The gemme's up the pole

Strangely neither of us are returning from anywhere this week, but we're both off, separately, to Edinburgh. We unashamedly spend most of our time reflecting on the Novichuk poisoning story and what it says not only about Boris Johnson and the Conservative government but also the state of BBC journalism. Here's a hint, neither of us are exactly tap dancing about any of them.  Lesley wonders if Jeremy Corbyn is the only political leader to have gone with his gut instincts and been proven correct. Once again it seems to have been the "non mainstream" media, with the honourable exception of Skynews, which has done the heavy journalistic lifting. We return to the theme of empathy from last week and revisit the Clara Ponsati situation with Lesley's insights into the European Arrest Warrant.  I make a plea to avoid gloating about the media turning on the Labour Party and Remainers from those of us who went through the smears of Indyref. Finally, we reflect on the enduring radical legacy of Dr Martin Luther King on the 50th anniversary of his assassination.