The Common Weal Policy Podcast

Episode 189 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig presents another in his series of public talks. He updates his long running study of the Demographics of Independence, looking beneath the headlines in the regular independence polls to see how the landscape of the independence campaign has changed even despite an apparently lack of change in...

Episode 188 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Iain Black, Prof of Sustainable Consumption at Strathclyde University and Common Weal Board Member, about his latest paper on the misuse of the term Wellbeing Economics. He discusses what the wellbeing economy actually means and how moving towards one means doing more than than minor...

Episode 187 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig brings you a slightly different podcast. Rather than interview a guest, he debuts an "extended edition" of a presentation he gave to XR Inverness on Scottish public owned energy in which he describes various ways to create a "Public Energy Company" in Scotland as well as s...

Episode 186 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Common Weal's Robin McAlpine about his new policy paper on a strategic approach to gaining Scottish independence. They discuss why the focus on process (that is, the debate between which kind of referendum vs which kind of plebiscite) has not just kept the indy campaign static b...

Episode 185 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Max Wiszniewski, reflecting on four years of the Revive Coalition, its campaign to regulate grouse moors in Scotland, their thoughts on recent developments in land reform and their upcoming conference to "Change the face of Scotland". You can learn more about Revive and bo...

Episode 184 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Laura Young about her campaign to ban disposable vapes in Scotland and in the UK. They discuss why these devices exist, how they are marketed and what impact their improper disposal is having. They also discuss the possible role of the Circular Economy Bill in not just ensuring dev...

Episode 183 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig plays with the format of the podcast slightly. Instead of just one guest, he's spoken to several members of the Common Weal team about last week's Programme for Government and what they would have added to it if they had written it themselves. You can read Craig's detailed an...

Episode 182 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Mercedes Villalba MSP about her Members' Bill to apply a public interest test to anyone who owns or seeks to own more than 500 hectares of land in Scotland. They discuss the problems with Scotland's concentrated land ownership, how the public interest test would work and w...

Episode 181 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Barry Fisher from Keep Scotland Beautiful about their campaign to end litter in Scotland with a major part of that campaign now looking at Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or the concept that the producers of devices and packaging that create waste should be responsible for t...

Episode 180 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Colin Turbett, former social worker and member of Common Weal's Care Reform Group, about the history of social work in Scotland and what lessons we can learn from the fragmentation and privatisation of social work as we consider the upcoming National Care Service. You can read...

Episode 179 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Ben Wray from the Gig Economy Project, a pan-European project to map and track insecure labour, about a recent article he wrote about Karl Marx and his views towards the gig economy - known in his time as "piece wages". They discuss the rise and resurgence of this form of...

Episode 178 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Common Weal's own Rory Hamilton about his research into land reform and community buyouts in the South of Scotland. His collating of oral history of land reform in several village communities shows the difference in attitudes towards land and ownership and how they differ from...

Episode 177 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Ellen Joëlle Dalzell, activist and director of community design & campaign agency Artivism Scotland , about the Scottish Government's Independence White Paper on citizenship . They discuss the positives around Scotland's inclusive approach to migration and the fact th...

Episode 176 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Calum Hodgson from Green New Deal Rising about the current state of the climate emergency, what are the barriers to the solutions are are available but not being implemented fast enough and what should the Scottish and UK Governments do to get back on track towards meeting their cli...

Episode 175 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Graham Smith, CEO of pro-democracy campaign group Republic about their campaign to end the British monarchy and replace the head of state with an elected President. They discuss the reasons why we need an elected head of state, how Republic have been campaigning for this via their h...

Episode 174 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Prof. Richard Murphy of Funding the Future about the UK's inflation crisis, how the Bank of England has misdiagnosed the problem, how the IMF has correctly identified the cause but thinks we should keep doing the wrong thing anyway and what the UK could be doing to bring down i...

Episode 173 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Alastair McIntosh, ecologist, activist, and author of a new paper on community rights in the face of carbon capture and capital, The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Carbon. They discuss the rise of the Green Lairds, the lack of community agency embedded in current land reform...

Episode 172 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Kaitlin Dryburgh, Common Weal's Policy Communications Officer, about her new project for Common Weal. Common Weal Recreates is a monthly newsletter looking at sport, art and culture in Scotland with a specific focus on helping you find interesting things to do around Scotland....

Episode 171 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Tom Nockolds, member of Common Weal's Energy Working Group and co-founder of Loco Home, a community-led, not-for-profit, retrofitting strategy company who work with communities and suppliers to help advise and design home retrofit plans. They discuss the scale of the retrofitt...

Episode 170 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Prof. Aileen McHarg about the increasing complexities forming at the edges of devolution in the UK, the tensions that are forming as the Scottish and UK Governments cross the lines of their remits and whether or not both governments are treating these limits as a battleground for co...

Episode 169 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig presents another collection of recent public talks from Common Weal and at some of our events. First up, Colin Turbett talks about the history and principles of care in Scotland and how this should inform the development of the National Care Service. Next, Peter Krykant recently spoke at ou...

Episode 168 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Keith Baker, Abi Truebig and Alison Anderson from green skills and retraining consultancy Pattiesmuir , they discuss how the coming Green transition presents opportunities for Scotland to create green jobs but that there's still a gap in Scottish politics on how to train and re...

Episode 167 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Alastair Tibbit from Open Democracy about their latest report into the funding of think tanks across the UK and in the devolved nations. They discuss why it is important that think tanks declare the sources of their funding and why the public should be wary of those who do not. Commo...

Episode 166 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Rowan Lear, curator at Glasgow Seed Library. They discuss what a seed library is, how they help preserve not just the seeds that form our collective heritage but also the skills and culture required to grow them. They also talk about some of the different plants that the library has...

You can download the episode directly here . This week Rory is filling in for Craig, who is in Dundee for the Scottish Trades Union Congress Annual Conference. Rory is joined by Savan Qadir, from Refugees for Justice and the University of Glasgow, to talk about the current UK immigration system, the impact it has on refugees and asylum seekers, as well as the host communities they integrate with,...