MAgazine
In 2025, nothing is as it was
It’s been a year of turmoil, in the world and in my head. But it leaves space for new ideas and it is those we must cultivate if we are to save democracy
The mirage of control
Use energy to win independence, rather than independence to win energy
The Scottish Government is promising that independence will unleash our ability to reform energy. This neglects the things that they could be doing now that might just convince people that we need independence to win the rest.
2025 - Common Weal’s Year in Policy
Craig runs through Common Weal’s policy library to show off everything we’ve published this year, just in case you’ve missed a paper or two and would like to see them.
Scotland’s Habit Of Inquiry
The Scottish Government wants to remove profit from children’s care – here’s how to do it.
A repost from our In Common column in The National, Craig summarises our latest policy paper on how and why the Scottish Government must remove profit from children’s care.
Private profit doesn't make government more efficient
For 50 years we've lived as if private profit is good for public services and it has led to the mass extraction of public wealth by corporate insiders. We will never fix public services until we admit this problem.
How to profit from not-for-profit care
Common Weal’s latest policy paper discovers that the Scottish Government’s commitment to limit profit in children’s care is likely to face obstacles as there are many more ways to extract money from “not-for-profit” work than the narrow definition of “profit”.
The architecture of futility
How the basic building blocks of health and care services are being outsourced
Nick Kempe reveals how fundamentals of healthcare that should have been under the control of patients and the National Care Service are instead being outsourced to private companies.
Communities have been priced out of owning Scotland
Two new reports show that the rate of land transfers to community ownership in Scotland has dropped to the lowest level since the start of devolution and that a poll of the Scottish public shows near-unanimous support for more land reform over and above that which may be delivered by the recent Land Reform Bill.
The criminalisation of conscience
Why we ban the small scams but not the big ones
I want to choose a different modernity
Modern life truly is rubbish, and it is a state of affairs none of us chose. It is time to believe that we can chose a different modernity, one that works for us.
How can you wash your hands when this happens to us?
Temoka Melindo (Moka) is a student at Glasgow Caledonian University and now lives in Scotland as a climate refugee. She tells her story and asks how we can sit around and watch this happen to families like hers and still do nothing.
The great unmooring: Why leaving the ECHR won’t save Britain from itself
It’s time to stop lobbyists
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When banks own housebuilders, house prices go up
A repost from our In Common column in The National, Craig examines the accounts of a volume housebuilder to work out how much you are paying their shareholders to own your home.
Repowering Scotland - A missed opportunity
The Scottish Government has squandered an opportunity to nationalise our energy by not taking Scotland’s first onshore wind farm into public ownership at the best time to do so.
This Skye wind farm fight shows Scotland's national energy injustice
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