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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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I am thankful to be in conversation with Helen Gibson founder of Surrogacy Concern. There are currently plans afoot to ‘liberalise’ UK Surrogacy laws. But what does this mean? On the one hand we have the familiar talk of ‘the rights’ of individual ‘to have a baby’ and on the other we have questions around ethics related to the exploitation of women, and harms to babies. We can see that the market for surrogacy is another growth industry predicted to be worth near 200 billion dollars by 2030. But at what cost?

Helen brings much knowledge to this subject and will widen your perspective to bigger picture issues related to the trading of babies.

For more info on Helen's work:

Web: https://surrogacyconcern.uk/

You can write a letter to your MP: https://surrogacyconcern.uk/take-action-send-a-letter-to-your-mp-on-surrogacy-and-law-commission-proposals/

X (formerly twitter): @SurrogConcern

Jennifer Lahl film 'Eggsploitation': Eggsploitation: https://cbc-network.org/eggsploitation/

Produced by: @CBCnetwork

Thanks for listening, if you think what I do is valuable please consider becoming a paid substack supporter for £4 per month, £30 per year or £250 founding membership allow me to continue to spend the time researching and reporting on these important issues. Or buy my a cup of coffee!

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In today’s podcast I speak to my colleague Stuart Waiton founder of The Scottish Union for Education. Some listeners will know my role as Parent and Supporters Coordinator for the organisation which seeks to address the rapid decline in Scottish Education. Stuart is an academic at the University of Abertay in criminology with a background in politics and journalism. He is also a Dad and was involved in the campaign to stop the named person scheme here in Scotland which would have had Scottish Government assign a state guardian to every child overriding the parental role.

In this podcast we discuss the road which led to the evoluation of SUE and how this is not just about a decline in standards but in knowledge. Reference points which have been understood for generations are being eroded and discarded which is despite the claims of inclusivity narrows things beyond perception.

If Education is a concern to you do consider becoming a member of SUE

SUE: Scottish Union for Education www.sue.scot

SUE Twitter: @ScotUnionEd

SUE Facebook: Scottish Union for Education (SUE)

Thanks for listening to the Pink Elephant Podcast part of Deeming Dreaming productions.

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In this podcast I speak to Jules Sandilands, education correspondent for the Scottish Union for Education . Jules has written three pieces for SUE related to the exponential increase of children being diagnosed with ‘Additional Support Needs’ in Scottish Schools. Sitting at 40.5% of children in Scottish schools, a rapid increase in the past ten years Jules wonders ‘are we seeing autism socialisation’?

Three pieces on ASN Here:
SUE NEWSLETTER NUMBER 9
SUE NEWSLETTER 63
SUE NEWSLETTER 98...

As the parameters of diagnoses are so broad to be meaningless - are we wrongly labelling many children who require other kinds of support? Is there a case to be made that it’s the school system itself which is creating the problem?

In the 1990s Ritalin became a popular go-to medication to ‘calm children down’ who had ‘behaviour problems’ in schools. In hindsight we can see how this became largely a medicalising of boyhood, as boys - more often boisterous were called out for ‘not sitting properly’. Yet experts promoted this and damaged a lot of kids. In 2025 the rise in prescription SSRIs has increased manifold for under 16s for behavioural issues, and depression. Is history repeating itself?

What becomes apparent to me is that this program cannot sustain itself. As we prime children to be medicalised, we prime them for state dependence, we prime them for a system that will manage them for the rest of their lives. This trap depresses children which in turn depresses society which in turn destabilises the very ground we stand on.

We must do better.

Join

Scottish Union for Education (https://scottishunionforeducation.substack.com/)

Thanks for listening to the Pink Elephant Podcast part of Deeming Dreaming productions.

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Was delighted to sit down with the inimitable writer, essayist and cultural commentator Ewan Morrison back in December for a good old chat. Speaking to Ewan reminded me why I got caught up in the arts scene in Glasgow back in the early 2000s. The depth and breadth of his knowledge and critical thought cannot be underestimated -in particular now. We spoke on everything from the rise of the managerial class, AI, the evolution of identity politics, ambient adolescent apocalypticism, the death of ‘the left’, the failings of ‘optimistic nihilism’, equity and the race to the bottom in Scotland and what artists can and should be doing….

It’s clear Ewan’s passion to understand life at the edges (which informs the characters and storylines in his books) is driven by a genuine curiosity to find answers and solutions to societal ills. Or at least ask the right questions. It’s thinkers like this we need to be hearing more from. The conversation certainly enthused me to thinking about my own lost arts practice. I hope you will find our conversation similarly inspiring.

Find Ewan Here:

Substack: UNTOPIA

Twitter/X: @MrEwanMorrison

Website: https://www.ewanmorrison.com

His newest book ‘For Emma’ is being released 25.3.25

Thanks to my current subscribers. January output been a bit slow as I get my ducks in a row for increased output in coming months. That said I have been very busy on the ground with various shenanigans taking place in Scotland… more on that later… Any contributions welcome!

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As we embark on a new year I feel blessed to have spent time with my cousin Fran Kane, a Sister of St. Joseph for the past 70 years. I hope this conversation will inspire you as you embark on a new year.

Fran speaks of growing up in Philadelphia in the 1940s, a consummate tomboy who loved sport and would run away from the nuns who wanted her to settle down. Two early events shaped her relationship with God profoundly. Once when she was playing at the feet at her (very pregnant) resting Mother with a stick and a marble, and the cuckoo clock went off. She recalls being struck by the beauty of the stillness and the silence in that moment. Later on in High school she went fishing with a cousin, who was a baker, in the middle of the night and a similar stillness took over. She says in that quiet she heard God.

Fran’s life then took her into a life of service through the church. The mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph has been (since its founding in 1650 Puy France) to do ‘any good work that our dear neighbours need’. In the early days this was to help the widows and the poor of France. This quickly moved into education. This small group of committed women, like many of our religious orders are part of our legacy of universal education, without which many children, families and communities would have stayed illiterate and poor.

Fran’s vocation started in schools and then continued onto a mission in Panama where she taught farming methods to the poor, so that they could feed themselves and their families. She continues working today serving the less able sisters at the Motherhouse in Chestnut Hill. She remains a light of service in God’s grace.

‘Things happen in silence Kate, it is God’s chance to speak to us’. It is worth noting in the busy-ness of life, of our culture of stimulation we might miss this opportunity.

I hope we can all see the beauty that God has provided to us in 2025.

Thank you Fran for your time and insight.

Thanks to my nephew Owen who came along to do a video recording which I will be releasing later on in the year.

More info on the Sisters of St. Joseph can be found here: https://ssjphila.org/

The Film of Mother Cabrini (as referenced): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaMlUazXvyY

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