Mr Caerffili Romps Home To Victory
The Lesley Riddoch Podcast
Lesley Riddoch and Fraser Thompson
4.6 • 274 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We start with the outcome of the Caerphilli by-election victory, won by Mr Caerphilli himself Lindsay Whittle and Plaid Cymru. But who did we hear from across the airwaves but Reform and Labour, not the victors themselves. Pretty par for the course perhaps but we try to correct that.
We chew over recent opinion polls recently one suggesting there is now a pretty healthy majority for independence in Scotland. We look at the Labour Party and the struggles it is in over the whole of the UK as the Reform vote grows.
We also talk a little about another election you won't have heard much about here in Scotland and the UK - the Presidential Election in Ireland where a left-wing republican endorsed by Kneecap who wants free public transport, housing as a human right, and support for the Irish language, plus Palestine won a landslide victor what does that mean?
We also discussproblems in Scotland, violence in the classroom with some truly appauling statistics released recenbtly but what do they speak of at a deeper level?
Links
Scotwind
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25568033.scotwind-scandal-analysis-scotlands-lost-energy-wealth/?ref=eb&nid=2261&block=article_block_a&u=d0e5dd8444617f314b5eb8a45311f0c8&date=261025
Your Party - interview with Zarah Sultana indy at 7.35 10.00' wealth tax https://open.spotify.com/episode/2xTUyml3Y40AOW6qEk2sf0?si=1d1059ad0c874990&nd=1&dlsi=3ec5a5e0ebb9489b
Stephen Gethins on the tiny glimmer of reality dawning at WM re proportional yes result https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/a-breakthrough-in-scotlands-right-to-decide-5373779
Culture
Sara Sheridan's book The Ice Maiden https://www.sarasheridan.com/the-ice-maiden
The Metagama
Step aboard the SS Metagama, a journey that will take you from the Butt to Barra and on to the lakes and plains of Canada, to 1920s Detroit and Prohibition, through the ebb and flow of fortunes on both sides of the Atlantic, with this ensemble of acclaimed musicians and singers.
Language
Anna Walker Ruadh Scotland
Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba website gives information about Gaelic place names and their meaning.
https://www.ainmean-aite.scot/#
Iona’s Namescape: - https://ionaplacenames.glasgow.ac.uk/map/#12/56.3411/-6.4126
Storywalks in the Monadh Ruadh (Cairngorms) -www.storywalks.scot
Forgotten Woodlands: https://www.nature.scot/scotlands-woodland-heritage-mapped-future which is a pilot project from NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, and Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (the national advisory partnership for Gaelic place-names) to map all Scottish place-names to reveal their historical woodland coverage.
Tobair an Dualchais/Kist o’ Riches- not just placenames but oral tradition recordings in Gàidhlig and Scots where the speaker talks about placenames and their meanings: https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/
★ Support this podcast ★Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, there's been a lot of opinion polls. |
| 0:02.5 | One suggests there is now a pretty healthy majority for independence in Scotland. |
| 0:06.9 | The Labour Party over the whole of the UK is now really struggling and reform is the second party. |
| 0:13.3 | In fact, they're pretty much running neck and neck with the Greens overall. |
| 0:17.2 | And yet, bizarrely, after the carefully by election victory by Plaid Cumry, |
| 0:22.8 | who did we hear from across the airwaves? But reform and labour, not the victors themselves. |
| 0:28.4 | Pretty par for the course. So we try to correct that. We also talk a little about another election |
| 0:33.3 | you won't have heard much about. The presidential election in Ireland, where a left-wing |
| 0:38.1 | Republican endorsed by NECAP, who wants free public transport, housing is a human right, |
| 0:43.6 | and support for the Irish language, plus Palestine, well, she won. And what does that mean? |
| 0:49.3 | We look also at problems in Scotland, violence in the classroom. Those statistics are appalling. But what do they |
| 0:56.5 | speak of at a deeper level? That's all the kind of headlines for today's podcast. Let's get on |
| 1:03.0 | with the show. Hi folks and welcome to this week's Leslie Riddock podcast. It's been a big week. |
| 1:09.4 | Or as usual we say, nothing has happened, of course, Leslie, |
| 1:13.0 | apart from the huge news from the Carfilly by-election, where reforms stomped home to be. Sorry, |
| 1:19.2 | no, I'm reading that from the BBC early news releases. |
| 1:25.7 | Yeah, it's ridiculous. I'm still seeing stuff. I mean, incredible nonsense, you know, from like a Reuters analysis and an EU kind of newsletter I get saying that Labor should actually be feeling buoyed by the fact that reform can be beaten. That's the message. |
| 1:46.2 | I mean, it's extraordinary. But I mean, I've got to say, first of all, there's been a lot |
| 1:52.7 | of, in fact, I'd almost rehearsed all my different good mornings in all the different languages |
| 1:56.8 | of the people who've been in touch, Mattingva, Borida, and good morn, just for good measure, |
| 2:03.7 | to stuck it in. |
| 2:04.7 | But anyway... |
... |
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