MAgazine
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.
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…
It's time to be serious – Scotland needs partners
It seems like self-sabotage to have the chance of a major industrial plant in Scotland and to throw that chance away. It is time we were more aware of the reality of our position as a manufacturing nation and recognised that to develop, we can’t start from scratch.
If energy powers get devolved - what then?
Calling for more powers over energy to be devolved is one thing, but what is the Scottish Government’s plan for using them if they get them?
Is there a better way to debate?
While many people see the final debate on Assisted Dying as a great success, I beg to differ. Theatre doesn’t make good policy - so what does?
May 2026: The Age-Friendly Election?
Bill Johnston lays out his hope that the upcoming Scottish election will be an age friendly one, and gives you the tools to help make it happen.
A Strategy for Deliberative Democracy
Bill Johnston follows up his article from January on building the infrastructure we need to develop a truly deliberative democracy
If politicians can’t, let citizens who will
The failure of the Assisted Dying Bill this week has revealed the limits of the power of parliament to be able to pass important legislation even without the constraints of the party system. For Bills such as these, perhaps power should be returned to the people.
A regulated economy is one that works for all of us
The “Red Tape” of regulations binds us for a reason. Cutting it too often just makes it easier for some to benefit from the cuts by making us pay for their failures.
A nation that can't take care of itself is a fool
If the economics of precarious supply chains and globalised risk is stuttering, what is the responsible thing for a nation state to do? The same as always – make sure it's people have what they need.
The economics which created our crisis can’t fix it
The latest war-driven global price panic is not an aberration but a constant state of being in the contemporary global economic. It is all so unstable that unless we take a new course, it will fall down sooner or later.
Process over policy was never a route to Indy
The recent inquiry by the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution Committee into the lack of a legislative roadmap to independence told us little that Common Weal hadn’t already predicted. The real question is what to do about it.
Why you should learn the Iron Law of Oligarchy
All bureaucratic systems tend further and further towards centralised control, and there are no exceptions. The only protection against this are checks and balances, and the only protection for those comes from our determination to keep officials honest.
It’s a lack of will, not consensus, that prevents Council Tax reform
The Scottish Government’s failure to reform Council Tax has gone on far too long. It must be a defining mission of the next Parliament to reform it in the only fair way possible.
The public and politics are at right angles; this missing concept explains it
Politics used to focus on people’s quality of life - and then it started counting up numbers instead. This more than anything explains the disconnect between people and politics.
What is the point of a party manifesto these days?
Party political manifestos may seem like an old fashioned method of electoral campaigning in the era of targeted digital adverts, but that might well be why they are still important.
How to make people non-disposable
There is a tacit understanding right across politics that some people just count for less than others, and everyone knows it. Only a rethink of our democracy can resolve this.
The House of Lords can’t be reformed because Lords are the Problem
As the UK Government will fail to adequately reform the House of Lords because the Lords themselves are the problem. We should have a House of Citizens instead.
We are all responsible for industrial scale child abuse
Our generation has betrayed our children and chosen our greed over their best interests. There is no ‘dealing with’ a childhood in crisis - we need to remove the cancer.
What does ‘The Traitors’ tell us about ourselves?
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