RSS Parrot

Planning and zoning is the solution to bad tree planting and land management

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-a79j5

Published: March 21, 2025 09:50

This week in The Herald we have been reading extensive coverage of ways in which the reforesting of Scotland has been handled badly, with the wrong trees in the wrong places, the wrong places developed in the wrong ways and the whole process being a…

Low paid work is NOT a route to dignity.

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/20-03-25-rm

Published: March 20, 2025 18:54

Robin McAlpine hits out at the Labour Government claiming that encouraging people out of benefits into low paid work offers a route to dignity in work.

Fixing and Preventing Mouldy Homes

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-ywrzm

Published: March 20, 2025 09:27

The Scottish Government is considering legislation that will force social landlords to fix mouldy homes.While this will initially only cover tenants in Council, Housing Authority and other social rented homes, there appear to be plans to extend the…

Ferguson Marine failure highlights the desperate need for a real industrial strategy

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/19-03-25-cd

Published: March 19, 2025 10:31

Dr Craig Dalzell outlines the need for a real industrial strategy for Scotland after the news that the next round of small vessels produced for CalMac will be built in Poland instead.

There is a better way to organise disability support

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-7b5hr

Published: March 19, 2025 09:57

The shocking and very widely condemned Labour Government attack on disabled people is based around limiting or reducing access to benefits, and therefore its opponents are calling for the cuts to benefits to be reversed. But both approaches contain a…

Fergusson Marine and the failure of industrial policy

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-rrg57

Published: March 18, 2025 09:17

Today we learn that the future for Ferguson Marine is looking uncertain. Common Weal would argue that this was the inevitable outcome of a series of disconnected and poorly coordinated decisions spanning a decade. To rebuild an industry requires a…

Tackling racist violence at the community level

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-ad6mt

Published: March 17, 2025 09:59

There have been two appalling racially-motivated attacks in recent hours, one the defacing of a billboard promoting Islamic Relief, the other an attack on a mosque. Rising far-right and racist movements require a public response which is much more rooted…

Not Everyone is winning at moving

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/14-03-25-kd

Published: March 14, 2025 17:17

Kaitlin Dryburgh shares her disdain at the gall of Zoopla’s latest advert which she says is wildly out of touch with the housing crisis people are facing on the daily.

Structural reform of the NHS is not a performance

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-c3kaw

Published: March 14, 2025 09:43

It is early to know exactly what the NHS reforms in England are going to mean – the initial signs are that this policy has been overly influenced by the government's PR advisers who seem in thrall to Elon Musk and seem to be placing undue weight on the…

Dundee University cuts: yet another symptom of the failure of marketisation in universities

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/13-03-25-rh

Published: March 13, 2025 11:15

Rory Hamilton agrees that the funding model of universities is broken, but it’s not free tuition or staff asking for fair pay causing the problem…

New toolkit shows warm buildings are achieved by reducing heat loss

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-da9nr

Published: March 13, 2025 10:03

Yesterday the Scottish Government scrapped plans to move Scotland to low-carbon heating. Common Weal broadly welcomes the loss of this legislation since it took the wrong approach by forcing individual households to take expensive action on an individual…

What is the Scottish Government’s Climate agenda?

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/12-03-2025-rm

Published: March 12, 2025 12:29

After scrapping emissions reduction targets, reintroducing peak rail fares against its car reduction targets, forgetting its Passivhaus bill, and now scrapping its heat and building strategy, Robin McAlpine wonders if the Scottish government has any…

Heat In Buildings Bill Shelved

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/12-03-2025

Published: March 12, 2025 09:46

As the Scottish Government's clean heating Bill is scrapped, how do we get clean heating to Scotland's homes?The Scottish Government has announced that its pausing the Heat in Buildings Bill indefinitely until "it would both decarbonise houses and decrease…

Debunking Carbon Capture and Storage

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-hfpc6

Published: March 11, 2025 14:14

With fresh calls for more investment in Carbon Capture and Storage in Scotland, Head of Policy and Research, Dr Craig Dalzell debunks CCUS as a viable solution to the climate emergency.

We shouldn't just accept soaring household debt, we should do something

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-4e8ee

Published: March 11, 2025 09:53

Today an expert has warned that the pursuit of debt by local authorities in Scotland is pushing families into poverty. Since the 1990s a policy of 'cheap money' was promoted in the UK to encourage a debt-fuelled consumer spree. The outcome has been…

A new start for Common Weal

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/11-02-2025-5dd9p

Published: March 6, 2025 12:56

Last summer the team got together to ask ourselves a simple question; what on earth does a left wing think tank do in an era where the national debate is between small-c and big-c conservatives? We've reached the point where the only debate in politics is…