fans are carrying and smuggling pyrotechnics into games inside French baguettes. While they’re targeted by the establishment, football fans are simultaneously priced out of games as the cost of tickets has soared. In Scotland, fans are getting organised to fight for better. In the latest episode of Nest of Fearties, Coll McCail is joined by Derek Watson and Paul Quigley to discuss the politics of Scottish football. Support Skotia on Patreon.

At the time of recording, at least 248 journalists have now been killed in Gaza, more than in any other conflict in modern times. Yet many in the mainstream media still can’t bring themselves to condemn the killing of their Palestinian colleagues. From the BBC to CNN, from The New York Times to The Guardian, in their reporting of Israel’s genocide over the last 23 months, outlet after outlet framed their coverage to minimise the severity of the crime. As John Pilger once said, “there is something called censorship by omission. You don’t really discuss what you leave out but it’s left out.”In Scotland, this apathy – and often outright hostility – to the suffering of the Palestinian people has been mimicked by the country’s leading opinion writers. Intent on viewing Israel’s crimes through the lens of the culture war, rather than an attack on our common humanity, all too few in Scotland’s mainstream have called a spade a spade – or a war crime a war crime. To discuss the Scottish media’s capitulation on Gaza, Coll McCail is joined by David Jamieson, the editor of Conter, and Laura Webster, the editor of The National. Support Skotia on Patreon for as little as £5 a month.Read David’s article: ‘Moral Collapse How The Scottish Commentariat Failed on Gaza’Subscribe to The National.

Scotland, according to the independent left think tank Common Weal, is one of the most foreign-owned economies in the world. That’s a staggering fact, but it reveals a fundamental truth: Scotland is being asset-stripped. Coll McCail is joined by Dr. James Foley and Dr. Craig Dalzell to discuss Scotland’s vanishing economic sovereignty.Support Skotia on ⁠Patreon⁠. Attend Scotland's Not For Sale in Glasgow on September 27.