MAgazine

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.

Learning from “Greens in Government™”
As we move forward, we must ensure that we are at the centre of decisions, that there remains a left-wing voice in Holyrood, and that we are not tempted by the neoliberal forces of even Scotland’s establishment if we are to return to power.

Scotland Vs USA - Abortion rights
How on earth have we reached the point where the Vice President of the United States of America is continually interfering in policing and the law around protest in Scotland? It’s not an accident, it’s a concerted plan.

Help us lob a molotov cocktail at failure
The scale of failure in Scotland now has gone well beyond concerning into really alarming territory. We can’t go on like this, but to create a manifesto of change we’ll need help…

From children in need, to profit margins

Nooks and the widening crannies in Scotland’s care system
Netflix drama series, Adolescence, is genius television which treats its subject with subtlety and addresses the subject’s complexity with passion. Why do some people seem to have believed the takeaways were so reductive and simple?

Disabling People
The UK Labour Government is doing to disabled people what the Conservatives didn’t think they could get away with.

A politics of empathy is hard - but very powerful
We talk about empathy in politics as if it is the easy choice and the real work is the ‘difficult decisions’ which entire lack empathy. It is entirely the other way round - and we desperately need a politics of empathy.