MAgazine
Chatbots Vs Democracy
Craig’s encounter with an AI chatbot feeding him false information about a Scottish political party and what that did to alert him to another threat from AI to our democracy.
Performing principle: What the assisted dying bill reveals about Scotland’s hollow lawmaking
When inequality is this high, all choices become bad
Speculation on the UK Budget this month has leaned on the tensions the UK Government’s faces as all of its choices seem to face intractable opposition
This is the Scottish landscape I dream of
Scotland has a land problem - we lack ownership and we lack imagination. I have done nothing but imagine a different countryside for years - and this is what it looks like.
Why this sport's in a perilous position in Scotland
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Will your community feed your cat?
There has never been more talk about communities and yet less actual community. It is time we properly understood the science of isolation and why it is very, very bad for us and for society.
Degrees of Deception: What are we really selling young people?
Why the SNP’s Council Tax options won’t work
The Scottish Government wants to avoid reforming Council Tax
A briefing of the Scottish Government’s consultation on Council Tax reform, what’s missing from it and why it has been published now, just months before the next election.
Let them play: Why Scotland needs a kindergarten stage
The second reason our food system is unreformable
In a previous article I argued that the food system we have is unreformable. Before I can explain how we can sort this system, we first need to understand why our food distribution system is unreformable too.
Information is still not free enough
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Scotland is still breaching your right to environmental justice
A UN Commission has found that Scotland remains in breach of your right to environmental justice. Here is why having adequate means of upholding your rights is as important as the rights themselves.
SNP Members back Common Weal’s public energy strategy (again)
The 2025 SNP Conference has backed a motion on public ownership of energy and a Just Transition for energy workers that deeply embeds several key policies advocated for by Common Weal, including a Scottish Public Energy Company.
The Energy Postcode Lottery? We already have one
Gordon Morgan from the Common Weal Energy Working Group discusses the recent decision by the UK Government to reject “zonal pricing” in light of a recent consultation into reform of the way that consumers are billed for electricity.
Don’t be scared of the game - learn the rules
People don’t understand monetary theory and so those that do can make it all sound impossibly difficult. It is not as difficult as it seems - once you learn that there are different games and different rules…
When did cruelty stop being embarrassing?
Escaping the bonds of bonds
The world has passed a tipping point and we can no longer see bond markets as facilitating democracy. They are an active threat to democracy and we need to disempower them.
Solidarity is dangerous
The power of the efforts to break the blockade of Gaza is seen as an act of futility by some. It isn’t; it’s an act of solidarity and it is powerful because of that.
An Illusionary Convention
John Swinney is proposing a ‘constitutional convention’, but what he is proposing is no such thing. Understanding the original Constitutional Convention offers a real way forward for independence.
