Welcome to your Full Scottish, live from our Cowcaddens studio in Glasgow.
Full Scottish programme starts at 12:00 on Sunday 17th March 2019
A warm welcome back to Corri Wilson, who is fighting fit and back in the chair for this week’s Full Scottish. Corri’s guests this week are novelist, playwright and performer, Alan Bissett and the fabulous Linda Fabiani MSP.
On Friday morning, the world awoke to the shock of the far-right terrorist outrage in Christchurch, New Zealand. We will be discussing the growth of the far right and connections between politicians’ rhetoric and actions and exploring to what degree dog-whistle anti-immigrant campaign slogans and policies are linked to the actions of those with a more extreme point of view. You cannot defeat evil by being just a little bit evil yourself. Telling voters that your evil is not as bad as the fascists’ evil only leaves voters with the conclusion that evil is permissible and the argument is just about degree.
The term meaningful vote seems to have lost all meaning as neither the Government nor Labour opposition continue to talk about unicorns, while ruling our taking the Brexit deal back to the electorate. Will bunging more cash to the DUP get Theresa May’s deal meaningful vote 3 through.
The Public Prosecution Service in Norther Ireland announced the week that only one former soldier will be charged with murder, following the Bloody Sunday killings, which were ruled unlawful in the 2010 Saville Inquiry. It is hard to escape the conclusion that victims of UK state violence in Northern Ireland are unlikely to ever see justice.
In the public inquiry into historical child abuse in England, it emerged this week that former Liberal Party leader, David Steel had been told about police enquiries into child abuse committed by former Liberal MP Cyril Smith. Questions about Britain covering up child abuse by senior figures in public life refuse to go away.
As school children strike to save the environment, we look at what we could all do as individuals, what businesses should be doing and what are the policies governments need to implement to prevent a climate catastrophe.
In the same week that the reserves of that same oil which we were once told was insignificant in Scotland, rose by 50% from 8 billion to 12 billion barrels, we learned that the CEO of shell’s pay doubled to £17.2 million a year. Scottish oil is obviously benefitting some people.
Failing Grayling has hit the headlines again after the House of Commons voted for an extension to Article 40, and it turns out he forgot to put any flexibility or exit clause into his no-deal ferry contracts. Not really an ‘and finally’, but it is hard not to laugh – we have paid for it after all.
So the real ‘and finally’ to wind up on, is to wish all our Irish friends a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Alan Bissett
Alan Bissett is a novelist, playwright and performer from Scotland. He lives in Renfrewshire.
He was born in Falkirk in 1975 and grew up in Hallglen, a housing scheme on the outskirts of Falkirk and the setting for much of his later work. He attended Hallglen Primary School, Falkirk High School and Stirling University, where he received a First in English and Education. During the summers he worked as a labourer at the Grangemouth petro-chemical plant. After graduating he worked very briefly as an English teacher at Elgin Academy, before going back to Stirling University and achieving a Masters degree in English. He supported himself by working part-time in Waterstones bookshop and around that time was short- or longlisted for the national Macallan / Scotland on Sunday Short-Story Competition four times in a row (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002). He also published his debut novel about growing up in Falkirk.
Linda Fabiani MSP
Linda Fabiani was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in May 1999 and served as MSP for Central Scotland until the 2011 elections when she was returned as SNP MSP for East Kilbride. Having been re-elected in the 2016 election, Linda was nominated and elected by her colleagues to the post of Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.
Educated at Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow, after leaving school, Linda worked in various secretarial roles before starting a career within the housing associations sector. In the late 1980s she studied for a diploma in housing at Glasgow University and went on to become Development Manager at Bute Housing Association and then Director of East Kilbride Housing Association.
Linda is an Honorary Fellow the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In 2007 the Italian Government awarded her the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta’ Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity) for working to promote Scots/Italian links.