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?”

The right to hold indyref2 is now a key dividing line in the fight for control of the Labour party – the independence movement should not be ambivalent about its outcome, Ben Wray finds

SCOTTISH LABOUR has been reeling after shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s Edinburgh Fringe intervention last week, where he said the Scottish Parliament should decide on whether Scotland has an independence referendum. 

CommonSpace editor Ben Wray reviews an introduction to self-determination which reaches reasonable conclusions but via a problematic route

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 news cycle and gets to the heart of issues, trying to find the substance behind the headlines.

IN the latest episode of Beyond the Noise Jamieson speaks to Dr Nick McKerrell, an expert in constitutional law and a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University. At a time of acute crisis for the British state they discuss:

1:26 – How does Boris Johnson expose the crisis of the British constitution and state?

Huge financial houses like RBS are parasites with no healthy social purpose

THIS week (5 August) Ross McEwan, the outgoing chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, told a swanky press dinner that his bank would leave an independent Scotland for London.

The reasons he gave for moving headquarters are the boldest imaginable statement of the power of the big financial houses in modern Britain.

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.

Labour sources claim statement is an illegitimate manoeuvre by the right of the party

- Leaked email from Scottish Labour group leader Jackie Baillie reveals that statement on behalf of Labour MSPs was released against the wishes of Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard

- Latest development follows war of words between Leonard and shadow chancellor John McDonnell over Labour’s position on a second Scottish independence referendum