Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
This week it was announced that 1,187 drug-related deaths were registered in Scotland in 2018, the largest number ever recorded. This caused a shockwave to run through Scottish politics, though it wasn’t such a shock to those on the front line who knew the figures would be terrible. But seeing anecdotal evidence of a spiralling […]
The argument for multiple referenda; “Democracy is not just an election, it is our daily life.” Tsai Ing-wen The political landscape has never been vaguer or indeed more frightening on this island. Watch the latest edition of Question Time to hear the audience boo comments suggesting that a mild mannered, pro equality gardener with a […]
Twenty years ago, the Scottish Parliament reconvened after 300 years. That election for me, was an election that showed that radical politics COULD make a difference as the Greens and the new Scottish Socialist Party made, what were at the time, surprising and ground shaking breakthroughs. One idea, one seed of change germinated and broke […]
https://ungagged.podbean.com/mf/play/8ahs9m/June_pod_pt1_Mixdown2.mp3 Available FREE on iTunes and Podbean We have 5 pieces for you: From Liz Olson who talks about immigration in the UK and is titled “Goodbye you bigoted woman – The tears of Theresa May’s victims should get far more attention that her’s did”. Mhairi Hunter muses on Trump’s State Visit to the UK, Philip Hammond’s seeming […]
It’s not easy to keep your head above water in these politically turbulent times, but do we have a choice? I’d say that we don’t. The future is not ours to give up on. We all have our low points though and for me the world really shifted on its axis on 7th November 2016, […]
On Thursday (30/5/19) Lib Dem leadership candidate Jo Swinson commented that unequal access to university was due to a lack of investment in early intervention and lack of aspiration from young people, who don’t think that university is for them. She cited a town in her constituency where she claimed 80% of young people went […]
The UK is broken, and I can’t see how it can ever be fixed. Like Humpty Dumpty, all the constitutional monarch’s horses and all the constitutional monarch’s men can’t put it together again (other animals and sexes are also available) (as are other governing systems, if not actually right here, right now…) Even if, by […]
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the days pre 23rd June 2016, when it was possible to take an intelligent interest in current affairs without wanting to bang your head repeatedly against the wall. When it was possible to have reasoned political arguments on social media and agree to disagree without being insulted, […]
There’s still a bit of a stooshie going on, trans rights has become the hot topic for many folk to have huge big flaming Twitter spats and lengthy rage threads. I’m just gonna add to that. I’m not trans, but I am a woman, female, cis woman, biofem, menstruator whatever label you like to plaster […]
The right to hold a referendum on Scottish independence is a reserved power under the Scotland Act 1998 so the Scottish Parliament has no power to put in place legislation to hold one. That power is reserved to the Westminster Parliament. Under the Edinburgh Agreement of the 15th of October 2012 the Westminster Parliament agreed […]