In this Podcast Extra, we speak with Liam McArthur MSP about his private member’s bill - Assisted Dying for Terminally ill Adults. Lesley and Fraser reflect on their own views and their personal connections and involvement with the assisted dying campaign.

You can find out more about the bill at https://www.dignityindyingscotland.org.uk/. Both Lesley and Fraser take a supportive view of the legislation. This is a complex and difficult subject. A contrary view is taken by organisations like Care Not Killing https://carenotkilling.scot/

The Scottish Budget dominates this week’s episode - did Scottish Labour produce a massive own goal by not bothering to contest or argue for anything in the budget? Has their decision to abstain made life easier for the SNP and led to muted criticism in the press? There seems to be the impression, in the press at least, that there's not an awful lot to say about the budget and the SNP have sailed through a fairly steady as she goes and uninspring pre-election budget with little pain.

We look at the situations across the world at the moment, in Minnesota in the aftermath of the terrible shooting there, the situation in Iran, and the continuing pressure on Greenland. All this and more.

Links
See the latest film showings for the new Finland Film
https://lesleyriddoch.com/events

Greenland films
Uncovering the history of America's secret cold war base on Greenland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIw8pEqJMHw

How did Greenland become part of Denmark and why does Trump want to buy it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYfSlQaIEXk

It's a new year, and a happy one, we hope. We start, as we did last year, with Donald Trump in the headlines - this time after illegally kidnapping the President of Venezuela. We discuss all the ramifications of that, how it is occupying all the bandwidth of every world leader as well as Trump and the USA’s renewed threats to Greenland.

It’s the start of the Scottish election campaign; we look at how things have kicked off and where the election might leave prospects for an independent Scotland.