Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that unionists have no answer to the increasingly glaring fact that the UK economy is rigged in favour of London

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine says a future where we successfully tackle the climate emergency can also be one of healthier and happier citizens, but only if we are genuinely willing to embrace change

THERE’S only one step to go before Scotland can be said finally to be taking climate change seriously – we must get past accepting that something has to be done and start to accept what actually has to be done. Only then can we do it.

Common Weal Director Robin McAlpine argues that the independence movement remains remarkably united when compared to other major social movements around the globe

I’M WRITING this on the plane coming back from a week-long Erasmus-funded training camp in the Catalan hills (hurray the European Union!). It's been vegan food without coffee or alcohol, meditation every morning and a day of complete silence alone up the top of a hill.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine says the divisions among pro-independence advocates over the All Under One Banner march is the product of two very different worldviews: one of the centrist political establishment, and the other of the grassroots movement

I BELIEVE in the Scottish independence movement. I believe in it very much and will vigorously defend it. So I'm angry this week.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine says it’s time for everyone in the independence movement to listen to SNP members and embrace the positive case for a Scottish currency

I HAD been looking forward to writing a happy, conciliatory column this week saying 'the currency debate was tough but we've ended up with a position that can keep everyone together so let's move forward'. But for me to do that, those who lost on Saturday have to demonstrate the good grace to accept they lost.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine makes a final plea to SNP delegates at this weekend’s spring conference to reject the Growth Commission’s economic plan for Scottish independence

AT THE weekend, delegates to SNP conference will be asked to make what may well be the most important political decision they will ever make. 

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine argues that the SNP is on the verge of swallowing all of Better Together’s arguments in the last referendum – and weakening the independence case in the process

IS BETTER TOGETHER taking over the SNP? The party’s new spiritual leader (Andrew Wilson) was on BBC radio quite openly telling Scotland that independence will be pain and sacrifice, that Britain is a fine economic and political institution and that Scotland shouldn't get above itself with talk of its own currency.

Common Weal director Robin McAlpine looks at a recent opinion poll on independence, and finds that it highlights the need for the political strategy of independence to enter a new phase

IF Angus Robertson's poll didn't cause nervousness in the independence movement it should have. It suggests that not only are we not winning, we're going backwards. And if that's right, it very strongly suggests we need to do things differently.