Service temporarily halted

Not that there are many of you out there who give a sh*te but service is temporarily suspended as the day job is very very busy at the moment. Plus other domestic things like buying a house are coming to the fore. This might turn into an extended summer break. But I should generate some interesting materials for discussion in due course.

I am in the midst of planning to write a book on 'How to analyse your local economy'. When I get time to write it I don't know. Feeback is welcome on the following:

- is anyone aware of any books out there which attempt to do a similar thing?
- what kind of qualities or contents would such a book need?
- what are the key aspects of local or regional economic performance of prime interest to practitioners and policy makers? I can incorporate guidance on how to analyse these in this book hopefully. Don't mention anything to do with R.Florida's creativity index etc for goodness sake!

The book aims to be a guide to how to analyse, as well as how to use the data, where to source it, what it means. And other things like economic forecasting, commissioning consultants and ensuring good vfm etc. The kind of punters I am thinking of will be for the average practitioner or Master's level postgrad.

ULTIMATE AIM OF THE BOOK - to help get better analysis and use of evidence in the public sector to inform understanding of economies and responses to opportunities and problems. Overall to improve quality of evidence and correct use of evidence.