MAgazine
Pay attention Scotland - we’re cutting our own throat
There are major developments in the global economy that ought to be influencing policy in Scotland. Instead we appear to be about to do precisely the opposite of what we should be learning, and we’ll pay a price for it.
When aid becomes a tool for migration control
The Programme for Government 2026
The first Programme for a newly elected government is a good time large ambitions. The ones included in this year’s PfG certainly are large, but not necessarily good.
Scotland has a population problem
Scotland needs to start rewiring its own state
That’s Plenty! The church of Jack and Victor
Politics tries to hide it but the only morality it is interested in these days is greed and avarice. It is this which has done endless damage and only a moral campaign can challenge it.
How we should regulate Data Centres
In this week’s article in In Common in The National, Craig alerts folk to data centres lobbying the Scottish Government to write their own environmental regulations and lays out what we should be calling for instead.
How to break an investment bank
Losses continue to mount at the Scottish National Investment Bank. This would not have been an existential problem had the Scottish Government followed our blueprint for the bank.
A simple proposal
Our world is becoming more complicated by design and it’s being done to exploit us. It is a time we fought back in favour of simplicity and systems we can actually understand - and trust.
Britain NEEDS A NEW IDEA OF PUNISHMENT
Scotland needs a parliament with something to say
Giving to those who already have
Why is the Scottish Government creating a housing subsidy it knows will mostly go to the wrong people? In Common this week argues strongly against another help to buy scheme.
Forget ‘opportunities’; what about lives?
Being young has never been easy but it used to be a transitionary stage towards a decent adult life. If that adult life is less and less available, what does our politics offer young people?
We cannot police our way out of the channel crisis
Reimagining Scottish Independence as Deliberative Democracy
In Part Four of his series on deliberative democracy, Bill Johnston looks at what lessons can be learned for the campaign for independence.
Six more ideas to revitalise the high street
One of Andy Burnham’s first initiatives as Prime Minister appears to be to revitalise high streets in our towns and cities. He’s suggested one policy - regulating vape shops - but if he wants to go further, here are six ideas than could do much more.
A ride to nowhere in Glasgow
Adham Fisher is a public transport campaigner for England who has gone to various cities and tried to ride as much public transport as he could in a set period of time to describe how successful it is. He was in Scotland for the Commonwealth Games so gave Glasgow a shot - this is what he found out.
Drawing willies and stopping the far right
We have seen our information ecosystems transformed over the last 20 years and the consequences have been appalling. We are capable of fighting back with a better system of information, but there are lessons we must learn first.
Through with drive-throughs?
COVID lockdowns put drive-throughs in pole position, and the UK is now experiencing a tsunami of expansion, with community volunteers left with the resulting tides of litter. Given such minimal retail space and cleaning costs, drive-throughs are clearly very good for business, now accounting for 70% of McDonalds’ income and more and more brands taking to the road. But just how bad are they for our children and communities? Guest writer Henry Mathias explores.
