The Common Weal Policy Podcast

Episode 115 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Roz Foyer, General Secretary of the Scottish Trade Unions Congress. STUC has campaigned on issues large and small around workers rights in Scotland and Craig and Roz discuss how unions have adapted to changing workplaces and more precarious employment, how companies have pushed back...

Episode 114 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Common Weal's new Networks Coordinator Leo Plumb about the importance of community organisation has in Scotland, how it has led to impressive changes in the face of seemingly overwhelming political power and what Common Weal is now doing to help organise and empower our own acti...

Episode 113 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig is joined by Billy Kay. Writer, broadcaster and author of Scots: The Mither Tongue which has recently been released as an audiobook on Audible . Scots is the second largest of Scotland's extant indigenous tongues with over 1.5 million speakers across Scotland and more in the broader Sco...

Episode 112 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig is joined by two members of Common Weal's Energy Working Group - Keith Baker and Iain Wright - to discuss the ScotWind offshore wind auction and its implications for Scottish renewables. ScotWind is the largest auction of Scottish offshore wind resources resulting in promises of 25GW of...

Episode 111 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . Welcome to 2022 and Season 4 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast To start the year, the entire Common Weal team joins Craig on the show to talk about a film we all watched over the winter break. Don't Look Up is a film about a couple of astronomers discovery of an asteroid on collision course with Earth a...

Episode 110 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . Apologies for the drop in audio quality in this episode. This was due to technical difficulties and Craig remote working due to (non-Covid) illness. This week, Craig is joined by Bill Johnston to discuss their mutually co-written book All of Our Futures: Scotland’s ageing population and what to do about it....

Episode 109 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast   You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks once again to Tim Rideout. Currency expert and " controversial economist " who has campaigned for Scotland to set up its own independent currency so that its ready to launch "as soon as practicable" after independence. Last weekend he successfully won a vote at th...

Episode 108 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Robin McAlpine, Common Weal's Head of Strategic Development, about his observations of the COP26 conference, why the conference failed to deliver a plan to avert the climate emergency and what Scotland's strategy should be going forward from here. The Bloomberg article that...

Episode 107 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Marc Burgauer, a coach in Agile and other workplace improvements , on the ways that work is changing in the wake of the pandemic. Many of us have transitioned to working from home - in whole or in part - but even where this has been successful it has opened up various disparities in...

Episode 106 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig speaks to Prof. Mark Smith about a question so fundamental to a National Care Service that it must be answered if one is to be built successfully. Just, what is care, exactly? They discuss how the care sector in Scotland has largely failed to answer this question in the past - which has led...

Episode 105 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Prof. Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK . They discuss the UK Spending Review, published today, paying attention to the promises made that can't be kept and the negative impact that many of the ones that can be will have especially on the most vulnerable people in society. They...

Episode 104 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast   You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Dr Sarah Kyambi the Founder Director of the new think tank Migration Policy Scotland. They discuss the policy gaps in Scotland around migration, particularly outwith the areas of asylum and refugee migration, what Scotland is currently doing to close those gaps and where Scotland...

Episode 103 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig speaks to Kathy Jenkins Secretary of Scottish Hazards - A charity committed to improving workplace H&S, H&S officer of her Unite not for profit branch which organisers social care workers. She is also a member of Common Weal's Social Care Reform Working Group which is currently w...

Episode 102 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast   You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to David Patrick, author of recently published book Front-Page Scotland which looks at how stories about Scottish independence were reported in the newspapers throughout the 2014 independence referendum campaign. They discuss how the framing of stories on topics such as economics dep...

Episode 101 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here. This week, Craig speaks to Peter Ryan - expert on currency and banking systems and author of several papers for Common Weal and the Scottish Independence Convention on currency in an independent Scotland. They discuss recent radical changes to the global currency landscape with the creation of Central Bank Di...

Episode 100 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week marks the 100th episode of the Common Weal Policy Podcast. To celebrate, Craig Dalzell is joined by Ellen Dalzell who asks him questions submitted by our audience. Thank you to everyone who has listened to and supported the show for the past 100 episodes. The two blog articles that Craig refers to...

Episode 99 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig is joined by Marion Macleod - an expert in social care and education for children and author of Common Weal's latest policy paper on a strategic plan for childcare . They discuss the current patchwork state of child and early years care in Scotland, how the latest Programme for Governme...

Episode 98 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig Dalzell is joined by Ellen Dalzell to discuss the Demographics of Independence. Ellen has campaigned for several years both for "New Scots" to be included in Scotland's democracy both through being able to vote - which they now can - but also for them to be better included in d...

Episode 97 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast   You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to SNP Policy Development Convenor Chris Hanlon and Agnes MacAuley from SNP Greenock & Inverclyde about the latest GERS figures and what they mean (and don't mean) for Scotland, independence and the post-pandemic recovery. They then discuss up and coming motions to the SNP co...

Episode 96 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig is joined by three guests. Keith Baker of Common Weal's Energy Policy Group, Douglas Chapman, SNP MP for Dunfermline and West Fife and Ali Anderson, Senior Researcher for Mr Chapman. The four of them discuss the IPCC report that came out this week. The discuss the implications for Scotla...

Episode 95 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast   You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig Dalzell talks to Shamus McPhee about his paper on and personal experiences of the "Tinker Housing Experiment", an attempt in Scotland to forcibly settle Gypsy Travellers in inadequate housing and to ethnically cleanse their culture and way of life. He speaks of his experiences grow...

Episode 94 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig Dalzell is joined by Keith Baker, an energy poverty researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University and a member of Common Weal's Energy Working Group. They discuss Energy Performance Certificates - the framework by which building energy efficiency is measured in Scotland. Keith explains how...

Episode 93 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast  You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Chris Hellawell and Alice McGillicuddy from Edinburgh Tool Library . They discuss what a tool library is, why they are the future of how we use tools and other goods and their reaction to the news that the Scottish Climate Assembly has called for the Scottish Government to create an...

Episode 92 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Gillian Mair and Alison Watters the Co-Convenors of Now Scotland, a members-led, grassroots organisation campaigning for Scottish independence as soon as possible. They discuss what Now Scotland is trying to add to the independence movement in terms of facilitating cross-group discus...

Episode 91 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig Dalzell talks to Colin Turbett, retired social care worker and member of the Common Weal Social Care Reform Group, about his new policy paper for Common Weal. Care in Your Community anchors a Scottish National Care Service in and around local communities via a Community Hubs model where your...