Robin McAlpine (+RobinMcAlpine)

01 February 2023 19:18

If we move from me to us, from demands to negotiation and from personal to structural, we can reverse the wall-to-wall nastiness of the identity politics era - and focus on the big things our generation must tackle

Reset Part Three: Us in an imperfect world

robinmcalpine.org

31 January 2023 19:15

A politics based on individual identity needs a way to police and segregate those identities - and so language became a bitter and volatile battlefield, with few winners.

Part Two: Words and moans will break your bones

robinmcalpine.org

30 January 2023 18:54

How a new academic theory transformed all of western politics, how an exploitative elite grabbed the chance to rebrand itself and how the whole thing led to all-out war.

Reset Part One: The rise of the moral elite

robinmcalpine.org

27 January 2023 17:45

The gap between the political rhetoric on how terrible poverty is and the political action on doing anything about it widens constantly. Is there any way Scottish politics can start taking the poor seriously?

Can poverty escape the B-list?

robinmcalpine.org

24 January 2023 18:54

The death of Tom Nairn casts a pretty harsh light on Scotland's relationship with big ideas and big thinking. Are we really a nation which has turned its back on intellectualism?

Scotland had one intellectual – and then he died

robinmcalpine.org

20 January 2023 18:00

A hard-right policy no-one voted for and which benefits only Scotland's elites but manages to block the political space for a proper industrial strategy - it is the Scottish Government in a nutshell

Freeports – everything that is wrong with Scotland

robinmcalpine.org

18 January 2023 19:27

The independence movement tends to believe we've run an effective messaging campaign in recent years and so gets downhearted about the lack of shift in the polls. Optimism lies in the fact that we really didn't.

robinmcalpine.org

16 January 2023 19:45

There is no 'secret brilliant plan' for independence. At the weekend the truth of the emptiness of the SNP's promises were laid bare and it should stimulate some serious soul-searching in the independence movement.

Scotland has no political vehicle for independence

robinmcalpine.org

12 January 2023 17:45

The independence movement has been forced into ever-decreasing circles of process-obsession as a means of delay and control. In 2023 that is likely to run out of steam.

The Shape of 23 Part Four: Only Coppers Left

robinmcalpine.org

11 January 2023 19:36

A disparate range of conditions have merged and they're undermining Scottish democracy. Unless this can be addressed the most likely outcome is perpetual government failure.

The Shape of 23 Part Three: Scotland’s Democrisis

robinmcalpine.org

10 January 2023 18:09

The UK is fundamentally weak and immune to reform, so it doesn't really matter what happens politically or socially in 2023, the UK will trundle on as is until it is buffeted about by conditions outside of its control.

The Shape of 23 Part Two: The Toynbee Cycle

robinmcalpine.org

09 January 2023 19:27

Global politics is not currently the battle between good and evil you are encouraged to believe it is. It is, as always, mainly about cynical empires pursuing their own selfish interests.

The shape of ’23 Part One – The New Cold War

robinmcalpine.org

16 December 2022 15:09

It is harder than it should be to enjoy Christmas this year knowing how much suffering there is. But the humanity in how ordinary people are responding is a very good reason to have hope for the future.

There’s sadness this Christmas – but reason for hope too

robinmcalpine.org

14 December 2022 20:30

The Scottish Budget will bring grim news, but it is not the end of the story. Doing more of the same will fail, but there are entirely different directions to take

The budget is a reason to wake up, not fall into despair

robinmcalpine.org

13 December 2022 18:54

The divisions in the independence movement are over-stated. With some trust, some goodwill and a bit of work, we can achieve the movement building and the reconciliation which brings us together again.

How the indy movement can be friends again

robinmcalpine.org

12 December 2022 19:54

In the wind up to the Festive Season, we're all looking for reasons to be cheerful. The initial response we've had to a big piece of work we did makes me believe that the seed of that cheer is easy to find. If you want to look for it.

Scotland’s humanity can rise above this moment

robinmcalpine.org

09 December 2022 19:00

It is a universally accepted fact that unity is no longer possible - except it's wrong. There remains massive common cause for campaigners to draw on.

Unity really is possible

robinmcalpine.org

07 December 2022 18:54

The illusion that we can accept Scottish Government failure because a referendum was round the corner must now come to an end - radical change must be forced upon it

Six months to save Scotland

robinmcalpine.org

05 December 2022 18:15

A letter to Gordon Brown, a man sincere in his desire to reform the UK but unable to be honest that it isn't possible in a country that is more collapsed empire than modern nation state

Dear Gordon Brown, surely you now realise the UK isn’t reformable

robinmcalpine.org

02 December 2022 12:54

In which, against his better judgement, Robin tells a story about writing the new Common Weal book as a metaphor for how the independence movement can start to get out of the doldrums...