“Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” –
This blog post previously appeared in Common Weal’s weekly newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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Intro
Welcome to the end of 2024. I can feel the Dùbhlachd tightening around me these days. I’ve always been a rather solar powered person (with a longtime ritual of greeting midsummer by reading outdoors under the midnight glow) and while I’m not afflicted – as some of my friends are – with full blown Seasonal Affective Disorder, I do feel the urge to crawl under a duvet and hibernate until the sun returns. Humans weren’t made to run a summer schedule in the middle of winter – we should be huddled around the hearth telling stories and hoping that the pickled fruits last till Spring.
Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to my winter break and some time to switch off, chill, and break into the aforementioned pickles – possibly with some home smoked cheese!
Until then, I want to leave you this year with a round up of what we got up to at Common Weal – especially as this year marked our tenth anniversary! We remain very possibly the most productive think tank in Scotland (supporting all of our staff members while the whole think tank earns less that the First Minister does – if you’d like help us correct that, then please sign up as a regular donor). We published 12 substantial policy papers, policy briefings or consultation responses this year plus we submitted several more less substantial consultation responses to the Scottish or UK Governments (many really are barely worth the time to submit but if we don’t then it gets held against us when it comes time to lobby properly for the outcome we want). This is all in addition to the whole staff writing in our weekly newsletter and our regular In Common Column in The National, plus all of the other media appearances we make with our work. Not a bad return for an average donation of £10/month! Regular newsletter readers will, no doubt, remember many of the stories and policy papers but newer subscribers or folk who have been a bit overwhelmed with the news of the year (i.e. all of us) may have missed a few things.
The Common Green 