Episode 166

The Scottish independence vote was apparently a “once in a generation” opportunity. However, as the SNP government consults on ‘Indyref 2’, it turns out to be a couple of short football seasons. The proximate cause of the second in a generation referenda is Brexit, for which anything from leaves on the line to a shortage of marmite is blamed. Scotland voted to remain in the European Union, the Scottish government wants to leave the British union to join the European. Our Caledonian correspondent, who is a lawyer and a regular contributor to the royal and ancient Scottish newspaper The Scotsman, is Robert McGregor, sometimes known as Rob Roy (by us at least), and we invited him into the Sputnik studio to help us make sense of the many referenda inconsistencies.

The NATO organized coup that overthrew the elected president of Ukraine, set fire to the parliament, and set Nazi marchers in their hundreds of thousands onto the streets was bound to lead to war. Forty five percent of the country are Russians. Crimea has been the main Russian naval port for 300 years and was given away by Khrushchev one drunken night when Russia and Ukraine were both members of the USSR. Eastern Ukraine, where the Russian people live, demands autonomy from Kiev, but Ukrainian nationalism won't allow it. Cue massive violence and bloodshed. So, we invited author, writer, and broadcaster of the first rank, Neil Clark onto the Sputnik sofa to discuss the civilian massacre in Ukraine and ask him whether anybody cares.

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