The Mutt's Nuts
The Lesley Riddoch Podcast
Lesley Riddoch and Pat Joyce
4.8 • 259 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Liz Kendall revealed Labour's much speculated welfare "reforms" in the House of Commons this lunchtime.
We give our immediate reaction to the speech and try and pick our way through the dense details.
The University of Dundee has announced over 600 job losses, with more to come, to address the £30 million financial blackhole it finds itself in.
Where does the blame lie for this disastrous situation?
Nicola Sturgeon is the most prominent SNP MSP to announce that they will not stand for Holyrood in 2026.
Lesley reflects on her legacy and we discuss the impact of not only so many front benchers leaving but also the potential influx of ex MPs to the Scottish Parliament.
Israel launched a devastating attack on Gaza last night killing over 400 folk. Was the ceasefire doomed from the moment Israel refused to move to Phase 2. Is this latest massacre an attempt by Netanyahu to appease his ultra right coalition partners and stave off mounting opposition at home?
We also discuss the results of the Greenland elections and indulge in all the usual non political badinage.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Why do I think of Liz Truss when I start trying to talk about Liz Kendall? |
| 0:04.3 | I hope it's just a slip of the tongue. |
| 0:06.9 | But watching that performance in the Commons as the work in pension secretary took us through all sorts of changes |
| 0:14.8 | that are supposed to help the disabled of this country get back into jobs, I wonder, when you look at the response pretty |
| 0:23.4 | immediately from disability charities, it's extremely damning. We have them talking about immoral and |
| 0:29.0 | devastating cuts, cruel, a catastrophe for disabled people, something that should shame the government |
| 0:35.9 | to its core, and cuts that are set to deepen |
| 0:39.1 | the country's mental health crisis. So not exactly a vote of confidence yet, and yet we're hearing |
| 0:45.0 | very little from Labour front bench MPs on this, doubtless more in times to come. So Pat and I had |
| 0:52.2 | listened to that pronouncement and have tried to analyse what it |
| 0:57.0 | basically means and where it leaves labour. We look as well at other changes. Dundee University has got a huge number of jobs, |
| 1:04.0 | 600 potentially going and actually 200 already frozen. So that's almost a third of the jobs in Dundee University. |
| 1:11.5 | What has gone wrong there? |
| 1:12.8 | We have a look. |
| 1:14.0 | We talk as well about Nicola Sturge's decision not to stand again as an MSP. |
| 1:18.2 | And just while we're at it, seven of the cabinet in the Scottish government |
| 1:22.4 | and a third of SNP, MSPs deciding not to stand again in 2026. |
| 1:28.6 | What does it mean? |
| 1:29.7 | And is it okay that MNPs beaten in the last general election |
| 1:34.2 | are on the list to stand in their place? |
| 1:37.3 | Those are the headlines. |
| 1:39.1 | Now for the podcast. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lesley Riddoch and Pat Joyce, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Lesley Riddoch and Pat Joyce and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.