MAgazine
Giving to those who already have
Why is the Scottish Government creating a housing subsidy it knows will mostly go to the wrong people? In Common this week argues strongly against another help to buy scheme.
Forget ‘opportunities’; what about lives?
Being young has never been easy but it used to be a transitionary stage towards a decent adult life. If that adult life is less and less available, what does our politics offer young people?
Six more ideas to revitalise the high street
One of Andy Burnham’s first initiatives as Prime Minister appears to be to revitalise high streets in our towns and cities. He’s suggested one policy - regulating vape shops - but if he wants to go further, here are six ideas than could do much more.
A ride to nowhere in Glasgow
Adham Fisher is a public transport campaigner for England who has gone to various cities and tried to ride as much public transport as he could in a set period of time to describe how successful it is. He was in Scotland for the Commonwealth Games so gave Glasgow a shot - this is what he found out.
John Swinney Is Acting Like a Climate Denier
John Swinney is actively lobbying for oil companies to get a tax cut so that they can make more money. This makes him more extreme on oil subsidies than vocal climate denier Donald Trump.
Save the CCA for Artists
Guest writer Georgia Grainger calls for the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow to be retained as a cultural hub for artists via community ownership rather than being lost to the private sector.
Everything wrong with the new 'Universities Defence Alliance'
In this week’s In Common, Rory Hamilton adds a new layer to the saga of university management in Scotland, where three leading Scottish universities have signed up to a charter which asks members to promote the defence industry to students and creates a dependent relationship between defence sector funding and university research priorities.
Retrofit is on a roll, Let’s keep the momentum going
Keith Baker gives us an update on the progress he’s making on helping to improve Scotland’s home energy efficiency standards by having the Scottish Government adopt principles that he and Common Weal have been pushing towards.
Despite the challenges, football can still unite us
The World Cup shows much of the worst about football - along with much of the best. It may be captured by big business and political agendas, but so long as kids can kick a can in a playground, it remains our game.
Why you should Get to grips with data centre politics
The backlash against data centres is only just reaching the UK but it would be a big mistake to mistake this for ‘just more Nimbyism’. Unless you understand what is different about this backlash you will miss one of the most significant things happening in politics right now.
Scotland’s houses are crumbling around us
New statistics from the Scottish Government reveals that more than half of Scotland’s houses do not meet minimum standards of quality and state of repair.
How the Scottish Government drove a wedge between care experts and the cared for
Mark Smith and Marion Macleod from Common Weal’s Care Reform Group discuss their latest academic paper on how the Scottish Government overused the “lived experience” of cared for people to shield themselves from expert advice about the National Care Service.
Don’t imagine dinner, find a recipe
The Scottish Government is constantly getting lost in the long grass between its vague but ambitious aims and its lacklustre actions. The gap between these things can only be filled with a clear plan which contains analysis and objectives.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The New National Housing Agency must serve people, not profit
Common Weal celebrates the Scottish Government’s support for our policy of creating a National Housing Agency. We will now campaign to make sure that it is done properly.
What does ‘The Traitors’ tell us about ourselves?
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