Professor John Robertson OBA From The 2025 UK Wellbeing Report published today, we can see on pages 29 to 39, that the the 60 local authorities with the lowest life satisfaction are all in England or Wales, from an average score of 6.46 out of 10, with West Dunbartonshire, in Jackie Baillie’s constituency, coming in at 61 with an average score of 7.25. It’s bound to have an effect after all that time seeing and hearing her. We get to 77 before East Ayrshire appears and another 15 before a cluster of Scottish local authorities appear. Notably the East Dunbartonshire … Continue reading 18 years after SNP come to power, the 60 areas with the lowest life satisfaction are in England or Wales and the 61st, lowest in Scotland, is Jackie Baillie’s!

stewartb With reference to the graph above, what happened to Scotland’s FDI performance pre-2015, in the years of uncertainty over what Scotland’s people would opt for in a late 2014 referendum. Would they choose that most awful of outcomes, independence? Surely that would have given foreign investors cause to pause – no longer in a UK, out of the EU – fears a plenty? So what happened? From Business Insider (May 27, 2015): ‘Survey: Slight fall in inward investment to Scotland in 2014 – Latest attractiveness survey from accountants EY suggests Scotland attracted 80 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects last year, down from 82 … Continue reading Scotland’s independence drive before 2014 did not reduce inward investment

Professor John Robertson OBA We’ve seen here, repeatedly, in Scotland-only polls, the pollster YouGov‘s unerring ability to minimise support for the SNP, to maximise that for Labour and to produce double figure leads for the No vote in a future referendum. Today, in a UK-wide poll with the sample adjusted in the light of the EU referendum in 2016 and the 2024 General Election, the Scottish sub-sample has this: The Labour figure seems wildly out given their performance in government and media coverage of that, suggesting it should be much lower, Reform UK should be in second place in the … Continue reading When they stop trying to replicate 2014 even YouGov can get the SNP above 40% in a poll

Professor John Robertson OBA From EY UK yesterday, the above graph, and: Scotland secures decade stretch as top UK FDI location outside London Scotland secured 135 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in 2024 and has cemented its reputation as the top UK FDI location outside London after marking a decade in the position. Despite a drop of seven projects (-4.9%) on the year before, this is still the second highest annual number of projects recorded, according to the latest EY Scotland Attractiveness Survey. Against a UK and Europe backdrop of a marked decline in project numbers, Scotland’s share of projects … Continue reading 8% of the population but nearly 16% of foreign direct investment and 10 years of leading all UK regions other than London but it’s not big news