Robin McAlpine: Subscribe to The National for £10 on its 10th birthday

Many of you will see it that way because of The National’s advocacy of independence. Under Laura Webster’s leadership the newspaper has become an effective and lively forum for debate across the whole independence movement. It has done a great job of giving voice to different views and exploring just how diverse and how deep the issue of independence has become. I think it is a great service to us all.

But it isn’t just its excellent work on independence; The National has become a great showcase for ideas and thinking more generally. There are subjects like land reform or local taxation which do not get regular exposure in most of the media which have found a place where they can be explored and debated in The National.

The National covers big topics like land reform It has space for alternative economics and some serious reporting on the climate emergency. Let’s be honest, Scotland isn’t plagued with too many good ideas in mainstream debate so the more high-quality policy debate we have the better.

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And for me, one of the things I have valued The National for is a different, fresher take on the world beyond Britain. In particular, The National has been excellent on the conflict in Gaza and there are stories I’ve found in The National I’ve not found anywhere else in the UK media.

Scotland would be a worse place if not for The National and, in the modern world, that isn’t something you can say about every media outlet. I look forward to watching the next 10 years of progress with The National and I’m delighted that Common Weal will stay a contributor to the paper’s work.

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