Breaking the Cycle

Holyrood's Chris Marshall talks to Sean Duffy, chief executive of the Wise Group, and SNP MSP Rona Mackay, a member of the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee, about Scotland's stubbornly high prison population and the effectiveness of community-based alternatives to incarceration. This podcast is sponsored by the Wise Group.

After a bruising week in which the statutory regulator, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, found itself in the eye of the Gender Recognition Act storm, Mandy Rhodes interviews its chair, Baroness Kishwer Falkner.

After a paper written by the former SNP policy lead, Chris Hanlon, on ‘devo max’ sparked an almighty row about what question or questions should be asked in any future Independence Referendum, Mandy Rhodes speaks to SNP President, Mike Russell, former Labour MSP Neil Findlay, and academic, Professor James Mitchell, on why it mattered.

Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard talks to Louise Wilson about his political career and why he decided to step down as party leader earlier this year. Elsewhere, the Holyrood team discuss the coming Omicron wave and whether the controversy over Downing Street parties has made it less likely that people will follow guidelines this Christmas.

In this special COP26 edition of the podcast, Louise Wilson hears from Alistair Dutton of SCIAF about who is feeling climate change first and worst, the missing $100bn climate finance, and the achievements of COP so far.

In this special COP26 edition of the podcast, Louise Wilson speaks to WWF Scotland’s Fabrice Leveque about cautious optimism, how Scotland can prove it’s a climate leader and the work still to be done.

In the latest edition of the podcast, Mandy Rhodes speaks to SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford about the latest push for independence and the UK Government’s decision not to award a carbon capture plant to Scotland. Elsewhere, the team discusses the upcoming COP26 climate summit and asks – does Glasgow really have a rat problem?

Following the murder of Sir David Amess MP, there is renewed focus on the growing level of threat and intimidation politicians face, particularly online. In this edition of the podcast, journalist Margaret Taylor speaks to SNP MP Carol Monaghan about what it was like to receive a death threat. Elsewhere, the team discuss whether Sir David’s death will lead to a tightening of security for elected officials.

Former Scottish Conservatives leader Jackson Carlaw is the guest on this week’s edition of the podcast, fresh from being named Wag of the Year at the Holyrood Political Awards. He reflects on a career in politics and what really happened when he stepped down as leader last year. Elsewhere, the team discuss Nicola Sturgeon’s comments about having “time on her side” when it comes to a second independence referendum, and why the First Minister and Tory leader Douglas Ross are so keen to show off their working class credentials.

In this edition of the podcast, Mandy Rhodes speaks to former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars about his life in politics and why he believes the current party leadership is failing to articulate the case for independence. Elsewhere, the team discuss a landmark legal ruling by the Supreme Court and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech to the Conservative party conference.