Interview: Neil Findlay

Podlitical

BBC

Government, News

4.6 • 157 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The former Scottish Labour MSP on the next election, the COVID inquiry messages, and more. Neil Findlay sits down with Podlitical to discuss how his pre-politics career influenced his socialist ideology, why he thought Labour siding with the Conservatives in the 2014 independence referendum's Better Together campaign was the "kamikaze route", how he views Scottish Independence now, and how he "dodged an atom bomb" by losing out on becoming Scottish Labour leader. Findlay shares his reaction to the expletive-laden messages referencing him between First Minister Humza Yousaf and Jason Leitch revealed in the COVID inquiry, and explains why he believes people that share his beliefs are being pushed out of all political parties.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds
0:02.4	You're listening to BBC Scotland
0:09.5	Hi, you're listening to Podlitical BBC Scotland's podcast
0:16.3	that brings you the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster.
0:20.7	It's exactly 1230 on
0:22.7	Tuesday the 7th of February. I'm David Wallace Lockhart, a political correspondent for BBC Scotland.
0:28.2	And today we have another interview episode for you. Joining me is Neil Findley, the former Labour
0:34.6	MSP, proud outspoken socialist and someone who cropped up as a topic of
0:39.6	discussion in Humza Yousaf's WhatsApps lately, but we'll get to that later. Neil, thanks for
0:45.5	joining us. Thanks very much, David. It's great to join you and hopefully we'll have a nice chat.
0:49.7	Let's talk about your life pre-politics because we have quite a lot of people who end up MSPs
0:56.4	who perhaps have a bit of a hinterland working in politics these days.
1:00.6	But you came, you know, I used the term advisably, but you'd had a number of real, quote-unquote,
1:06.2	jobs before getting involved in politics.
1:08.9	Well, I certainly did that in my left school, when it was 16,
1:11.6	couldn't I get out quick enough,
1:12.7	despite the protestations of my mom and dad,
1:15.5	but my dad was a bricklayer.
1:18.8	My mom was a primary school teacher,
1:21.1	but school wasn't really enjoying it,
1:24.6	so quicker I got out, the better.
1:27.5	I wanted to be a chef.
	...

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