Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

IN THIS week's podcast Jamieson is joined by Tejas Mukerji, speaking in a personal capacity as an activist in SNP socialists and SNP Campaign for an Independent Currency as well as a founder of Neutral Scotland.

They discuss:

The sex worker-led organisation Scot-Pep has reiterated calls for decriminalisation after the feminist activist Julie Bindel urged the Scottish Government to introduce new legislation to make the purchase of sex illegal

WfI: “We are frustrated… that there are not more alternatives to prison available for sheriffs to consider”

Following expert claims that energy bills in the UK have been inflated to subsidise the Trident nuclear deterrent, SNP MP says: “The Tory government can’t be trusted to come clean”

Andrew Smith (@Andrew_Graeme), campaigner and blogger, urges the SNP’s big win at the European Parliament elections to be treated with caution by Yes activists, understandably eager for a second independence referendum

Catalan democracy has functionally outgrown Spanish law

EVEN before the full results were in, many sought to interpret this month’s European parliamentary elections as a proxy for matters beyond the vote at hand, on everything from the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn to the uncertain strength of the far right.

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that the independence movement remains remarkably united when compared to other major social movements around the globe

I’M WRITING this on the plane coming back from a week-long Erasmus-funded training camp in the Catalan hills (hurray the European Union!). It's been vegan food without coffee or alcohol, meditation every morning and a day of complete silence alone up the top of a hill.

Andrew Wilson was congratulated by Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin for an RBS ‘factsheet’ in 2007 that would later be described by Fraser as “a most extraordinarily hubristic and bombastic document”

Polarisation between Scottish and English voters next week could reignite the sense of democratic outrage over Brexit, and reinforce the necessity of independence

SAME as it ever was, it’s happening again.