In Episode 21 of Apolitical we speak with Jack McConnell, the former First Minister of Scotland who now represents Labour in the House of Lords as Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale. We chat about his time as First Minister; his thoughts on House of Lords reform; the prospects for Scottish Labour; and his international development work.
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Apologies for the sound issues on this episode – we hope they don’t detract from your enjoyment of the conversation.
Amongst the topics we discuss with Jack on the podcast are:
• The path that brought him to active politics and the Labour Party;
• How he feels about the process Labour have chosen to select their new UK leader;
• Whether Scottish Labour have made a good choice of leader in Kezia Dugdale;
• His thoughts on reforming the House of Lords;
• His intense year as Education Minister at Holyrood;
• How he tried to replace Donald Dewar and ultimately replaced Henry McLeish as leader;
• His memories of five years as Scotland’s First Minister;
and
• The development and peace-making projects he is involved with around the world.
Please join us in discussing these issues or any other raised in the podcast below, or find us on Twitter at @apoliticalpod.
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Show Links:
Scottish Labour
The McConnell International Foundation
Jack McConnell on Twitter
could you not have asked his Lordship to either stop being so shouty or to sit further back from the microphone? The podcast is very distorted whenever he speaks! Sore on the ears when using headphones.
Unfortunately we were recording by Skype and didn’t have control of that. Hopefully if you adjust the volume it might be less painful!