Welcome to your Full Scottish, live from our Cowcaddens studio in Glasgow.
Full Scottish programme starts at 12:00 on Sunday 10th March 2019
This week, the Full Scottish is presented by Ellen Hoefer. Corri is still a bit unwell and we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery. Our guests this week are Dr. Philippa Whitford MP and Sandra White MSP.
On International Women’s Day, the 3 week old baby of Shamima Begum died. Home Secretary Sajid Javid could have made the choice to issue a passport to her and arrange to bring her home. Instead he withdrew her citizenship and left her effectively stateless as Bangladesh insisted she was not their responsibility. Aid workers in the refugee camp believe that the baby would have lived if Shamima Begum and her son had been brought back to the UK.
With just 19 days until the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, Brexit is set to dominate the headlines this week with important votes in Westminster this coming Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If as seems likely, Theresa May’s deal gets defeated on Tuesday, Parliament will vote on blocking a no-deal Brexit on Wednesday. If by Thursday, both the deal and no-deal have been rejected, then Westminster will vote on a temporary suspension and postponement of the Brexit Date. What happens next is anybody’s guess, but the ongoing uncertainty is causing distress for EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in EU countries. The economic impact on Scotland of any form of Brexit will be worse than remaining in the EU which is leading to growing anticipation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s statement on the timing of a second Independence referendum.
Broadcasting Scotland made the news this week, when a clip of SNP Depute Leader, Keith Brown speaking at the Aberdeen Independence Conference on our Full Scottish programme from 2 weeks ago was used by the tories to try to ambush Nicola Sturgeon at FMQs, on the same day tory Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt came to Glasgow to tell Scotland that the tories would not give Scotland a Section 30 order for a Referendum. Of course, like almost all MPs except for the SNP MPs, he was not in the House of Commons when the Claim of Right was accepted unanimously without a division.
The Scottish Parliament Culture Affairs Committee, this week called for a judicial inquiry into the two fires which gutted the Glasgow School of Art. No decision on rebuilding is expected to be taken until after the Fire Service report into the cause of the fire is published.
At the end of the fourth week of the Catalan Trial, should an open and fair democratic process ever be considered illegal and is the influence of the Francoist far-right Vox party putting Spain’s democracy at risk?
Not much cheer in this week’s news, but we could lighten the mood by having a look at Labour’s (latest) big idea for a Federal UK. A vote on Scottish Independence must be imminent.
Dr. Philippa Whitford MP
Dr. Philippa Whitford is a breast-cancer surgeon who was first elected to Westminster for the Central Ayrshire Constituency as one of the 56 in 2015 and was re-elected in the 2017 snap general election.
Early in her career, Philippa spent a year and a half as a medical volunteer in a UN hospital in Gaza. She spent the 2016 parliamentary recess travelling to the West Bank to operate on four women suffering from breast cancer, and visited the Gaza Strip to advise local hospitals on how to improve healthcare.
Sandra White MSP
Sandra White is the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Kelvin. Having been active in politics, both locally and nationally, since joining the SNP in 1983, Sandra served as the Councillor for Foxbar (Renfrewshire) for ten years before being elected as a MSP in 1999.
She is a member of the Social Security Committee in the Scottish Parliament. Sandra’s interests in politics revolve around achieving social justice, both domestically and internationally, and the regeneration of Glasgow. She is married with three grown up children.