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  8pm tonight. I'm back on the Scottish Independence Podcast with a recording of my talk about data centres for Pensioners for Indy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5diFQm9Yw

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  AI Data Centres Why are they popping up in Scotland? Who benefits from them? What can we do about them? My discussion with Pensioners For Independence and Scottish Indy Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5diFQm9Yw

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  Today's Common Weal Daily Briefing Was there ever a serious attempt to save Alexander Dennis? https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-afpn8

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  If you want to understand AI, first you need to understand what a Capitalist thinks about Workers. My presentation to Pensioners For Indy on Scotland and AI data centres. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5diFQm9Yw

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  CW Magazine Repost The Scottish Government’s sudden push for local government reform should be welcomed but their proposal as it stands needs a lot of work to make sure that it’s not a chaotic mess or a recipe for corruption and centralisation. http://thecommongreen.scot/2026/10/02/finally-local-government-reform-but-it-must-be-done-right/

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  A counter-curtailment industry would be one that can ramp up when supply exceeds demand but can also ramp down or even switch off when demand exceeds supply. AI data centres will not do this. To understand why, pull the plug on your PC while you're updating the system. Their owners will instead demand to be highest priority - they will demand that you will sit in the dark before their data centre has to turn off. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/26591755.data-centres-solve-scotl...

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  ICYMI My presentation to Pensioners for Indy on why Scotland has suddenly started getting a lot of applications to build AI data centres and what it might mean for us if they get built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5diFQm9Yw

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  Multinational investment banks and foreign state wealth funds are cashing in on Scottish renewables. https://www.thenational.scot/news/26429214.scottish-wind-farms-paying-1bn-foreign-shareholders/ Scotland could bring energy into public ownership, costing you exactly the same as it will to not do it. Here's how: https://www.commonweal.scot/articles/magazine-d6cz3 #Energy #ScottishPolitics #ScotPol #Renewables

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  There's Swinney lobbying for the fossil fuel companies again. "Swinney and Burnham also discussed economic growth, while the Scottish First Minister raised the issue of the energy profits levy, describing it as the "biggest obstacle to investment in the north east". " https://www.thenational.scot/news/26405312.andy-burnham-commits-not-bypass-scottish-parliament/

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  My article in today's Common Weal Magazine. I've seen more than a few commentators decry Count Binface as an affront to the dignity of our democracy. He should instead be seen as a celebration of that democracy and a warning - that the most powerful person in the King's Court is the Court Jester. https://www.commonweal.scot/articles/magazine-ds6dj

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  CW Magazine Repost A new report from Moody’s warns that the impact of the climate emergency is proving so hard to predict that the losses and damage caused by it are increasingly difficult to insure. http://thecommongreen.scot/2026/06/26/the-climate-emergency-is-uninsurable/

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  This "potential" is based on geography, not cost or time of delivery. New nuclear costs around £109/MWh, with costs likely to be stable or rising. New solar costs around £41/MWh and costs are declining faster than even optimistic predictions. Time of delivery is key though. >> https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26237848.scotland-high-potential-new-nuclear-uk-government-study-finds

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  Burnham "devolving" powers from Westminster to regional mayors has a couple of obvious problems when it comes to Scotland. 1) Most of the powers are probably already devolved to Holyrood so this would mean Westminster stripping powers from Edinburgh. 2) The powers that aren't are already in the control of Local Authorities which means centralising powers UPWARDS from a proportionally elected Council to the diktat of a single person. (3) - Also, in Scotland, we call them provosts...

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  So much for the idea that Burnham might only win if the far-right and extreme-right split the racist vote. That wasn't even close. I do see worrying hints that his leadership pitch will just be "Starmer, but effective" but still. Makerfield made a trillionaire cry. That's good enough for today. #UKPolitics

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  RE: https://mastodon.scot/@thecommongreen/116539079102609382 This post was supposed to be a warning, not a prediction. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy42x3g7r89o

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  The problem Swinney tried to avert is that the previous Government was bloated and too many Ministers meant too many big salaries. The problem he's facing now is that the slimmed down Gov will overload Ministers with too many responsibilities and important jobs will get shoved to the side because of even more important ones. Both problems are real. the Scottish Parliament is too small for its expanded devolved responsibilities and Gov too centralised to pass control to Local Government...

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  Peter Murrell pleads guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP. https://www.thenational.scot/news/26135882.former-snp-chief-peter-murrell-pleads-guilty-embezzlement-charges/

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  CW Magazine Repost Young workers are being told that the reason that the economy isn’t growing is because they are too lazy. There’s a lot to unpick about why this is entirely wrong. http://thecommongreen.scot/2026/05/26/workers-arent-lazy-theyre-being-left-behind/

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  Alex Cole-Hamilton saying that debating independence won't dual the A9 or fix the NHS. Well, fixing the NHS won't dual the A9 either so, you know...perhaps politics involves discussing multiple issues?

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  I was extremely disappointed that Scottish Labour's proposed Ecocide Bill was timed out by the election. It should be brought back and passed with haste so that Scotland can arrest, charge and prosecute those who advocate for or commit gross crimes against the environment. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/26/tony-blair-labour-abandon-net-zero-support-donald-trump

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  Board Game News I'm trying out a new idea for a board game. As always, if you have Tabletop Simulator on Steam, you can play it there. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3720979130 Ten Minute Tabletop is a minimalist Napoleonic style tabletop wargame inspired by HG Wells' Little Wars but designed to be played in ten minutes. Battles are fought on a 9x9 hex grid that can be printed on a single A4 sheet of paper. #Boardgames #Games #TabletopWargaming

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  RE: https://mastodon.scot/@thecommongreen/116645817118304276 Now updated with some more maps and I've replaced the last remaining placeholder asset (the fatigue tokens) with appropriate tokens.

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  My article in this week's Common Weal Magazine I'm seriously concerned by the proportion of Scotland's homes that the Scottish Government says are below adequate or even minimum legal standards. https://www.commonweal.scot/articles/magazine-atmhf

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  RE: https://solarcene.community/@The_Sun/116668075622566919 Scotland should be investing in something like this too.

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  As perverse as responding to the invasion of Ukraine by buying Russian oil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8pk2m4nlxo

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  Repost from my article in The National It isn’t just oil that is being disrupted by the US’s war with Iran nor will it be the only future disruption so Scotland needs a more resilient economy with strategies that should extend to all critical minerals. http://thecommongreen.scot/2026/05/11/the-iran-war-sounds-a-warning-for-all-of-scotlands-critical-minerals/

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  Today's Common Weal Daily Briefing The Scottish National Investment Bank's latest investment in housing looks more like a financial pump-and-dump scheme than anything that will help tenants or fix the housing emergency. https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-c46ck #ScottishPolitics #ScotPol #Housing #Rent

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  RE: https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive/116564090257294464 When Common Weal upgraded our website last year, the Internet Archive proved to be an absolute boon to me as I transitioned our policy library over. I wouldn't have /lost/ anything without it, but being able to cross-reference publication dates and restore blurbs and other bits of information made the job MUCH easier.

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  I was going to do a #DayOfHat thread ridiculing the pagentry of the State Opening of Parliament, but honestly I can simply no longer deign to bother with authoritarian elites pretending that their Magic Blood(TM) gives them the right to rule. #NotMyKing

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  I am looking forward to the first journalist to speak to prospective Starmer successors asking "Which of the polices announced by the King yesterday do you intend to scrap?"