Common Weal

[pandarilla]

Hi folks,

Is anyone on here joined up to the volunteer thing they've started?  I have, and so far I've been quite impressed.

https://www.commonweal.scot/rebuild

I'm sure every poster on here will have heard of Common Weal - but they're a left wing organisation that generates policies for an independent Scotland.  They've currently got a campaign running called 'Everything Must Change' and they're trying to get as much attention between 4pm and 7pm today - all across social media.  I don't have any social media accounts so I thought I'd post something on here.  Basically the campaign is about trying to take advantage of the current crisis to re-structure our society and our economy, to put people before profit.  

 

Why the f**k should we go back to the same old state of affairs where multi-national companies dominate our lives, and private enterprise eats away at our care sector.  There's an environmental crisis that hasn't gone away, and now is surely the best ever time to build a greener economy from the ground up.

 

So is anyone else signed up?

What do you make of Common Weal? 

Talking shop or any chance of creating real change?

Is Robin McAlpine a good guy or a c**t?

 

I've never been a member of a political party and I had some regrets over not getting more involved in the referendum campaign.  I spoke to a few people who were No voters but I didn't d enough.  This is the movement I've decided to join and like I said, so far I think I've made the right decision.  It's not really enough to just turn up and stick an X in a box for the good guys every few years.  I want to try and do more.

#everythingmustchange

[Hymlick Manouvre]

I'm up for joining, love the Manics

[BawWatchin]

That depends. How big is the leaders beard? Anything less than 10 inches long and i'll no bother.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Pat Kane, I'm out!

Edited May 11, 2020 by Sergeant Wilson

[Melanius Mullarkey]

21 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Pat Kane, I'm out!

^^^Linda found.

[pandarilla]

1. Naw
2. Dunno. On the one hand they're out there producing reports about this that and the other and I'm not so that's good I suppose. On the other hand when these subjects deviate a bit away from Craig Dalziel's expertise they can come across as a bit shonky.  As with everything think tanky they should be open about how they're funded & the whole idea that the Scottish Left Review sells enough magazines to fund the Jimmy Reid Foundation which in turn can fund Common Weal & McAlpine's salary for getting on for 7 years seems... odd. If they really are a shoestring outfit living off donations and so on they would in my view be more popular if they commissioned people from all over the place. Also CommonSpace campaigned to repeal OBFA because Angela Haggerty (who turned out to be a massive bully according to stories from Robert Sommyne, Ben Wray, Michael Gray circulating around when she moved to the Sunday Herald), so that was the last time Common Weal got any of my money.
3. All of Us First had a real impact when it was released when Scotland was asking itself what kind of country it wanted to be but I couldn't off the top of my head name a single other thing they've published since then.
4. Grabbing the mic and talking at length uninvited at an all female panel to discuss female representation, sharing a stage with Tommy Sheridan at Hope over Fear rallies are both instructive things to have happened. Nobody's perfect but he's had what I can only assume is a livable-on amount of money thrown at him for a long while, was it well spent?

Cheers for the detailed response. There's a lot of that I'm not clued up on.

I donate a tenner a month to common weal, and as far as I've found, that's where their income lies (although if there's something dodgy I'd like to know about it).

The policies have impressed me. There's a lot of talk about what needs to be done but converting that into ideas isn't easy. I wish the snp would show more interest - but i understand their predicament.

The sheridan fiasco caused collateral damage to so many on the left in Scotland. I will always defend him (to a point) so I'm certainly not going to criticise others for campaigning with him.

I need to read up on the haggerty stuff.

[pandarilla]

Pat Kane, I'm out!

What the f**k's wrong with pat kane?

He's got a whiney voice but you can't hold that against him.

[BawWatchin]

1 hour ago, pandarilla said:

What the f**k's wrong with pat kane?

He's got a whiney voice but you can't hold that against him.

If you can hate on Janey for having a screechy as **** voice. Why not Pat Kane for sounding whiney?

[NotThePars]

Angela Hagerty was a terrible poster. Dogshit posting.

[Tutankhamen]

8 hours ago, pandarilla said:

Hi folks,

Is anyone on here joined up to the volunteer thing they've started?  I have, and so far I've been quite impressed.

https://www.commonweal.scot/rebuild

I'm sure every poster on here will have heard of Common Weal - but they're a left wing organisation that generates policies for an independent Scotland.  They've currently got a campaign running called 'Everything Must Change' and they're trying to get as much attention between 4pm and 7pm today - all across social media.  I don't have any social media accounts so I thought I'd post something on here.  Basically the campaign is about trying to take advantage of the current crisis to re-structure our society and our economy, to put people before profit.  

 

Why the f**k should we go back to the same old state of affairs where multi-national companies dominate our lives, and private enterprise eats away at our care sector.  There's an environmental crisis that hasn't gone away, and now is surely the best ever time to build a greener economy from the ground up.

 

So is anyone else signed up?

What do you make of Common Weal? 

Talking shop or any chance of creating real change?

Is Robin McAlpine a good guy or a c**t?

 

I've never been a member of a political party and I had some regrets over not getting more involved in the referendum campaign.  I spoke to a few people who were No voters but I didn't d enough.  This is the movement I've decided to join and like I said, so far I think I've made the right decision.  It's not really enough to just turn up and stick an X in a box for the good guys every few years.  I want to try and do more.

#everythingmustchange

Cut and paste from 6 years ago?

Nice.

Is any of that even still a thing?

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 hours ago, pandarilla said:

What the f**k's wrong with pat kane?

He's got a whiney voice but you can't hold that against him.

I hated his band more than most since they started. He has what I'd call an unfortunate manner. Everything he says or writes I feel like I am being spoken down to.

Then there's his face...

[pandarilla]

Cut and paste from 6 years ago?
Nice.
Is any of that even still a thing?

Me or them?

These policies are designed to help us with the current economic crisis so they're certainly not cutting and pasting.

If we're going to have to prop and bail out companies, why don't we take the chance to do it in a sustainable way that keeps more of the money in Scotland? There are going to be huge economic decisions. I know they're mainly going to be from wm but we need to start looking at genuine solutions in order to have a better economic plan for indyref2.

And i took a good 5 or 6 minutes to craft that initial post ya dick. Original as f**k, me.

Realistically how many people are doing this? Around 450 people donate to the Scottish Review which has been going on about as long as the Scottish Left Review & employs about 3 folk so maybe 500 folk do the same for Common Weal? To fund the salaries of 9 staff (a bit less than this as their staff page still lists Ben Wray as editor of commonspace which he hasn't been for a while now). Maybe I'm wrong and they're far more popular. Twitter seems less critical of them so maybe I'm in a cynical bubble, or maybe it's just a circlejerking rump of people talking about them at this stage.

 

You're asking good questions, and I'd like to know the answers too.

So do you suspect something untoward with funding this team? They've got quite a few directors who are well known in Scotland, and probably have some contacts who donate a bit more than a tenner a month.

I signed up for the common space daily article and realised i was sharing daily good content and paying nothing for it - so i signed up out of free media guilt.

[pandarilla]

I hated his band more than most since they started. He has what I'd call an unfortunate manner. Everything he says or writes I feel like I am being spoken down to.
Then there's his face...

I can't disagree with this.

But the content of what he says is usually spot on.

And Labour of love is a belting wee tune.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Just now, pandarilla said:

I can't disagree with this.

But the content of what he says is usually spot on.

And Labour of love is a belting wee tune.

I worked with his Aunt and I hated her as well.

[pandarilla]

I'm suspicious of any think tank that doesn't have 100% transparency on how it is funded. Normally these are right wing ones like the taxpayers alliance but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't also have questions for left leaning ones.

What kind of ulterior motive could they have on the left though, other than altruism?

 

But I'm going to ask about this when i get the chance and i couldn't agree more about having a suspicious outlook to shit like this.

 

[pandarilla]

I was suspicious for no reason, it's all on companies house:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC483485/filing-history
They have about 30 grand in the bank so I can only assume everyone doing work for them is freelancing. If I'm reading that right they earn about 15 grand a year from donations, so it really is a tiny handful of people giving them money.
 

That's what i figured. Cheers for checking, though.

[SandyCromarty]

There are 14 Major and minor political parties and 42 other satellite political parties plus numerous Common Weal types in Scotland. 

All have  serious agendas and depend on donations.

 BTW there are over 23,000 charities in Scotland and all dependent on donations

On Independence Marches we are surrounded by leftist organisations handing out their flyers and shouting their aims, nothing to do with Independence but more to do with overthrowing the government.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, pandarilla said:

1 hour ago, MixuFixit said:

I was suspicious for no reason, it's all on companies house:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC483485/filing-history
They have about 30 grand in the bank so I can only assume everyone doing work for them is freelancing. If I'm reading that right they earn about 15 grand a year from donations, so it really is a tiny handful of people giving them money.
 

That's what i figured. Cheers for checking, though.

I looked at the link to Companies House...Tiffany, Sorcha, Gehan. Fūck off!

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, MixuFixit said:

They know what's best for the working class don't you know

Sorry m'lud.

[craigkillie]

Given that the environmental agenda appears to be at the forefront of your thoughts here, why not just join the Scottish Green Party? They have a similar left-wing, pro-indy, pro-environment agenda but actually have the representation in parliament to give themselves a chance of making it happen. They also have the advantage of being part of both UK and Europe-wide Green movements with some representation in the UK and European parliaments.

I joined up last year and have so far generally been impressed with the communication and structure of the party. There are local groups all over the country which makes it easy to get involved (I did a bit of leafleting for the Euro elections). That's not to say that they're perfect, and obviously backing up the SNP at Holyrood does can often put them in a difficult place regarding furthering the green agenda, but I'd say they have managed to use their leverage to push through some decent legislation in that respect which the SNP wouldn't have gone near otherwise.