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I was delighted to meet with Annemarie Ward, Director of Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR UK) for today’s podcast on Scotland's devastating policies around addiction. I think this conversation is so important as it encapsulates quite viscerally how toxic empathy destroys lives and communities. And it’s undermining the very bedrock of Scottish society.

"While working Class communities keep burying their dead, middle class industries build around their poverty, their illness.”

The bigotry of low expectations is something that has come up a lot in conversations recently and no where is it more apparent than in the devastating stats around drug deaths in Scotland, and the government response.

Some will be aware of the catastrophic number of individuals who have died as a result of addiction in Scotland.

“Drug deaths have increased substantially over the last 20 years, with almost five times as many deaths in 2020 compared to 2000. In 2020, 1,339 drug-related deaths were registered in Scotland: 5 per cent more than in 2019 and the largest number since records began in 1996. Scotland’s drug death rate is the highest in Europe and over three and a half times as large as the rest of the UK.” - Carlton Brick (writing for Joanna Williams CEIO)

There are so many layers and levels to what has happened, what is happening and what needs to be done. What is most apparent to me is that there is no will for addiction to end. Why? The government quangos that manage addiction are employing people whose mortgages depend on the suffering of the poor.

I don’t know anyone else who can speak with such knowledge and passion on this subject as AnneMarie. Do have a listen. Let’s get better at this. Let’s provide recovery options so that everyone has the opportunity to flourish.

AnneMarie Ward:

Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR UK): https://www.facesandvoicesofrecoveryuk.org/

Twitter: @Annemarieward

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Was delighted to have a conversation with Mary Howden, Director of the Women’s Rights Network (WRN) and retired social worker to speak about the damaging erosion of boundaries we are seeing in education, social care, culture & healthcare settings. Mary has decades of experience working with vulnerable individuals.

One of the main themes that comes up in our conversation is the changing environments of professional settings wherein ideology is prioritised over the practice of care. We also spoke about the sexualisation of culture which is now mirrored in schools in our RSHP (Relationships Sexual Health and Parenthood Education). Mary relayed how this model of education is making children more vulnerable. She knows of what she speaks, having worked with adults who had suffered horrific sexual abuse, rape, and trauma as children and developed therapeutic programs to help address this.

We spoke on drag & the desensitisation our children groomed to go against their instincts. And of course how this systemic lie - that sex is not real - being propagated. Other topical issues related to this included the horror that is LGBT Youth Scotland, the Care Inspectorate implementing self-id in children’s homes, Disclosure Scotland’s complicity in covering up potential criminal activity through self id.

We ended speaking of the brave individuals that have been doing exceptional work to meet these horrors and the growing groundswell of groups fighting these trends, for our children.

I hope you enjoy the conversation! Thanks so much to Mary for taking the time out to speak to me.

Mary Howden on X: https://x.com/MaryHowden

Women’s Rights Network (WRN) on X: https://x.com/WomensRightsNet

WRN “Why are Protections for Children Being Removed”

WRN: “On Drag and the Loss of Safeguarding”

WRN: “Safeguarding, Intimate Personal Care and Why it Matters”

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Today marks Ash Wednesday the first day in the Catholic season of Lent. Lent is a 40 day period of preparation and prayer leading to Easter. It is a time of paring back, of giving and doing for others. I read this passage by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton in the book 'Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter' and found it so relevant to the time we live that I felt compelled to share it with you all! Enjoy!

"We didn't even know what moderation was. What it felt like. We didn't just work; we inhaled our jobs sucked them in, became them.... we didn't just eat; we stuffed ourselves.....And if it was dangerous for us to want and not have, it was even moreso for our children"

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