MAgazine
Life After Oligarchy
Oligarchs are now our greatest threat and they are out of control. The only hope for the good society is to build a world beyond their reach.
The Climate Emergency is Uninsurable
A new report from Moody’s warns that the impact of the climate emergency is proving so hard predict that the losses and damage caused by it are increasingly difficult to insure.
You can't reform oligarchs – we have to walk away
I retain the strong view that almost everyone is still greatly underestimating the power and control the US oligarchs have over our lives. Win or lose, it looks like they will destroy our standard of living so we should opt out of their rigged game right now.
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.
Be angry – their stability is your chaos
You have heard politician after politician lauding the merits of 'stability', but have you ever stopped to ask what it is they want to be stable and for who? Once you realise the answer, your grocery bill (and starving children) make a lot more sense.
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.
Workers aren’t lazy; they’re being left behind
Young workers are being told that the reason that the economy isn’t growing is because they are too lazy. There’s a lot to unpick about why this is entirely wrong.
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.
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.
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.
Manosphere? We need to do better than name calling
There is clearly a problem with the radicalisation of some young men on the internet, but the picture is much more complex and nuanced than the shouty headlines suggest. The left needs to start engaging with young men with respect and not on the basis of stereotypes.
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
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 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.
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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Cities for people first, tourists second
Rory Hamilton says his non-New Year’s resolution to carry something forward from 2025 into 2026 and to leave something behind in 2025 is no better embodied than in his moving from Edinburgh to Glasgow.