The Commons and the Collective Imagination
There’s a meeting to defend the Kinning Park Complex an independent community centre in south Glasgow – Kinning Park Complex Sunday 26th May 2:00 – 5:00 By Bob Hamilton There Continue reading
Category Archives
Archive for: Common Good
Real Freedom Sounds Like Many Voices
… freedom of the press is only one freedom and it does not offer blanket immunity to the media to trample over other fundamental rights…
The Seven Wonders
Scotland’s Stories: Imagining and Making Our Own Collective Future by Gerry Hassan Scotland’s future is about greater self-government but at the same time it has to be about more than Continue reading
The New Disruption
Disruption: break, an act of interrupting the continuity.
Universalism
By Mike Small Johann Lamont’s extended and public self-immolation has churned up some fascinating divisions in how our politicians see the world. One group sees the rich (defined vaguely as Continue reading
Rio Grand Apathy
By Ross Croall Throw off the shackles of the so-called ‘debate’ on climate change – environmental problems are real, and they are here to stay. Forget about global warming for Continue reading
A State Fit for the 21st Century
‘Knowledge will forever govern over ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.’ James Madison A meeting Continue reading
I Am the Evidence
By Andy Wightman There is a programme on Radio 4 called The Unbelievable Truth in which panellists compete to see how many nuggets of truth they are able to hide Continue reading
A Deep Democracy for Scotland
By Justin Kenrick Between now and 2014 do we need a society-wide dialogue on how best to trail-blaze the rebuilding of resilient communities in a resilient ecology? As Svenja Meyerricks Continue reading
The Invisible Fightback
As Gideon Osbourne and the perfidious Liberals announce the most punitive attack on working people that would make even the Milk Snatcher blush crimson, we round-up some of the responses – online and in the real world,
Defiance Budgets?
By Jimmy Kerr I come from Paisley, a place steeped in radical history and every year members of my group, various people, mostly from the independence movement, some left republicans Continue reading
And the Land Lay Still
By Andy Wightman I was in Perth last week giving a talk and leading a discussion on land issues with an enthusiastic audience of over 120 people. One member of Continue reading
Beyond Centralised Power
In any new constitutional settlement it is vital that the question of how we are governed at the local level is addressed. If it is not, then independence may simply mean the perpetuation of national elite rule.
The Sovereign Grant Bill: Bad for Scotland and Bad for the UK
The crown estate represents a varied mix of property – with a book value currently estimated at £6.6 billion, a figure which almost certainly underestimates the true value. It includes large holdings of rural and urban land, as well as extensive marine assets. These marine assets include over half of the foreshore of the UK, all of the seabed out to the 12 nautical mile limit, and mineral rights, (excluding hydrocarbons), over the continental shelf.
Commons Manifesto (Part 2) – How can we squeeze CARBON out of the economy?
By Justin Kenrick Most of the serious commentators on climate change see us as having already gone past the point of no return. This is not because the emissions in Continue reading
Change: Accelerator
Should those active in political parties who see the need to reign in corporate power, focus not on party building but on building a broader movement of which their parties are a part? Should they focus less on electoral strategy than on culture shift strategy, and on connecting this to addressing the democratic deficit?
The Commons is Alive and Well, and We Can Be Part of It
This is the second in a series of ‘Case for the Commons: the kinder Society we want’ posts – the third will try and answer the question: What is the Continue reading
Shock of the Century
By Michael Greenwell Brian Taylor of BBC politics fame had a seemingly off-record quote about the startlingly obvious yesterday… Firstly, a UK minister told me, with considerable emphasis, that the Continue reading
Porty, Clause 4 and Election Fever
By Justin Kenrick ( a response to A Liminal Moment) Elections are always liminal moments, moments of ‘in between’ when the normal state of things is turned upside down and Continue reading
Beyond Broken Britain
An SNP administration in full coalition with the Scottish Green Party could allow real change to sweep across the nation. Major shifts towards a low-carbon society AND a transition away from the centralised feudal constitution of the British State ARE achievable through such an alliance.
The Siege of Ardenlea Street – the Jaconelli outrage
By Peter Curran What can I say that I haven’t already said or which has already been said better by others, e.g. Mike Dailly, the Jaconelli’s lawyer? Trying to cut Continue reading
The First Minister, the blogosphere, and a 2000 year history of Scotland’s languages
By Kevin Williamson First things first. We’d like to congratulate our friends at Newsnet Scotland for what is quite a scoop. Namely, persuading Scotland’s First Minister to pen a thoughtful Continue reading
The Scotland Bill and the Crown Estate Commissioners
“Why is the Crown Estate still administered by Commissioners in London who are unaccountable to the Scottish Parliament and yet manage Scottish public land? Why, when all the planning and environmental regulation is carried out by Scottish local authorities and Marine Scotland at some cost to the public purse do net revenues still flow straight to HM Treasury?”
Bread and Circuses
Harry, Zara Kate and ‘Wills’ are just as much parasites on the public as the bankers vilified for the public excess that is just the norm behind the closed-doors of bloated finance. Hyper capitalism bankrupts us all…
PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH, ECONOMICS AFTER CAPITALISM
As Derek Wall, campaigning to be the Deputy Leader of the Green Party in England writes: ‘Capitalism is like a bicycle – if one stops peddling, it falls over.’ In Continue reading
Hack the State, Self-Management and Social Media
Toni Prug (of Hack the State) is coming up to talk in Glasgow this weekend – at the CCA on Saturday and at Govanhill Baths on Sunday. The one at Continue reading
McKaskill, Obama and the Black Black Oil
By Mike Small Question: When an alcoholic leaves a bar, gets behind the wheel and drunkenly drives into his third or fourth wreck, do you blame the bartender who served Continue reading
News from Nowhere
Mhairi McGregor writes: Questions of leadership are not confined to the Miliband family. At Go Lassie Go, Joan McAlpine asks how Labour will cope without the Big Lies of Jim Murphy? Continue reading
Common Good
In a sea of cynicism, when it seems as if the courts, the media class and the political elite are against us, here’s a blast of practical Glaswegian idealism, ‘its Continue reading
Carbeth Land Buy-Out
Fran Higson writes: Travelling North West out of Glasgow on the A809, wealthy suburban housing estates give way to rich farm-land and pristine tgolf-courses, the land opens out towards the Continue reading
