Yes!!!…not by popular demand but by the miracle of the internet, Derek Bateman returns to the airwaves…this time not asking questions he doesn’t know the answer to…but trying to answer some for a change. Hear him speak as live…find out what turned him into Mad Nat…what he really thinks about the BBC…where the SNP made mistakes…why BetterTogether is doing a good job…and hear his choice of single for the Yes campaign…exclusively at http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/the-scottish-independence-podcast-45-derek-bateman/
(It’s always worrying when someone refers to themselves in the third person – it’s a definition of paranoia)
derek bateman broadcaster2 
Wish you would come back down to the Borders and give that as a talk, Derek. Given the pro-indy figures in a recent poll (though doubts have been cast on its reliability) I think your native Selkirk and surrounds could do with some input from you.
Excellent to hear you ‘alive’, will make compulsary listening to undecided types.
Saporian – More episodes here… http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/category/the-scottish-independence-podcast/
An excellent show, thoroughly enjoyed listening. One minor gripe – I wish everyone would stop with the “first vote in 300 year” meme on the independence issue. It’s the first vote ever on this issue, the Scottish people were left to riot in the streets in 1707 to demonstrate their horror at their independence being bought and sold.
An enjoyable discussion, Derek, and good to hear your commitment to ‘stirring things up’ in the coming months.
Derek, you speak my language! For me, it never has been about the economy, or being anti-English, or childcare (!), or Trident, or any of the other reasons bandied about. It’s simply because Scotland is my country, it’s who I am and I refuse to accept that it is unique amongst all the other countries in the world in not being able to stand on its own two feet, run its own affairs and speak to the world with its own voice. I’m a believer! Brilliant interview!
Roddy, I also agree with you that not enough is made of the simple fact that we Scots have never been allowed to actually choose our country’s national status. I also prefer to use the words ‘restoration’ and ‘again’, when talking about Scotland’s independence.
It was funny to hear you talking about how the songs and rituals of the common riding instilled a sense of Scottishness in you that led to an emotional nationalism that trumps more rational arguments for independence, when precisely the same songs and rituals gave me a dose of the cringe that took years and an overwhelming weight of rational argument to overcome.
Just listened to the interview, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Amidst the various well made points were delightful gems like, ‘Jackie Bird raising her eyebrows whenever she mentions Alex Salmond – get a life!’
I wasn’t even aware of Bird doing this, the auld midden. That’s the last time she counts down to the Bells in our house! 😉
Listening to DB, I really wish – and I’ve made this point before – that he was somehow involved in the Yes campaign. Not even on the poltical side, but on the media management side, perhaps a spokesman, perhaps managing the spokesmen, a sort of pro-Scotland, benign Alastair Campbell (assuming ‘Alastair Campbell’ and the word ‘benign’ can be permissibly utilised in the same sentence).
It’s surely not too late DB.
Has no one asked you?
Come on Mr. S, get DB onboard, get his media expertise onboard.
Hi, I’m the podcast host here. I tried to leave a link but it seems comments with links are moderated.
There are many more podcasts with interesting people. Go to my site and click on podcasts at the top and you’ll find them.
My lord, but I did enjoy that podcast. Going to pass it around as far as I can.
I enjoyed the podcast immensely, but with just one caveat in the discussion of the media – I don’t hanker for a pro-indy newspaper – I’d settle for impartiality!
It was very good, indeed. Though I’m astonished Derek didn’t know who the “female presenter” who was censured for letting her hatred of Alex Salmond show was.
One thing that disturbs me is the sheer imbalance in the numbers of BBC people who have connections to one or other of the unionist parties, mainly Labour. And they do let it show from time to time. Conversely Derek was one person, and one who was professional enough merely to leave the impression that at least he wasn’t biassed against independence! It’s not nearly as level a playing field as he seems to believe. And what about all the press releases the SNP and Yes put out that are simply ignored? That undoubtedly happens.
I appreciate now why he left, and I hadn’t really thought about it in that way before. So he’s essentially made himself available to the Yes campaign. I think the Yes campaign needs to take him up on that ASAP.