The Scottish Independence Podcast

Just occasionally in all the years I've been doing this, mostly for laughs, I've made a few little, ahem, tributes, to some of our political adversaries.The 187th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is a run through of some of the best of these, because I think most of us are in need of a laugh at the moment.Hope you enjoy.These podcasts are independently minded and independently funded, you can help to keep them going by making a donation. http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast/http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

The 186th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast is amongst other things, a mix of some bad excuses.There's a bad excuse for a Prime Minister, a bad excuse for a President of the United States, and a few bad excuses for the behaviour of the British Empire.Along with that, there are people trying to expose those excuses, and how they got on with it.Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast/http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

The 185th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast is a talk by Broadcaster, writer and activist and former guest on the show, Billy Kay, about Scottish identity.Have you ever noticed when you go abroad that the locals always seem to know what happened in 1437 in every wee nook and cranny of their town. Have you also noticed that this often isn't the case in Scotland? Why would that be? Kay explores this idea in the talk, but also provides some great stories from Scottish history, and there are a few revelations as well. For example, which UK Prime Minister may well have supported Scottish Independence?  Which SNP MSP alledges that she was followed around the Houses of Parliament in the dark by Scottish Labour MPs.Also, there's something about the special branch meddling in the Scottish Independence Movement.All that and more, hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/billykayscothttps://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast/http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

The Queen, God, the EU (in and out), your mate's dug, Alpha Centauri, cherry tomatoes, wind, Nigel Farage, xylophones, Bungle from Rainbow - whatever it is, if you listen to some people, it's a reason against Scottish Independence.The latest they are using is the virus, so for the 184th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast I have taken some pieces of talks from before the coronavirus and I'm asking to you to think about if they still apply, or even, are they more urgent questions than before?And it finishes with an idiot for good measure.Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttps://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

For episode 183 of The Scottish Independence Podcast I'm taking you back to that wonderful world of a dew months ago in which the only things we had to worry about were Tory lies causing unnecessary death and hardship, and a babbling manboy in the White House.Oh wait, both of those things still apply.Anyway, it's a collection of whoppers, evasions and other nefarious activity from the Tories, just in case you ever forget what they are like.Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videoshttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttps://twitter.com/mgreenwell

"A mendacious drunkard's promise, made to convince his wife not to leave him", yes you guessed it, The Vow.However, the 182nd episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast is, thanks to Independence Live, a talk given by Mark McNaught with an intro by John Drummond (former convenor of the Independence convention).It's about the importance of making a draft consitution for Scotland BEFORE a second referendum. It also gets into the problems with the constitutional situation in the UK "Arguably the most incoherent and feudal political system on Earth".The project, which seems to be on hold at the moment, can be found at Scottishconstitution.comHope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

Obviously you weren't expecting there would be any UK wide celebrations of The Declaration of Arbroath, were you? However, the indy movement has stepped up and we've had the documentary by Lesley Riddoch and Charlie Stuart, and there will be an illustrated version too.For my own part, I decided just to read the whole thing, not the few quotes we usually hear, and make it available as audio, so here it is. Obviously I read the translation from the National Library of Scotland, not the original Latin.Doing it, it was easy to see how it is in part a plea, partly a statement of intent, in one part an offer, and in another part a threat.A truly interesting document. A pity that no one in British broadcasting seems to think so (I know there are other things going on right now, however if they had had any intention of doing anything it would have been planned and done before the coronavirus outbreak).Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videoshttps://twitter.com/mgreenwell

The 180th episode of the Scottish Independence Podcast is, thanks to Independence Live, a talk given by John Drummond (former convenor of the Independence convention).In this talk he explains to an audience why he thinks it is a pivotal that we have a constitution prepared and ready to go before a second referendum, and not as something to be decided after.Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttps://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_LfMf1z6erDXSCHfw6_Bw/videos

We’re back. A few episodes are ready to go.To start off with, I think we are all in need of a laugh, so here’s something many of the show’s regular contributors and myself knocked up a few years ago for April Fool’s Day.A lot of people on both sides of the debate didn’t realise we were joking.Hope you enjoy.

The 178th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is a long in-depth look at the Scottish economy and what may happen after Brexit. It features friend of the show and someone who has been a guest several times, MSP Ivan McKee.Before that however, we've someone getting Farage telt, and after that we've got, just for the change of it, someone saying Scotland won't have any problems getting into the EU at all.He spoke about what I outlined above, and also responded to some criticisms of the growth commission and gave an idea of the thinking behind it. You may or may not agree with everything that is in it (I don't, and some of the audience members at the talk didn't agree either), but it is useful to hear the rationale behind it.Hope you enjoy.http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

The 177th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast has quite a varied menu. What is the UK govt spending millions on telling citizens living abroad? Do (Labour) MPs bother to read things before voting for them? There's also a No to Yes convert, some speeches from the recent march in Edinburgh, a confused person and more.And is one of the most famous Scots changing his mind?Hope you enjoy.https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/

The 175th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is a short talk given by Craig Dalzell showing, amongst other things, how distorted the GERS figures can be, some of the immediate savings an independent Scotland would make, and some of the instant bumps in revenue it would have.In case that wasn't clear above, that is when we are independent, not now.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://twitter.com/thecommongreenhttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

The 174th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is just a little teaser and a way of saying the podcast will be back for a little summer season and hopefully beyond.Iquote-because-things-are-the-way-they-are-things-will-not-stay-the-way-they-are-bertolt-brecht-23275.jpgn this one we’ve got something on the new cretin/b*stard (delete according to your mood) that has taken over as Prime Minister, there’s a little blast from the past, a live reaction to that thing on Channel 5 and finally the headline guest.Hope you enjoy.

"I think if you had got a group of mysogynists in a room and said 'guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?', they wouldn't have come up with too many other ideas than what is already in place".The 173rd episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is the much talked about report by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, talking about the UK.It's so important I was going to just read the whole thing out and put that out as a podcast but fortunately for me there was a presentation and a Q&A, and here it is.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=Ehttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

The 172nd episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is a speech given by Clive Ponting.Ponting is a famous whistleblower who exposed the UK Government over the sinking of The Belgrano, an act many believe to be a war crime. He has also authored a number of books exposing various levels of skulduggery and/or incompetence at Whitehall.This episode comes from a recent talk he gave in which he goes into those things, but also why he now resides in Scotland, why he loves it, and why he supports Scottish Independence. Hope you enjoy.LINKShttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

The 171st episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is mostly a speech by Dr Philippa Whitford (a previous guest on the show). I'm sure you do, but just in case you didn't know, Dr Whitford MP is an SNP MP but before her time in politics she was a consultant breast surgeon, one who also worked as part of UN mission in Gaza and even a couple of years ago went to the West Bank to operare on four women suffering from Breast Cancer.The speech, principally about the Scottish Health service, was at Clermiston and is reproduced here courtesy of Independence Live.At the end of the speech I left the Q & A section in because most of the questions from the floor were, I imagine, exactly the ones the majority of listeners to this podcast would have asked, and she also gave some good responses.Finally, before that main course of the podcast begins, I put in a little starter when it seemed, just for a second, that the BBC was going to go somewhere it never ever goes.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://twitter.com/Dr_PhilippaWhttps://twitter.com/liveIndyScothttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

The 170th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is mostly a speech by Mike Russell regarding the (bleak) situation with Brexit and people really should hear it. I am reproducing the talk here and thanks to Newsnet for allowing me to do so.There are also a couple of cameos, Martin Compston gets it right and Ruth Davidson gets it wrong, American Embassy staff paint a frightening picture and John Swinney loses his sh*t.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttps://twitter.com/Feorleanhttps://newsnet.scot/http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast

"I have devoted myself to the cause of the people. It is a good cause. It shall ultimately prevail. It shall finally triumph." – Thomas Muir’s speech from the dock, Edinburgh, August 1793.Courtesy of Phantom Power, the 169th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast features the Thomas Muir lecture for 2018, which was given by Gerda Stevenson withAs well as being an actress and a musician, Gerda Stevenson is the author of Quines: Poems in tribute to women of Scotland and in the lecture you can find out which Scottish woman was an inspiration to Walt Whitman and Mary Shelley, and which Scottish woman is known in Serbia as "Our Mother from Scotland"?That and much more.First up however, is an introduction by Murray Armstrong, author of The Liberty Tree, who explains who Thomas Muir was, and why it is important to remember him.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcasthttp://www.gerdastevenson.co.uk/https://twitter.com/MurrayArmstron3https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGVfektAXlCjoMy70ftQBkAThese podcasts are independently minded and independently funded, you can help to keep them going by making a donation at http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/

The 168th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast is a mix of some recent things that you won't want to miss.Here you'll find a psychic that didn't seem to predict the consequences of telling a nation of people to go f*ck itself, or how much of an idiot she would like when she was doing it.There is also a good speech from Westminster which provides good and useful historical information on the history of Scottish home rule. However, given that the speech was delivered in Westminster, it was accompanied by quite a lot of petulant, ill-informed and childish nonsense that came from the government benches.Finally, which Tory MP seems to want a large number of Scottish people to commit suicide? I imagine that some of you reading this are saying "quite a few of them want that" to yourselves, which is possibly true, but one of them said it out loud in public.Hope you enjoy.LINKShttp://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/mgreenwellhttps://www.facebook.com/TheScottishIndependencePodcast