MAgazine
National service and the politics of who is expected to pay
Abduction as policy
politicians are living in 2005 when it comes to city centres
The failure of politics? You can't fix what you can't see
Policymakers are far too stuck in their own bubble to properly understand how their policies impact on people. Unless they learn to count what matters to real people rather than corporations, the fraying of democracy will continue.
Informed Citizens and Deliberative Democracy
Bill Johnston argues that politicians must keep their promise to use deliberative democratic techniques such as Citizens Assemblies to help strengthen decision-making in policy but also to strengthen our democracy itself by better empowering and informing citizens.
Scotland could lead the UK by upholding International Law
With the US no longer a demonstrably reliable ally and the UK demonstrably unable to stand up to them, Scotland should do what we can to protect ourselves from the recent shifts in geopolitics and act as a beacon for the upholding of international law.
What politics gets wrong about people
Farewell Auld Reekie, onwards the dear green place
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.
Twelve Ideas for Scotland in a Progressive Europe
Twelve ideas for Scotland in a progressive Europe
Approaching 2026 with hope
This year has been a dark one, but I approach next year with hope because we’re now seeing how powerful we really are.
The only tired I am this Christmas
I am usually exhausted by the end of the year and in need of a Christmas break. This year I feel different - and there are a lot of reasons top be more hopeful about 2026 than it appears.
In 2025, nothing is as it was
It’s been a year of turmoil, in the world and in my head. But it leaves space for new ideas and it is those we must cultivate if we are to save democracy
The mirage of control
Use energy to win independence, rather than independence to win energy
The Scottish Government is promising that independence will unleash our ability to reform energy. This neglects the things that they could be doing now that might just convince people that we need independence to win the rest.
2025 - Common Weal’s Year in Policy
Craig runs through Common Weal’s policy library to show off everything we’ve published this year, just in case you’ve missed a paper or two and would like to see them.
Scotland’s Habit Of Inquiry
The Scottish Government wants to remove profit from children’s care – here’s how to do it.
A repost from our In Common column in The National, Craig summarises our latest policy paper on how and why the Scottish Government must remove profit from children’s care.
Private profit doesn't make government more efficient
For 50 years we've lived as if private profit is good for public services and it has led to the mass extraction of public wealth by corporate insiders. We will never fix public services until we admit this problem.
How to profit from not-for-profit care
Common Weal’s latest policy paper discovers that the Scottish Government’s commitment to limit profit in children’s care is likely to face obstacles as there are many more ways to extract money from “not-for-profit” work than the narrow definition of “profit”.
