Newsweek Scotland: wrestling tough topics
Post categories: News,ÌýNewsweek Scotland,ÌýPolitics
| 15:05 UK time, Friday, 10 February 2012
I pulled a muscle in my calf this week running on the treadmill at the gym. (I have to keep fit to escape the fans who are pursuing me just now) Typical, isn't it? You do your level best to get fit and end up crocked and worse than you were before you started. My usual training regime is pinot noir and a strum on the guitar - in front of the mirror - just like at the gym. I should stick to what I know.
Am I alone in finding the male aspect of exercise a bit off-putting? I seem to be the only one in beach shorts and a loose tee shirt with a lived-in body shape. Everybody else is muscle-bound, sculpted and tattooed with stretch body-builder tops and leather mittens for gripping weights. They growl and grunt and swagger like nightclub bouncers. What's the most useless thing in the health club? The hair dryer in the mens locker room - everybody except me has a shaved head. (Is this going anwhere? the producer)
Well, I plan to wrestle my way through some tough topics this week starting with a wee laugh at some of the more extreme examples of what might happen to oor wee hameland in the event of a Yes in 2014. We acknowledge everybody's right to a say and as journalists encourage as much debate as possible but we do need perspective. We have a sideways look at a new Hadrian's Wall and go on to discuss what's happening behind the Big Debate - copyright B. Taylor. Regular contributors and discuss with me how long the current knockabout can continue. Will Unionist assaults run out of steam? What happens when the Nats start asking questions of the Union?
Put on your tin hat for a report on Glasgow city politics. Prepare for a coruscating insight into the troubles in Greece and a look into life with the Black Watch in Afghanistan. Anyway I'm kicking off the trainers and reaching for the corkscrew...
Join me tomorrow at 8.
Comment number 1.
At 11th Feb 2012, Alexander Thomson wrote:Not really a comment on the blog - but this is the only way I can get through to Derek Bateman to say how much I enjoy Newsweek Scotland every Saturday. Do you realise the programme is not included in the drop-down menu of programmes that can be contacted directly?
I find it almost unbelievable that the only intelligent radio programme on Scottish politics is being dropped in the run-up to the Independence referendum. So instead of Bateman, Hassan, Pittock, MacLeod and co.giving us some professional, informed analysis, we will now have Shereen Nanjani's motley crew of guests giving us their amateur opinions on a Sunday. (There was a right Lulu on last week who told us it was ridiculous that EU citizens should have a vote in Scotland. She let slip that she had lived in London for eight years, and Shereen omitted to ask if she had voted in GLC elections at the time!)
Saturday mornings just won't be the same without you guys. Many thanks for a great show.
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Comment number 2.
At 28th May 2012, hanatomic wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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