Shereen - Athens, Scotland's Chief Medical Officer and the Mother in Law from Hell

My team in the studio this week were STV's Robert Dawson Scott, Martin Raymond of Cloudline PR, and journalist Christine Jardine. Good to have Christine back after a long leave of absence.

This week public protests were very much in the news, with the strikes over pensions here in the UK contrasting with much more volatile demos in Athens over the Greek government's austerity measures. Some disagreement among the panel as to whether strikes achieve anything and Robert did a find job of unpicking the complexities of the Greek bail out package.

This week's special guest was Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Harry Burns, who's just become Sir Harry in the Queen's Birthday Honours. He's a very unassuming and modest man who's almost embarrassed by his new title. A father of six, he tells me his children are distinctly unimpressed.



I've interviewed Sir Harry many times on Scotland's dubious health record but it was interesting to hear more about the man behind the soundbites. It's clear that it's his own strong sense of family that drives his passionate commitment to finding solutions to the social inequalities he sees as key to addressing the country's health problems. He spoke very movingly about the sacrifices his own father made for him and the opportunities his children have compared with the youngsters from chaotic backgrounds he meets in the East End of Glasgow.

On a lighter note, the biggest talking point of the week had to be the "Mother in Law from Hell" whose email to her prospective daughter in law on her rules of etiquette went viral. As a step-mother who's just about to host a visit from the twenty one year old's boyfriend, I was interested to hear my panel siding with the mother in law on this one. Think I'll fire off a pre-emptive email.

Shereen is on BBC Radio Scotland, every Sunday 0900-1000