Episode 125 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Nancy Barr and Terry Paterson both from Larkhall Community Growers and the Larkhall Lighthouse Community Centre. They discuss the various projects they run around the town - including the community gardens - and the impact they've had on the collective wellbeing of the people of Larkhall. You can visit the Community Growers webpage here . The Larkhall Lighthouse can be contacted v...
May 11, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 125
Episode 124 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Andrew Stark - Land Policy Officer at RSPB Scotland. RSPBS and Common Weal are both members of the Scottish Food Coalition who have recently been campaigning to improve the Good Food Nation Bill presently moving through the Scottish Parliament. Andrew discusses the impact that this bill and other food policy developments in Scotland will have on food production and consumption in ...
May 04, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 124
Episode 123 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week Craig talks to Kathie Pollard, Policy & Practice Lead at the Scottish Land Commission, about Scotland's vacant and derelict land. Derelict land is more than an eyesore. It represents a loss of resources, unused potential and can even harm the vitality and self-image of a community. SLC have developed tools and resources to help communities bring derelict land in their area back into use. The ...
Apr 20, 2022•26 min•Season 4Ep. 123
Episode 122 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Andrew Fournet, Innovation Lead at Astrosat - a company that uses satellite and ground data to create maps of Scotland such as maps of fuel poverty or access to transport. Andrew talks about the importance of accurate data in policy development and in tracking the effectiveness of policy and introduces Astrosat's new initiative Poverty Plus - a free tool for registered charities t...
Apr 13, 2022•28 min•Season 4Ep. 122
Episode 121 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks once again to Keith Baker - convenor of the CW Energy Working Group, co-founder of the Energy Poverty Research Initiative and researcher at the BEAM centre at Glasgow Caledonian Uni - about the latest report from the IPCC about what needs to be done and what can be done to mitigate against the climate emergency. You can read more from EPRI - including the report cited by the IPCC - h...
Apr 06, 2022•51 min•Season 4Ep. 121
Episode 120 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to John Hutchison about his involvement with community land buyouts on Eigg, Rum and Knoydart. They discuss how conditions prior to the buyouts stymied development in the communities and how this has changed since. They also discuss the barriers raised against community land buyouts, how a potential Scottish Constitution could grant and protect additional rights such as the Right to ...
Mar 30, 2022•35 min•Season 4Ep. 120
Episode 119 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig is joined by Susanne MacDonald who is the Policy Officer for Cultarlann Inbhir Nis, a charitable organisation attempting to create the first immersive Gaelic Language Hub and cultural centre in Inverness. They discuss the success of similar hubs in Ireland and Wales and how they can be used to revitalise and secure Scotland's Gaelic language amongst existing speakers while introducing it t...
Mar 23, 2022•39 min•Season 4Ep. 119
Episode 118 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Cornell Hanxomphou from the Environmental Rights Centre of Scotland. ERCS seeks to raise awareness about environmental rights in Scotland, make it easier for people to seek restitution when their rights are breached and are actively campaigning for the creation of a Scottish Environmental Court to handle cases of breaches of our rights. ERCS has a petition to demand an enforceable...
Mar 16, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 118
Episode 117 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week is the third anniversary of the Policy Podcast and to mark this, Craig is reunited with co-founder and former co-host of the show Jonathon Shafi. Jonathon has recently launched a new weekly newsletter, Independence Captured , which aims to critically examine the barriers that have been placed in front of the Scottish independence movement. In this podcast, he explores some of those barriers as we...
Mar 02, 2022•34 min•Season 4Ep. 117
Episode 116 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast You can download the episode directly here . This week, Craig talks to Nick Kempe - Convenor of the Common Weal Care Reform Working Group - about their recent blueprint for a National Care Service. They discuss how the Care Reform Group formed, how it has approached designing a National Care Service. The culmination of 18 months of work, their blueprint for a fully publicly owned, not for profit Care Service that delivers care free at the point of ne...
Feb 23, 2022•54 min•Season 4Ep. 116
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...
Feb 16, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 115
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 Po...
Feb 09, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 114
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 u...
Feb 02, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 113
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 site...
Jan 26, 2022•33 min•Season 4Ep. 112
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 ...
Jan 19, 2022•59 min•Season 4Ep. 111
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 ...
Dec 09, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 110
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 p...
Dec 01, 2021•28 min•Season 3Ep. 109
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...
Nov 17, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 108
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 th...
Nov 11, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 107
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 ...
Nov 03, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 106
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 also take a look at COP26 - what it should achieve if it is to live up to its name but where and how it ...
Oct 27, 2021•46 min•Season 3Ep. 105
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 could be doing more. You can visit Migration Policy Scotland are their website and Twitter pages. The ...
Oct 20, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 104
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 working on a comprehensive blueprint for a Scottish National Care Service . Kathy talks about her latest p...
Oct 13, 2021•26 min•Season 3Ep. 103
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 depended largely on whether the points favoured one side of the campaign or the other, which topics were ...
Oct 06, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 102
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 Digital Currencies. These could potentially allow Central Banks to create money in the event of a futu...
Sep 29, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 101
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 on the democratic routes to independence and the pressure campaign needed for it to succeed can be r...
Sep 22, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 100
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 Government perpetuates that even if the policies themselves may be valuable and how things could be greatly improv...
Sep 08, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 99
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 data that informs democratic campaigning. They discuss the current weaknesses in the data we have and how that has g...
Sep 01, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 98
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 conference that have been influenced by or based on Common Weal policies including one for a National Transpo...
Aug 18, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 97
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 Scotland and the world if we fail to act on the climate emergency and why this report represents the last chang...
Aug 11, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 96
