SCOTFACT RELAUNCHES

When I first decided to create Scotfact, I had no idea if it would be successful or, indeed, receive any clicks at all. What I knew for sure was that I had spent a great deal of time reading, researching and collating information relating to the Scottish Independence debate and wondered if anyone else was frustrated by the lack of a consolidated and impartial resource. 

I didn't want to create a blog – there are plenty of good (and bad) bloggers out there voicing their political opinion or choosing selective facts that support their own viewpoint – my goal was to help those interested in finding where the facts and figures were and, where necessary, helping to clarify what can be complex data at times. My background in data analysis and a growing passion for data-visualisation gave me the skills to create the beginnings of Scotfact, and it looks like it's been worth it. The site has been warmly received by people on all sides of the debate.

To celebrate the first anniversary of its launch, I decided to give Scotfact a face-lift and (hopefully) make it even easier to navigate and expand. As always, I welcome feedback and am open to any suggestions on both the site's accessibility and content.

Make sure you check out Scotfact's tools - the tax calculator , in particular, has proved to be very popular. The GERS explorer allows users to adjust Scotland's share of UK revenue and expenditure - effectively putting you in charge of the figures; and the real terms calculator lets you see how prices have changed over the decades.

The 'Scotland in the 20th Century' article has also had a lot of interest. It took almost a year to construct and an enormous amount of reading and research. In addtion, there was a lot of engagement around the 'Unknown Region' article which looks into the methodology around oil and gas revenues and export allocations.

I would like to thank all our users for their support and hope we can continue to offer impartial articles and fact pages to help create a higher standard of debate. I would also like to thank the small group, consisting of both pro and anti independence supporters, who help me proof read the site for its factual content and help keep the site free from unintentional bias.

Please continue to let us know what we can improve and of any topics you would like us to explore further.

– Rab.