Newsweek Scotland - A week in news
Post categories: News, Newsweek Scotland, Politics, Presenters, Radio Scotland
|17:30 UK time, Friday, 12 November 2010
Nearly forgot to write the blog... I've been so busy. Wasn't so busy last week, though. Saturday was a strike day so I was alone in the dark in the freezing cold outside the Pacific Quay building at 6 am... the lone picket. Never strike in winter, that's what should be on our placards. With predictions of other stoppages while the government tries to reduce the deficit, I hear IKEA are doing a line in flat-pack braziers.
To the programme:
After the debacle of the alcohol bill in Holyrood we ask if this is really the legislature we expected a decade ago. With heavy suspicion that the drinks lobby "got" to MSP's and that Labour may have been too tempted to down what could have been landmark SNP health legislation (think Smoking Ban) at the expense of public interest. Is this the New Scotland or a new (wee) version of Westminster.
We have hot news from Mesopotamia. Newsweek isn't behind the news for long... you may think that Britain's invasion of 1914 is just history for anoraks but a new book uncovers fascinating parallels with 2003 and the invasion of Iraq. Listen to my interview with the author and see if you can spot them.
They say the only people who really understand the benefits system are those in receipt. This week's reforms try to simplify them. We have a discussion - which gets a bit cross at times - about just how difficult that is.
We hear about a dreadful narcotic habit which has developed in South Africa: using HIV treatment drugs and how yet another journalist is savagely beaten in Moscow. It's the kind of thing that puts my job into perspective. Join me tomorrow at 8.
Comment number 1.
At 12:39 13th Nov 2010, Gavin Lessells wrote:One of the fairest debates I have encountered on your Saturday programme where SNP were involved, regarding debate on minimum pricing. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised by the fairness of comment even by Angus MacLeod a self confessed Unionist. The debate should have had nothing to do with politics and one wonders what the result would have been given a free vote
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Comment number 2.
At 14:52 13th Nov 2010, sid_ts63 wrote:hi , refreshing to hear commentators telling it as it is. I would suggest what happened in the Parliament on Wednesday was bordering on bringing the Parliament into disrepute. I too have heard the snippets of descent and wee questions on how many opposition MSP's were convinced that they were doing the right thing.from what I can gather only one had the guts to stand up for what he believed in . even if some of them had abstained I may still have some respect for them but they didn't .
in my opinion they are a disgrace to their profession when there profession is at an all time low as it is!!
lowest of the low just dosen't cover it!
Sid
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Comment number 3.
At 20:31 13th Nov 2010, fairforfochen wrote:I could not believe that at last someone at BBC told it as it was what a pleasant change,the alcohol bill would never have got into such a farcical state if journalists had done the job they are paid to do and held those spouting their ridiculous arguments to account it's not as if any of them came up with anything we had not heard before, but time after time they were given free rein and made more outrageous claims by the week even in the face of all the evidence put forward by those who know more about the effects of alcohol than any of them ever could.Shame on each and every one of them
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