MAgazine
Scotland is not for sale Pt. I
Scotland may not be privatising the public realm with quite the zeal of Starmer’s Labour, but it is happening constantly nonetheless. A vision for a public good-driven democracy is needed.
How Common Weal helped reform care
Craig Dalzell looks at the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill - what remains of the National Care Service Bill - and compares it to Common Weal’s own work to see how many of our proposals made it into the final Bill.
Investing pensions in the UK economy
Jim Osborne calls attention to the UK Government’s proposal to compel pension companies to invest into the UK economy - that plan that could support the economy by at least several tens of billions of pounds.
Information, “efficiency” and the Care Reform Bill – a missed opportunity
Nick Kempe looks at the portion of the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill and discusses the missed opportunity to reform how information is gathered in the care sector and how it could be used to improve care.
Seamless services? Only on better foundations
Politicians often talk about seamless public services but don’t want to tackle the underlying problem - public sector data is a mess and it makes our services grind against each other where they should click.
The Ocean Can’t Wait - Scotland Must Lead the World
A new piece of legislation currently passing through the Scottish Parliament would make Scotland world-leading on environmental protection. If you care about the sea, you should back it.
If we don’t get ahead of the game we lose
The chattering classes continue to chatter but fail to reach conclusions. But more chatter is a luxury we can’t afford; we need answers, we need action and we need some savvy.
Common Weal Consultation Update - June 2025
An update covering some of the government consultations we’ve responded to so far this year.
Why a Scottish Currency Can’t Wait: Lessons from Keynes
German economist Jan Frederik Moos explains that the Scottish Government’s current position on an independent Scotland’s currency is simply wrong. Monetary independence is no the final stage in independence, it is the first.
Turning the heat up - the right way
A series of new government consultations could lead to a home insulation scheme that actually works. You should support them and ask your politicians to do the same.
‘Scotland’s Future – Something Worth Talking About’
William Duguid on the Independence Forum Scotland’s upcoming conference in Perth
This is why the food system is unreformable
Our food system has become a system of corporate exploitation, addiction and early deaths. When every incentive points exactly the wrong way, you can’t tweak the system into shape.
Loch Lomond is a right, not an opportunity
To help the politicians understand why their actions over Flamingo Land have made so many people so angry, Tam Brotherstone explains what it really meant to a working class boy like him. It mean freedom, peace and tranquility - if only for a night.
A phoenix could still appear out of the ashes of the National Care Service Bill
The final amendments to what was the National Care Service Bill have been published. Nick Kempe reviews them to see what good can be salvaged out of the ground-down remains of the legislation.
If you want to bid Government up, don’t start by bidding yourself down
As well-meaning as the Greens’ proposals for property tax reform were, they were doomed by dint of their own self-sabotage by minimisation.
Who is fighting your war?
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The Scottish Government continues to show bad faith when it comes to Freedom of Information, spending more time and effort to conceal information than it would take to simply comply with the spirit of the legislation.
It’s time we talked about it
It’s a subject that we need to talk about, perhaps uncomfortable and easier not to, but with Ash Regan’s proposed Prostitution Bill we may need to. Sex work often stays in the shadows, and as a society on the whole that’s the way we like it. But this new Bill may make us address some things.
What we are doing isn’t working - is it time for some utopia?
The one rule in politics is that all you can talk about is how you will change what is already there. But what if what is already there is so broken it will never work again?
Burning Down The House Of Cards
Rachel Reeves appears to be ready to remove banking regulations put in place after the 2008 Financial Crash, and setting us up for a repeat of it in the future.
