Common Weal director Robin McAlpine takes a hard look at the state of Nicola Sturgeon’s government, and what its achievements and failures mean for the cause of independence

I BELIEVE the independence movement needs a government that is inspiring people by being bold and showing the kind of change that could be possible with independence. Most people accept that Nicola Sturgeon's government is not that.

She instead pitched her government as being about 'competent management' and asked that she be judged on her education track record.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine compares the current state of the Scottish and Welsh independence movements, and asks what they might learn from each other

I’M writing this in Cardiff. I've been down doing some meetings and am just about to head off to Swansea where I'm speaking at the Plaid Cymru conference. I was delighted to be invited because I've long believed that Scotland and Wales should be forming stronger links.

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that elites have manipulated language in such a way as to obliterate critique of their own political power and control

IT MUST be wonderful to control language, to decide what words are going to mean now. It's the free power to delegitimise, to isolate and marginalise, to close down.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine argues that the collapse of the British state is at least 40 years in the making – we shouldn’t try to save it

HA! You didn't fall for that did you? One thing, one single thing, that can save the Westminster system? You're kidding right? Do you really think I can distill such a complex social failure into a single, facile, off-the-shelf solution? What do you think I am, a Lib Dem?

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that the opportunity presented by the Brexit crisis could be squandered if the leadership of the independence movement continues to refuse to lead

DO YOU know what the component parts of an iPhone are? Not an iPhone. Do you know what the Ingredients of a cake are? Not a cake.

So when you peer through your fingers at the state of governance in the UK and the ferment of change taking place around the world, what you see are the ingredients for independence, its component parts. What you do not see is independence.

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine says the potential for Scotland to make good on the promise of a Green New Deal is a reason to be cheerful

I KNOW this is counterintuitive, but I'm feeling hopeful. I know that many of you will be somewhere in the depths of despair but at least in Scotland I think it is important that we project hope. And I think there is good reason we should.

Following the Electoral Commission stating it will review the question of any future independence referendum, Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that the independence movement should shake off its emotional attachment to ‘Yes’

I HAVE a house full of memorabilia of the 2014 independence referendum. It has very fond memories for me, gifts I was given at talking events all over the country. That word, 'Yes', is inextricably linked to my life, a reminder of one of the most important times in my life.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine says that the assumption that the First Minister has a fully-formed indy strategy is a product of the independence movement’s cognitive biases

AT THE moment I spend a lot of my time answering emails, talking to people at events, being quizzed by activists who spot me in the supermarket...the question is asked in different ways and with a spectrum of profanity, but its basically the same question: “What's going on?”

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine argues that Scotland’s future self-sufficiency requires a bold strategy for the nation’s land

SUDDENLY, on Monday next week, Scotland's countryside will burst into productivity. Having resembled little more than a scrubby desert for most of the year, overnight it will spring into action, flooding 'wealth and vitality' into rural areas.