THE Common Weal project for a healthier, wealthier and more equal Scotland is to become a think-tank after an acrimonious split from its original founders.
The project, which has developed an alternative economic and social model for Scotland based on policies from the Nordic countries, was originally run under the auspices of the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation.
But there has been growing friction between foundation director Robin McAlpine, who believes he has grown Common Weal from an idea into a movement, and the foundation's convener Bob Thomson and the late Jimmy Reid's family.
The Reid family this weekend issued a letter to directors of the company behind the foundation calling for an urgent financial review of the foundation's "far-from-transparent" finances.
The letter also referred to the family's concern about a long-standing "bitter internal dispute" and "disarray" at the foundation.
Mr McAlpine, 41, is now leaving the foundation to set up Common Weal as a standalone, non-profit enterprise, which he is expected to run. A new board is lined up, and will hold its first meeting this month. Unlike the Reid Foundation, which had no position on the referendum, the board is overwhelmingly Yes supporting.
Mr McAlpine denied he had been ejected from the foundation because of clashes, and denied the new Common Weal venture was an "ego trip" for him. He said the break was amicable and there were now talks on "transitional arrangements", such as splitting cash.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article