A Nation Changed?

There's not been a post here for a while as I've been otherwise occupied with assorted projects and personal stuff. Rest assured, normal service will be resumed.

In the meantime you may want to take a look at a new book called A Nation Changed? The SNP and Scotland Ten Years On edited by Gerry Hassan and Simon Barrow. It has over 40 chapters with each one written by a different author.

The penultimate chapter contains ten charts from my Active Citizen book which are updated to the latest data available and adapted so that each one can stand on its own with a caption of about 150 words. The aim was, as far as possible, to present the information with a light touch and let the data speak for itself and, I hope, let the reader come to their own, tentative conclusions.

(Had I seen the cover at time of writing I would've entitled my chapter Tomorrow Never Knows.)

I've not yet read the entire book but a glance at the constellation of contributors impressed me greatly (and made me feel a little like a sixth magnitude interloper). I've had long chats with Gerry and a good chat on the phone with Simon, but at no point did they instruct or lead me. Quite the reverse. They let me decide what I should contribute. I'm sure this was true of all contributors.

You can order A Nation Changed? from Luath Press or a take a sneak peek at parts of it on Google Books.

Below is a list of links which will grow in coming days as I add links to all sources and spreadsheets that show my working. I'll be most grateful if you alert me to any errors, either in the comments here, or else to @mcnalu on twitter.

Figure 1 - Budget

Figure 2 - Fiscal flows

Figure 3 - Income inequality

Figure 4 - Population

Figure 5 - School

Figure 6 - Energy

Figure 7 - Employment

Figure 8 - Poverty