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 with anti-union campaigns of their own and where STUC members have safeguarded and expanded workers' rights in Scotland.

Roz will be speaking at an event on women in unions on March 2nd - details here.

The Common Weal paper on automation and other disruptive technologies in the workplace can be read here.

If you want to know more about how to join a union, organise labour in your place of work or what union memberships could mean for you, you can visit the STUC website here.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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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 activists and volunteers.

If you want to join Common Weal's new Campaign Centre you can sign up here.

The Policy Podcast covered the Kenmure St demonstrations here and the campaign against the incinerator here.

If you are part of a community campaign and want to come on to the Policy Podcast to talk about it and to help encourage others with their local campaign please contact Craig at the email address below.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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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 Scots diaspora.

Once the primary language of court and law in Scotland it has been significantly eroded in use and prestige over several centuries both passively and by acts of deliberate repression.
However, recent years have seen a revival of interest in the language and Billy tells us how we can promote it in the public sphere and, most importantly, to speak and write it with the same pride as anyone would use any other language we know.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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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 generating capacity built over more than 7,000km^2 of Scottish seabed and split across 17 different sites around the north of Scotland.

Proponents hail the billions of investment that will be required to build the project. As well as the £700 million in option fees collected by Crown Estate Scotland and the prospect of Somewhere in the region of £30-£50 million a year in annual rents.

Whilst the winners of the auction are almost entirely made up of foreign-owned energy companies (with 20% of the capacity being won by fossil fuel giants Shell and BP alone) Proponents promise that Scotland could still benefit from jobs created in the supply chain.

Common Weal produced our response last week calling for Scotland to build up capacity to Ensure that next time, we can have a much greater level of involvement from Scottish companies including a National Energy Company.

The article about Scottish supply chains with regards to ScotWind can be read here.

You can join Common Weal's weekly newsletter by signing up here.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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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 and their attempts to get politicians, the media, the public...anyone! to listen to them and do something about it.
The team discuss the analogy the film draws towards the reaction to climate change and our lack of action to avert it.

Caution, spoilers for Don't Look Up are present from the start of the podcast and continue throughout.

If you would like to read something a little more hopeful, you can buy a copy of our Common Home Plan here.

The T-shirt that Robin refers to can be purchased here.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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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. This book presents a comprehensive strategy for Scotland's ongoing demographic transition, how that must be done in a way that breaks down ageism systemic to our politics and economy and how doing this can present Scotland's older people with a Social Contract for a better, healthier and more inclusive life. They discuss some topics within the book such as how a neoliberal economy inevitably leads to ageism, how the politics of ageing is often far too short term and some specific policies from the book such as how an independent Scotland could overhaul the UK's broken pension sector.

You can buy a copy of All of Our Futures in the Common Weal shop here.
And check out our other merchandise here.
https://commonweal.scot/shop/

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

Image Credit: Maisie Mackenzie - Produced as part of a joint project between Common Weal and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design 

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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 the SNP conference to instruct the party to draw up legislation to begin work on launching a Scottish Central Bank so that preparations can be started immediately after a successful independence referendum.

During the show, Craig references his interview with borders and customs expert, Bill Austin in Episode #37 of the Policy Podcast. You can listen to that show here.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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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 Craig mentions can be read here.

Common Weal's Common Home Plan can be downloaded here or purchased from our shop at the link below.
https://commonweal.scot/shop/

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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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 the world of work. Many jobs can't be worked from home. Many people do not have home environments that allow them to easily work from there. Even the transition hasn't always been smooth and various technologies and working practices have started to emerge to allow offices to operate in a decentralised way. The discussion asks if this can be done only in a way that suits the workplace or if it can be done in a way that fosters and maintains the social connections formed at work - connections that can be vital to solidarity, collective bargaining and workers' rights.

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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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 to the disjointed and profit-driven sector we have today and why the Rights-based approach taken by the Scottish Government, whilst well meaning, will not lead to adequate outcomes unless coupled with the resources to protect the rights and the ability to uphold them.

Mark's paper can be read here.

Robin McAlpine's article on Rights can be read here.

And Mark's paper on trauma has been published in Issue 4 of volume 30 of Scottish Affairs (article paywalled).

Common Weal's work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: https://commonweal.scot/product-category/support-us/

The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal's policy papers in detail as well as other major policy stories in and around Scotland so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered or if you have an interesting policy story to tell and would like to be a guest on the show, please contact Craig at [email protected]

You can also find us on iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeart Radio and other major podcast aggregators.

You can also add the podcast to your RSS feed using this link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/264906.rss

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"Hiding Your Reality" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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