What is the Common Good?

This is the question. In some places, the common good is “The air we breath” – “The sky above us” and such like. But in Scotland it is very unique. Because, our Common Good is actually protected by laws  and consists of lots of valuable assets, such as land, property, art, jewels and the like—and all the things we get into free—that is part of our common good to. So we (the public) own these valuables in perpetuity so our kids and their kids can get the benefit of them to.

These treasures have been built up over hundreds of years by rich folk and not so rich alike—so you can imagine they must be worth a pretty penny (Hundreds of millions) by now. We therefor need to be aware and pay attention to what is happening to our common good.

Now there are people employed in government whose job is to look after these assets in trust for the public—to make sure the assets work for the benefit of the public and the profits made from the CG return to the common good fund.

This is not happening in many places and some of the decisions on what happens to these funds are being carried out without due public consent or consultation.

There are different kinds of initiatives set up to contest, argue and campaign against what is looking like the privatisation of the common good and to ensure the profits made off the common good assets return to the public purse.

Our interests here lie in the more hands-on approach to common good awareness – through doing things.

The purpose of the project is:

By the end of 2010 a significant amount of people will know what is meant when they hear the words “common good”, and may then be asking the question. Why can’t we use the principles (and assets) of the common good to help bond and create power for our communities to fight against the fragmentation of our neighbourhoods – The awareness of commonality of ownership engenders responsibility and belonging.

I come from Glasgow, That’s what I know most about. I can only deal with the news and information you give me from all these great campaigns and work that is going on all over the place that I have heard about. Send me your stories, campaigns, picture and history and I promise to include them in the common good Awareness Project 2010.

Yours In the common good: If it wasn’t already here we would need to invent it. Bob

Now you could try some FAQ’s