27/02/2009

Lesley’s guests on Riddoch Questions this week include the editor of the Herald, Donald Martin and the leader of Glasgow Council, Steven Purcell.

• Subjects include the parlous state of the media – just this week ITV have proposed a merger with Channels 4 and 5, the Daily Record and Sunday Mail have merged functions, the Scotsman is minus an editor and the Herald is set to announce redundancies. Meanwhile, in the USA, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy. What next?

• Audit Scotland say councils aren’t working together to provide joint services. Why not – clannishness at work or just too many councils? Does Scotland really need 32 highly paid Chief Executives and Directors of Education?

• The Nationalists have gone for “devolution max” and Labour’s backed borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament – has the Calman Commission knocked heads together at Holyrood?

• Over budget and overdue -- are the Edinburgh trams becoming a re-run of the parliament building saga? And should the project go-ahead or face the chop?

• Google has become the world’s top brand, Jack Straw uses hotmail for government business and the government’s appointed a twittercrat – to get government messages into social networks. Has the world gone online?