Well, I hope 2014 has been good for you. Much has happened in Scotland which has made it better, with everything in place for it to get better still in 2015. The United Kingdom is re-arranging the furniture, and not before time, but we still all live on the same small archipelago; Scotland has not drifted off towards the Arctic. There is much to do next year. England needs to get itself sorted and learn to live more comfortably with itself. They can make a good start by booting out the Tories in May. I’m all for a period of transition, but I see no goodness in the SNP’s stirring up instability with the sole purpose of advancing the cause of departure from the Union. All the dispassionate analysis of the IndyRef campaign says that the YES camp made a brilliant job of playing a poor hand, while the NO camp made an arse of a much better hand. The legacy is a wee bit of passion, long lacking in public politics. Passion doesn’t make good policy, of course, but folk talk and argue with each other. That’s one plank of the springboard for a brighter 2015. Another is the fact we are actively involved in re-arranging the furniture with our British neighbours, not running out the door and away down the street, which is what would have followed a YES vote in September.
Meanwhile, the book is making real progress. The publisher I am talking to (can’t call him ‘my publisher’ – there are no contracts) could have seen 85% of an advanced draft if I had gone to his Christmas bash or if he had not closed his office for a couple of weeks. So the hiatus is his fault. May we all have a good 2015.