Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thank you for tuning in. And, well, as ever, we've got a lot to reflect on today. There was even before the departure of Hamza Youssef, we had such a range

of themes to explore in our time together, but I'm going to obviously focus on his resignation.

And what that tells us really about leadership and the combination of qualities required and a context in which

to flourish or sink. And it has wider application, I think. But there is, of course, a specific

challenge for any SMP leader in Scotland, and that is to keep the sense that independence is looming, one way or another.

Anyway, we'll explore all of that in a moment beforehand.

Oh, yeah, of course, some of your brilliant questions to come as well.

But just before all of that, a reminder, we're in election week.

Election weeks are always exciting for us, lots, you know, those of us gripped by politics.

And of course, these local elections, there's also a by-election,

the mayoral elections, acquire a greater sense of urgency when a general election is looming. So if you subscribe to Patreon on Friday, we gather live to review the situation at 5pm on Friday.

Not all the results will be in, but a lot will be, including the result of the by-election.

And we'll make sense of it all.

This is the last big electoral test before the general election.

Where does it leave Sunak?

Where does it leave Stama?

What about the local outcomes?

Are the local issues that are determining some outcomes?

What does it tell us about the general election?

So yeah, lots to make sense of live. If you subscribe to Patreon, there will be a link

there, click on it at 5 o'clock, and we'll all gather together at another moment of political

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