The Common Weal Policy Podcast

Episode 207 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Eilidh Keay from Living Rent about the state of the private rented sector in Scotland, what this means for tenants - especially when their rent is too high and/or their home is poorly maintained by their landlord and what the Scottish Government is about to do to bring in effective rent controls, imp...

Episode 206 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig is in the hotseat for a change as Rory Hamilton interviews him about his latest policy paper for Common Weal Taxing Land in Scotland. They discuss how to reform Council Tax into a Property Tax that matches the actual value of homes and then how to extend that tax to land, bringing in around £450 million a yea...

Episode 205 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Prof Richard Murphy about his new report Taxing Wealth 2024. The report examines the causes of the UK's wealth inequality and looks at the policies that could be implemented to mitigate against it, including reforms to National Insurance, Capital Gains Tax and tax reliefs on savings such as ISAs...

Episode 204 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Andy Wightman, possibly Scotland's foremost expert on land reform, about the Scottish Government's new Land Reform Bill and his updated analysis of his Who Owns Scotland? report which shows that in the past decade or so, Scotland's already very concentrated patterns of land ownership h...

Episode 203 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Kristopher Leask from Community Energy Scotland and Josh Doble from Community Land Scotland about their new call to action paper A Fair Energy Deal for Communities. They discuss the state of community owned energy in Scotland, what the benefits are compared to the privatised model we more used to in Scotland. They also ...

Episode 202 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Ben Wray from the Gig Economy Project who report on issues affecting gig workers and platform work around Europe and internationally. They discuss the new Platform Work Directive which will regulate and improve workers' rights within the gig economy in Europe. They also talk about the implicatio...

Episode 201 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Simon Jones, a long time Common Weal supporter and activist, about a newly proposed £20 million regeneration scheme in his home town of Dumfries. They discuss the importance of Scotland's towns to our communities, the importance of long term planning in those proposals, Scotland's problem ...

Episode 200 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to William Thomson from Scotonomics about their upcoming event The Festival of Economics which seeks to debunk and demystify economics and to explore innovations and new theories in economics as well as to explore the topics and policies affecting Scotland right now.

You can buy tickets for the...

Episode 199 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Nick Kempe, Convenor of the Common Weal Care Reform Group, about the return of the National Care Service Bill to the Scottish Parliament within the next couple of weeks. They discuss why Common Weal campaigned for a pause to the Bill process, how we've engaged with the co-design process in the t...

Episode 198 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week Craig talks to Heather from the direct action group This Is Rigged about their upcoming March for Scran - a protest on February 18th 2024 starting at 11am from Garnethill Park in Glasgow. They discuss the reasons for food insecurity in Scotland, the rise of foodbank demand coinciding with a drop in donations and fun...

Episode 197 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Common Weal's own Nicola Biggerstaff about the various public consultations that we're currently taking part in such as the proposal for an Ecocide Bill, the UK Parliament's consultation on the sustainability of the UK's debt, work on the Scottish Circular Economy Bill, proposals ...

Episode 196 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Prof Alison Phipps, Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow and UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, about the devastation of Gaza, the recent ruling by the ICJ that there was a plausible risk of genocide as a result of Israel&apos...

Episode 195 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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Welcome to Season 6 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast. This year's theme is "Activate" so if you have a story to tell about an interesting thing happening in your community or if you're involved in a campaign to change things for the better, then please get in touch and we'll get you on the show to ta...

Episode 194 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week Craig talks to Common Weal Director Amanda Burgauer in the final Policy Podcast of the year. They take you through some of the highlights from Common Weal in 2023 such as our policy work in ScotWind, the National Care Service and in independence strategy. They discuss some of our public events and conference appearances. And they talk...

Episode 193 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Anthony Salamone from European Merchants who is here to discuss the Scottish Government's latest independence White Paper on Scotland's accession to the European Union. They discuss where the Scottish Government has started to demonstrate deeper understanding of EU processes and structures ...

Episode 192 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Sophia Georgescu, a PhD candidate currently researching how actively involving children in democratic participation can both educate and embed participation later but can also have a meaningful impact on our democracy itself. Decisions affecting everyone should not be solely left to the "adults ...

Episode 191 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Stuart Donald, an electoral reform campaigner who particularly focuses on the systematic inequalities caused by the UK's First Past The Post electoral system. They discuss how this system disenfranchises voters, leads to them being less well represented in Parliament and leads to parties pulling...

Episode 190 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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This week, Craig talks to Nick Kempe who many of you will know from his work with Common Weal on care reform. His life outwith care though is spent exploring the hills and mountains of Scotland and Europe. In this podcast, he talks about the problem Scotland faces with frequent landslips and how they have been exacerbated by ...

Episode 189 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast

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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 the headline poll...