Drawing on insights from community-based natural resource management and local development,  qualified evidence is offered suggesting that, as in the current Scottish case, community-centric land reform has a promising future. 

Central  is the power that a landowner holds over local land use decisions and the extent to which local communities and other stakeholders can influence/inform those decisions.

Brexit is just the latest and most obvious example of the democratic deficit which makes the Union so damaging to Scotland and renders it impossible for the people of Scotland to have any control over our country’s future.

Far from putting pensions at risk, independence gives us the chance to significantly increase the state pension. Even If we only match the European average that would double the current state pension. The UK could easily afford to do so but chooses not to, to help their friends in the City financial sector.

The UK state pension is the worst in the developed world in terms of its value verses average wages. It ranks bottom in a list of countries compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), paying out just 29% of the average wage.

Have a read and ask yourself: wouldn’t you like to live in a country with a social/economic/environmental policy framework based on this set of values? Wouldn’t you like to be able to vote to create such a nation?

There is no set of official accounts that tells us how an independent Scotland’s economy would fare, nor what its finances would look like. Any attempt to analyse Scotland’s finances is instantly hampered by the fact that Scotland is not an independent nation and therefore does not have the same financial data, trade statistics, costs and revenue information available to work with that a normal independent country would have.

The economic situation has been made even worse by the unfolding disaster that is Brexit. Scotland voted to remain in the EU, because it was manifestly in our best interests to do so. But our votes were ignored, along with our opinions, our economic drivers and our arguments for a softer Brexit which would have allowed us to stay in the single market.

Implications for Scotland and the world if we fail to act on the climate emergency and why this report represents the last change to make those changes. They then discuss Common Weal’s latest policy paper 21 For 21 which offers 21 actions that the Scottish Government should take immediately in light of the IPCC report.

Common Weal podcast #96

• Research means to become independent which will be legally recognized other than through a Westminster sanctioned referendum

• Continue to develop a written constitution.

• Hold a broad survey among Scots to determine what kind of country they would like to see