Witches of Scotland - March 08, 2022


EPISODE 54 THE APOLOGY - INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022

Topics
witchcraft apology parliament petition witchcraft miscarriage of justice pardon monument
EPISODE 53 - PARDONING THE WITCHES OF CATALONIA EPISODE 55 DR. DANNY BUCK - MATTHEW HOPKINS THE WITCHFINDER GENERAL

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

164.36

Word count

1,401

Sentence count

39

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.160 Hi, I'm Clare Mitchell, QC. Welcome to the Witches of Scotland podcast.
00:00:05.180 I'm a lawyer who specialises in miscarriage of justice cases,
00:00:08.700 and we're bringing you this podcast because we want to tell you about the women who were accused,
00:00:13.780 prosecuted, convicted, and ultimately executed as witches in Scotland.
00:00:18.760 I'm Zoe Vendetotsi, and I'm a writer who's always had an interest in the witches,
00:00:23.020 and I feel that this dark mark against Scotland needs a reckoning.
00:00:26.460 The campaign Witches of Scotland wants three things.
00:00:29.560 Firstly, a pardon for all those convicted of witchcraft.
00:00:33.100 Secondly, an apology for all those who were accused as witches.
00:00:37.420 And finally, a national monument in recognition of all those who were affected by this terrible miscarriage of justice.
00:00:44.400 Over the forthcoming weeks, we'll be talking to a whole host of experts about the history and the modern day connections to the Witches of Scotland.
00:00:53.000 Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Witches of Scotland podcast.
00:00:57.240 we're actually very excitingly doing an outdoor broadcast
00:01:00.060 and we're together, which is very unusual
00:01:02.960 because normally we're on two different laptops
00:01:05.000 We are, we are together today
00:01:06.640 We're standing outside the Scottish Parliament
00:01:08.900 Today is International Women's Day 2022
00:01:12.180 It is two years to the day since we started our campaign
00:01:16.740 And very excitingly, we have just had some news from the top
00:01:21.120 Claire, what is that news?
00:01:23.800 I'm not going to pretend there isn't any news today, Zoe
00:01:26.320 because today the most amazing thing happened.
00:01:30.560 On International Women's Day, Nicola Sturgeon addressed
00:01:33.740 what we asked her to address.
00:01:35.740 We wrote to her in January and we said,
00:01:37.960 we want you to address the historical injustice of women in Scotland.
00:01:42.260 We want you to recognise and formally apologise
00:01:45.220 to all those who were convicted in the most brutal miscarriage of justice.
00:01:49.460 What happened, Zoe?
00:01:51.760 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon just stood up
00:01:53.820 and made a fantastic speech about the plight of women and girls
00:01:57.220 about the ongoing misogyny we have to live with
00:01:59.720 and also the historical backdrop
00:02:01.640 and during that she mentioned a campaign
00:02:04.280 she said the petition is in front of the government
00:02:07.860 and she issued a formal state apology
00:02:12.100 So let's just think about that
00:02:13.840 it has been hundreds of years since these people have died
00:02:16.760 no one has ever formally responded
00:02:20.580 to what happened to these people
00:02:22.960 no one has ever formally apologised
00:02:25.860 no one has ever informally apologised
00:02:28.120 as far as I'm aware
00:02:29.220 there's been a tide of sort of mockery
00:02:31.340 beyond you know before today
00:02:33.580 there's been a sort of an idea of like 0.98
00:02:35.420 oh it's ridiculous they're just witches 0.98
00:02:36.900 who cares pointy hats 1.00
00:02:38.300 you know all that sort of thing
00:02:39.440 but now we've got proper serious consideration
00:02:42.920 of the plight that those people went through
00:02:45.240 and of the fact that it was a wrong
00:02:47.040 and that's starting to get addressed now
00:02:48.880 so now let's listen to what exactly
00:02:51.540 Nicola Sturgeon said in Scottish Parliament today.
00:02:59.660 Before this Parliament right now is a petition demanding a pardon for the more than 4,000 people
00:03:06.940 in Scotland, the vast majority of them women, accused and in many cases convicted and executed
00:03:13.140 for being witches under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Those who met this fate were not witches,
00:03:21.540 they were people, and they were overwhelmingly women.
00:03:25.740 At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom,
00:03:30.840 they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable,
00:03:35.300 or in many cases, just because they were women.
00:03:39.040 It was injustice on a colossal scale,
00:03:42.720 driven at least in part by misogyny in its most literal sense, hatred of women.
00:03:48.660 the pardon the petition calls for would require this parliament to legislate
00:03:53.000 and in future this parliament may choose to do so
00:03:55.760 but in the meantime the petition also calls for an apology
00:03:59.480 after all these accusations and executions were instigated and perpetrated by the state
00:04:04.880 and so today on International Women's Day
00:04:07.340 as First Minister on behalf of the Scottish Government
00:04:09.880 I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice
00:04:14.240 and extend a formal, posthumous apology to all those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft Act 1563.
00:04:24.760 Now, some will ask why this generation should say sorry for something that happened centuries ago.
00:04:30.920 It might actually be more pertinent to ask why it has taken so long.
00:04:35.200 But for me, there are three reasons.
00:04:37.640 Firstly, acknowledging injustice, no matter how historic, is important.
00:04:43.740 This Parliament has issued, rightly so, formal apologies and pardons 0.98
00:04:47.200 for the more recent historic injustices suffered by gay men and by minors. 0.98
00:04:52.280 We're currently considering a request for a formal apology
00:04:55.360 to women whose children were forcibly adopted.
00:04:58.980 Reckoning with historic injustice is a vital part of building a better country.
00:05:04.740 So too is recognising and writing into history
00:05:07.660 what has been for too long erased the experiences and the achievements of women.
00:05:13.820 Second, for some, this is not yet historic.
00:05:18.020 There are parts of our world where even today,
00:05:20.800 women and girls face persecution and sometimes death
00:05:23.880 because they have been accused of witchcraft.
00:05:26.840 And thirdly, fundamentally, while here in Scotland,
00:05:30.860 the Witchcraft Act may have been consigned to history a long time ago,
00:05:34.780 the deep misogyny that motivated it has not.
00:05:38.880 We live with that still.
00:05:43.100 so now when we start the witches of scotland podcast we're going to have to say something
00:05:51.880 different because it's going to say we want three things but we don't want three things anymore yeah
00:05:56.040 that's right they might be slightly shorter the podcasts so we're looking for the two things and
00:06:01.020 what are those two things that we still fight on for claire what we still fight on for is a pardon
00:06:06.020 now what is happening is there's going to be a public consultation in respect of this campaign
00:06:13.080 there's going to be a document that is sent out so that people can respond themselves and say why
00:06:17.760 they think it's important or I suppose not in relation to whether or not a pardon is obtained
00:06:24.540 that should be happening really shortly so please do if you see that don't think it's okay someone
00:06:30.500 else will answer that you answer it please and you make it clear that you want a pardon for all
00:06:36.480 those convicted of witchcraft and the final thing Zoe state monument we want there to be a state
00:06:42.640 national monument that will mark what happened let people know what happened if they're traveling
00:06:47.840 to the country and will stand for us to remember this terrible miscarriage of justice for many many
00:06:53.540 many years to come so we will be back next week with our ordinary podcast but we just couldn't
00:07:00.360 wait to bring you this news we are both so delighted thank you so much to everyone who
00:07:05.460 listens to everyone who tweets to everyone who shares stuff to everyone who interacts with us
00:07:11.300 to everyone who listens to the podcast
00:07:12.880 because all of that is part
00:07:15.320 of the campaign and without the support
00:07:17.420 that we have had from everybody involved
00:07:19.340 in this campaign, quite frankly
00:07:21.100 we just wouldn't have continued. It's the support
00:07:23.460 of everybody that we meet that tells
00:07:25.260 us that this means something to them
00:07:27.000 that they have a connection with it and they want this
00:07:29.400 historic miscarriage of justice
00:07:31.380 to be righted that keeps us going
00:07:33.340 And we're going to need that ongoing support
00:07:35.120 for the next stage for the pardon
00:07:37.180 when there'll be the consultation process
00:07:39.220 so please those of you that have got in touch
00:07:41.400 that said that you missed the chance to sign the petition
00:07:43.400 that will be your opportunity
00:07:45.120 to support the rest of the aims of the campaign
00:07:48.540 and to bring to fruition our aims
00:07:50.920 which were an apology, a pardon and a national memorial
00:07:54.920 and now Zoe we only have two things
00:07:57.320 and that is a pardon and a national memorial
00:08:00.620 so this is Witches of Scotland signing off for the day
00:08:04.100 Zoe and I are going to have a large glass of red wine
00:08:06.920 we are indeed, goodbye
00:08:09.580 Goodbye.
00:08:12.620 If you'd like to learn more about the Witches of Scotland,
00:08:15.340 please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
00:08:18.520 Sign up for our mailing list at www.witchesofscotland.com
00:08:23.800 to keep updated with the campaign.
00:08:26.400 On that site, you'll be able to find how to link with us
00:08:29.060 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.