[Archive 2013-12-16] Glasgow's Common Weal launch; 'Not me first. All of us first'

Historical archive — originally published 2013-12-16. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Last weekend, December 8, The Reid Foundation, a left-leaning think-tank, launched The Common Weal, a vision for a more socially just and inclusive post-Independence Scotland. Five- to six-hundred turned up for the event, billed as "[a] 'revolution' ... with T-shirts and dancing" by the Sunday Herald, and held in The Arches club and theatre, under Glasgow's Central Street Station.

Wikinews' Brian McNeil travelled to Glasgow to attend, walking through the city's festively decorated George Square, and busy shopping streets, to the venue under Hielanman's Umbrella.

More known for theatre, live music, and club nights, organisers in The Arches confirmed around 800 had signed up for the free Sunday afternoon event. The crowd was a mix of all ages, including families with young childen. Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai entertained the early arrivals by DJ-ing until the launch video for the Common Weal was screened.

The preferred vision offered by the Common Weal, "Not me first, all of us first", makes up the more-aspirational second-half of the film, advocating a national fund for industry, taking the nation's energy into collective ownership, building quality new public housing, strengthening the welfare state, and ending tax evasion. Throughout the event a distinction between these 'popular politics', which experience wide support, and the derogatory 'populist' label, often used to dismiss such calls for a fairer society, was emphasised.

Comedienne Janey Godley took over following the film, to compère the afternoon, and introduce Reid Foundation director Robin McAlpine. With the mixed audience, Godley made avoiding profanity — due to the presence of children — a theme of her warm-up; although, the humour remained fairly adult in nature.

Janey Godley took the microphone, as McAlpine left the stage to cheers and applause; joking about the 'rabble-rousing' tone of the speech she then introduced David Whyte of Tangent Design, creator of the Common Weal's logo.

Whyte explained they hoped the simple image would come to represent the "all of us first" philosophy, and "a new way of doing things". He was not the first to jokingly remark that the four-line graphic — a triangle, with a balanced line on top of it — would be an easily-applied piece of graffiti.

Politics, and the launch of the movement's logo, then took more of a back-seat; the rest of the event more in-keeping with having a party, and the festive decorations elsewhere around the city centre. Godley, and fellow Scottish joker Bruce Morton, provided more barbed comedy. Singer Karine Polwart encouraged the crowd to sing along to a song she said was written on her way to the party, and Actor Tam Dean Burn read a speech from the 16th century Scottish play "Satire of the three estates" — given by the character John Common Weal, representing the common man — where the deeds and behaviour of the ruling classes are such that, if done by a common man, they'd be hanged.

Scotland's Independence referendum is to take place next year, September 18. This was a repeated election pledge of the Scottish National Party (SNP) — who moved from leading a minority government, to an outright majority in the devolved parliament's 2011 general election — making good on their promise by announcing in January 2011 their intent to hold the referendum in autumn 2014.

The question being put to the electorate is: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" A "Yes" vote would be followed with negotiations to bring to an end the early eighteenth-century 'Union of the Parliaments'. The SNP has proposed Scotland retain Elizabeth II as head of state, a position she holds on the basis of the century-earlier Union of the Crowns.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Glasgow's Common Weal launch; 'Not me first. All of us first' by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.