Six Nations Week 5 - Predictions

For the final time this year:

Wales 24-17 Italy 
Ireland 23-18 Scotland 
France 30-15 England 

No shocks, I reckon.

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Conference Paper

Been a bit busy recently, so I've been quiet on here.  Inevitable consequence of trying to do a million things at one time.  

One of those things I'd like to point you in the direction of is a conference paper which I've jointly written with my PhD supervisor, Dr Peter Lynch.  I will be presenting it (alone - Peter is out of the country!) at the PSA conference in Edinburgh on the 30th March.

The paper is entitled:

"From National Conversation to Independence Referendum?:  The SNP Government and the Politics of Independence"

You can read it on the PSA Conference website, along with the other papers which appear on the same panel.

For those of you who don't really want to wade through 6,000 words of research, the abstract is below.  But you know you want to...

This paper will examine the political background and activities of the SNP Government’s National Conversation to promote independence ahead of a referendum in 2010. It will set the process in the context of similar constitutional reform exercises in other countries (such as statute reforms in Spain) and look at the level of public and pressure group engagement with the National Conversation through assessing the range of events and media coverage of the process. The paper will argue that the National Conversation process has had little apparent effect on the popularity of independence – in terms of opinion poll support - but has allowed the SNP government to engage with community organisations across Scotland, boost its own popularity and play an agendasetting role over the issue of constitutional change more broadly.

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Six Nations Week 4 - Predictions

Ireland 32-18 Wales 
Scotland 12-17 England 
France 41-13 Italy

Haven't really had time this week to get a grip of the teams etc (I've been in Rome on holiday) but here's what I think.  Wins for Ireland, England and France, the latter to set up a Grand Slam opportunity at home against England next week.

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