MAgazine
Three years of learning
The case for a bit more stoicism
The one thing we all know is that being in touch with your feelings is good for you. Except the evidence is actually much more in the other direction and it is not clear our obsession with being ‘true to our emotions’ is helping us one little bit.
Still profiting from vulnerable children
Legislation to help children in care is finally with us 11 years late. But it protects more profit-extracting loopholes than it closes.
Moral Outrage - and rightly so
Rolling the dice with housing-again
Will Britain never understand the difference between making housing affordable and subsidising unaffordable housing to prop up the profits of developers? Apparently not...
Rolling the dice with housing-again
Will Britain never understand the difference between making housing affordable and subsidising unaffordable housing to prop up the profits of developers? Apparently not...
Lessons from New York
Democratic Socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani comfortably beat out billionaire-backed billionaire Andrew Cuomo, by 56% to 44% in the final round after vote transfers. Unlike Cuomo, his campaign centred around clearly articulated demands that reflected the needs of the people of New York.
What I learned from the school that made my children
My last child leaves primary school and it gives me a moment to reflect on what our little rural primary school has achieved. There are lessons to be learned for all public policy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why are we the sick person?
I want to choose how I’m cared for when I get old
None of us know what our health will bring in the future. A Living Will can help ensure that we get the care we want no matter what happens to us.
Programme for Government 2025 - In Review
A review of this year’s Programme for Government and some suggestions for “tweaks” we could have seen.
That’s so woke: time for a language of emancipation
The far right pose a threat in Scotland too, and we can’t be complacent by saying ‘independence will save us’ especially if the independence we offer is built on the economics which have given rise to the far right, i.e. austerity and the sustainable growth commission.
In an era of psychos we must learn from sociopathy
Sociopathy is both a real condition and also a perfect metaphor for our institutions. We need to learn from one to understand the other
They should ban that sort of thing!
Bans save lives - but they also ruin lives. To get them right we need an ethical and moral framework that helps us to understand the difference.
Fair Pay For All
The Scottish Government should add a clause to their Fair Work Framework to limit the maximum pay of executives in companies that wish to claim Fair Work accreditation.
