Welcome to your Full Scottish, live from our Cowcaddens studio in Glasgow.
Full Scottish programme starts at 12:00 on Sunday 6th January 2019
This week, the Full Scottish is presented by Carol McNamara and she is joined by guests, Professor Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages & Arts at Glasgow University and by Christopher McEleny, SNP Leader on Inverclyde Council.
Happy New Year and Bliadhna Ùr Mhath. We’re back after a festive break and unfortunately bringing up the banned B word, Brexit. With under three months to go until we leave the EU, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced his government are stepping up plans for a no deal Brexit and the EU 27 have repeatedly said there will be no more renegotiation of the deal. All this while the UK Government enjoy a holiday. Having said that, Chris Grayling has been busy awarding a freight ferry contract to a company which has no ferries, but maybe focusing on the ghost ferries is missing the point.
Many of us have just gone back to work but by Friday (4 January) those in charge of the UKs biggest companies have already made more than many of their employers will in the whole of this year. Dubbed Fat Cat Friday this pay gap continues to grow.
The festive season and January sales are important times for retailers, but with music chain HMV going into administration, will independent record shops benefit or will it all go to Amazon and streaming services? It is the latest high street casualty, following on from the loss of many well known high street names in recent years and across the UK, shops remain boarded up, sometimes for even years, after a chain goes bust.
Across the pond, the new Congress has been sworn in with more women than ever before and Nancy Pelosi taking up the gavel as speaker of the House of Representatives once more. It’s fair to say sparks flew when she met with Donald Trump but at least there was one grown up in the room.
One of those sworn in for the first time, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has been criticised, not for policies but for dancing. A video emerged of the youngest ever congresswoman enjoying a dance nearly a decade ago while an undergraduate at Boston University, but the criticism rebounded as the video went viral and attracted far more supportive comments. Perhaps it is an indication of the changes that having these energetic young Congresswomen will bring.
Professor Alison Phipps
Alison Phipps holds the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow where she is also Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies, and Co-Convener of Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNET). She is a member of the Creativity, Culture and Faith group in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow where she teaches refugee studies, languages, religious and spiritual education, anthropology and intercultural education and education for non-violence.
She is author of numerous books and articles and a regular international keynote speaker and broadcaster. She has regular columns in the national Scottish broadsheet press. Her first collection of poetry, Through Wood was published in 2009, with a further collection forthcoming in 2018.
Chris McEleny
Christopher McEleny first joined the SNP in 2006 whilst serving his apprenticeship to become a time served electrician. As a founding member of trade union Unite he went on to become the convenor of young trade union members in Scotland and the youngest ever member of the unions National Executive committee. It was Chris’ passion for helping workers receive better representation in the workplace that encouraged him to stand for election as an SNP candidate.
First elected a councillor in 2012 he became the leader of the SNP in Inverclyde in the West of Scotland in 2013 and has been leading the SNP at a council level ever since. Chris servers on the Education and Communities Committee, the Health and Social Care Committee, the Local Police and Fire Scrutiny Sub-Committee, the Policy and Resources Committee and the Policy and Resources Exec Sub-Committee.