Theme: Parties & Elections | Content Type: Journal article

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Diary of an SNP First Minister: A Chronopolitics of Proximity and Priorities

Hannah Graham

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Zoran Borojevic

| 1 min read

This article provides a content analysis of Nicola Sturgeon's first ministerial diaries in the final two years of her leadership (April 2021–March 2023). As first minister, to whom and what did she give her time—which issues and interest groups had access? Which didn't? Or, who and what may be missing? An audience with a national leader can be indicative of priorities and potential for influence—as can its absence. The lens of chronopolitics—the politics of time—is used here to consider twenty-four months of diaries, with 681 entries. Some key social and political issues in Scotland were kept away from the FM's meetings and delegated to other ministers to oversee, whereas other issues appear to be signature priorities, including climate and the environment, economy and finance, culture, and health and Covid-19.

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Volume 95, Issue 2

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 95, Issue 2

Includes a collection edited by James Hampshire on Immigration and Asylum Policy After Brexit, exploring how recent immigration and asylum policies reflect the ambivalent, unstable and unresolved meanings of Brexit itself. There are a wide range of other articles including 'A Hundred Years of Labour Governments' by Ben Jackson; and 'The Good, the Not so Good, and Liz Truss: MPs’ Evaluations of Postwar Prime Ministers' by Royal Holloway Group PR3710. Reports and Surveys include 'Addressing Barriers to Women's Representation in Party Candidate Selections' by Sofia Collignon. Finally, there is a selection of book reviews such as Nick Pearce's review of When Nothing Works: From Cost of Living to Foundational Liveability, by Luca Calafati, Julie Froud, Colin Haslam, Sukhdev Johal and Karel Williams; and Penelope J. Corfield's review of The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, by Yascha Mounk.

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