Politicians quizzed as popular Radio 4 show comes to Langholm
By Anthony Lane
National political debate came to Langholm last Friday evening as the BBC Radio 4 programme Any Questions was broadcast live from the Buccleuch Centre.
And there was a distinctly Scottish flavour to the presenter Alex Forsyth’s guests.
They included three politicians: Fiona Hyslop, the SNP MSP for Linlithgow and Minister for Transport in the Scottish Government; Lord Malcolm Offord of Garvel, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Scotland Office and Minister for Exports in the Department of Business and Trade; and Anas Sarwar, is the leader of Scottish Labour and an MSP for his party for the Glasgow region.
Also on the panel was journalist and broadcaster India Willoughby. Born in Carlisle, in 2017 India became the first transgender television newsreader. Before transitioning, she was a news anchor for ITV Border, where she worked for 10 years.
After a warm-up by BBC Radio Cumbria breakfast show presenter Mike Zeller – including a quiz on the history of the programme which was won by Nicholas Jennings – the questions came thick and fast.
These included the panel’s view on the decriminalisation of drugs in Scotland, and why is our region being targeted with a proliferation of windfarms, when only the landowners and operators get rich?
Harry Stevens then asked the panel if the local community would benefit from an international border between Langholm and Carlisle?
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Read ANTHONY LANE’S full report below.
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