11 February 2013

♫ Love & marriage go together like a horse & carriage ♫

And we're back! After an unexpected weekend off last Sunday, the For A' That podcast gallops back into the fray today. For episode thirteen of the show, Michael and I were joined by Edinburgh-based Labour activist and twitterist, Duncan Hothersall. We also hoped to beam in Craig Gallagher from Boston, but unfortunately, Nemo found him and he's presently hiding in a snowdrift. Hopefully he'll be back with us in another show, to mull over how historical sensibilities are informing the independence debate. 

After a brief canapé de cheval, we settled down to a main course of equal marriage, after last week's Westminster debate at stage two on the English and Welsh Bill.

On today's show, is the idea of a "vote of conscience" a sleekit bit of political management, or suspect humbug? Have the SNP government missed a political trick by dragging their heels on passing the Scottish legislation, improbably outpaced by Westminster, the dawdling foal cantering up behind the old nag House of Commons?

Back in Holyrood, is Ruth Davidson at risk of cutting an isolated figure among the Scottish Tories, if, as seems likely, the majority of her MSP colleagues vote agin the same-sex marriage legislation? More generally, might Gordon Wilson be right? Will this reform have an adverse impact on the SNP's independence campaign?

Finally, a wee word on finances. Inspired by Wings Over Scotland's astonishing success last week crowd-funding his blogging, with his total donations now sitting well over £11,000 - a much more modest solicitation. If you've enjoyed our archive of Scottish independence podcasts, and would like to contribute towards keeping them going right up to 2014, all donations to help with our limited but not insignificant hosting costs would be very gratefully received.  If you fancied chipping in a £1 or two to support the project, you can do so here or via the "donate" button in my sidebar. 

You can listen to the latest episode here, or download it to your favoured device via iTunes or Spreaker.

13 comments :

  1. I got an error when I clicked the donation link - is it just the same as your "Donate" button in the sidebar, or is it a separate account?

    Incidentally, I think one of the reasons Wings has had such success in getting donations is he's made it absolutely clear what you're paying for - effectively paying for a freelance journalist to make the blog his dayjob, thus foregoing his normal bread and butter of paid articles elsewhere. Tell us what we get for our filthy lucre (other than to fund your Dionysian student lifestyle :P) and you'll certainly find some pennies making their way across!

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  2. Doug,

    Thanks for pointing this out! Just the same link as yon Donate button. A fair point about transparency of service.

    In the short-medium term, we intend to continue our weekly natters, with Michael straying off into more interviewy territory with his Scottish Independence podcasts. When it gets closer to 2014, work permitting, we may well think about expanding.

    In this case, any funds acquired will be ploughed into the hosting costs for the podcasts for the coming year (which costs about £130 per annum to maintain. There are also sometimes additional overheads, from contacting folk without access to skype, for example, sometimes travel expenses. To get the best level of sound quality too, we've also got half an eye on upgrading our recording/sound equipment.

    While Michael and I are very happy to pony up (and curtail my Dionysian lifestyle thereby!) it seemed an opportune moment to put the thought in folk's minds...

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  3. Well, in that case I will be making a wee donation when I get paid in a fortnight's time (since my donation to Wings was followed by an £800 repair bill for my car... Which has just had to go back in because they broke something that wasn't broken originally!)

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  4. Crivens! £800? Consider the Bacchanals cancelled. Lentils for tea. Much obliged, Doug. Appreciated.

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  5. Well, the least I can do is kick in a tenner :)

    I'd have made it £20 if not for those bastard Captchas...

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  6. And you, no big afficionado of podcasts either. Much obliged for the contribution Stuart! On the captchas of doom, if you can find a way to keep all of the handbag spam out of the comments, I'd be only too happy to consign them to oblivion...

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  7. You never used to have any visible spam before you had Captchas. Were you wrangling it all manually?

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  8. RevStu,

    Blogger has a filter of sorts, but it is patchy. Mostly the rubbish would appear under older rather than contemporary posts, but we were talking about at least ten uncaught spammy comments published a day. Maybe they'd be worth it, to get rid of the "so you're not a robot" filter.

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  9. No offence, but maybe not the smartest move to put up a pic of SLAB dimwit Dunkin Numbnuts and then ask for money ;-)

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  10. Ratzo, you caused me mirth! Nail-head.

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  11. [unworthy snigger]

    It sure is a mystery how a gorgeously-drawn lovable cartoon lion drew more donations than a mugshot of Dunc :D

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  12. ratzo, John Gibson, RevStu,,

    You might very well say that, but happily, we've now met our funding target for the podcast. Seems Duncan's phizog has unanticipated powers after all...

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  13. Dobby relished his groinsaw's roar as he withdrew the flesh-choked blade from the astronaut's ruined skull. He turned to Harry, thrusting his bloody, retina-covered pelvis with elfin fervor.

    "How does Ronnie Ron taste, master?"

    Harry spat out an eyeball. "Like some kid with eyes."

    Dobby ducked an astronaut's poison barbed fist, digging his groinsaw into the beast's abdomen and letting the spray of viscera wash over his elfin space armor. The skulls' eye sockets on his shoulders grew brilliant with an infernal cast and vomited a bolt of light through an astronaut; he was thrown back against the deathwall, his flesh boiling in another dimension.

    Harry slapped Dobby, who giggled.

    Harry reminded himself to kill himself later.

    "Master, look out!"

    Dobby's groinsaw screamed as it flew off the armor, rocketing through the air like an early dream of mankind. It flew through three astronauts who dropped their hellspears as the saw cut a hole in the ground beneath them so they fell to hell and the demonic spheres rape them to this day, boys and girls.

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