MAgazine
The politics of deliberate offence
Ragebait is no longer confined to social media. From Reform UK to Trump-era populism, modern politics increasingly runs on outrage, symbolism and emotional provocation. But if political attention is now driven by reaction, how do democratic societies resist becoming trapped inside permanent cycles of emotional manipulation?
Government must get its hands dirty
Common Weal could offer the incoming Scottish Government all the policy it needs, but its problem isn’t policy. Its problem is that it doesn’t have a theory of how government works so it doesn’t understand why it isn’t working just now.
The Iran War sounds a warning for All of Scotland’s Critical Minerals
It isn’t just oil that is being disrupted by the US’s war with Iran nor will it be the only future disruption so Scotland needs a more resilient economy with strategies that should extend to all critical minerals.
What freedom can't fix, hope can
Freedom is at times taken to be the ultimate goal of politics, but it is a corrosive idea that looks different from where you start. For a drug addict, the last thing you need is more freedom when what you really crave is peace.
I’m over the moon
The Case of the Election and the Disappearing Care Service
Nick Kempe looks at the party manifestos and asks why the main parties have retreated so far on their ambitions for care reform and a National Care Service
How Common is your manifesto?
Looking through some of the party manifestos to see where parties have adopted or are aligned with Common Weal’s policies as well as where they are working against them.
You’re not a “man-hater.” You’re living in a fractured culture
More outsourcing, more problems
School Bags for Seniors?
Bill Johnston asks what the Scottish Government could do to better support education for older people.
Marking my ten years at Common Weal
Craig reflects on the tenth anniversary of his first Common Weal policy paper and picks out a few of his favourite papers that he’s written since.
How the average person killed politics
The ‘moderate centre’ is where almost all politicians think elections are won, yet new research shows that no-one wants moderate parties. The gap between is exactly where democracy has been dying.
Yes, it could happen here
A personal reflection on growing up within the promises of American democracy – and the slow realisation that those promises are being hollowed out. This piece examines the gradual rise of oligarchic power in the U.S. and cautions against the perilous illusion that such corruption is confined to one country.
A rules-based Europe in a lawless world
No such thing as a free schoolbag
Hold on, wait for it...
Our third economic crisis in rapid succession and an unhinged USA mean the time is ripe for major change. But if it is going to be positive change, the left have some important lessons to learn.
We’re counting down again
How Scotland can play a role in working towards a peaceful world
To rebuild the rules-based peace across the world; we must enforce the rules-based peace in Scotland
Artemis II shows that we can choose hope
Humanity has chosen to go back to the Moon for the first time in half a century. Some will inevitably ask why, in a world of poverty, we do so. We must, because science and poverty are not a zero-sum trade.
Freedom and the good stuff
There are a series of dogmas about choice and freedom which implies that they are the ultimate goal of human affairs. Well I’ve got a pair of jeans which suggests otherwise…