___________________________________________________
My Gaelic maps of Scotland are still available, a perfect gift for any Gaelic learner or just for anyone who likes maps. The maps cost £15 each plus £7 P&P within the UK. You can order by sending a PayPal payment of £22 to weegingerbook@yahoo.com (Please remember to include the postal address where you want the map sent to).
I am now writing the daily newsletter for The National, published every day from Monday to Friday in the late afternoon. So if you’d like a daily dose of dug you can subscribe to The National, Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper, here: Subscriptions from The National
This is your reminder that the purpose of this blog is to promote Scottish independence. If the comment you want to make will not assist with that goal then don’t post it. If you want to mouth off about how much you dislike the SNP leadership there are other forums where you can do that. You’re not welcome to do it here.
You can help to support this blog with a PayPal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Or alternatively click the donate button below. If you don’t have a PayPal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button. You can also donate by PayPal by using my PayPal.me link PayPal.Me/weegingerdug
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/weegingerdug
Wee Ginger Dug 
Enjoy your friend’s visit
I live in hope that when the GE campaign “officially” begins, that a Labour “activist”, or even better the candidate themselves, knocks on my door!
As someone who’s worked in NHS Finance for 36 years, I’m looking forward to dispensing a few home truths!
Enjoy the blog break/friend visit!
Streeting’s comment on the NHS is a cracker, I’ve already used the meme on the Couriers fb page on a Scotland is shite story, about the NHS in Fife.
Hae a guid holiday Paul. Looks like good weather!
Meantime, anyone know which parliament and politician parties were in charge of Scotland’s NHS in the 1970’s and 80’s?
Also which political party organised an enquiry into in the contaminated blood scandal in Scotland after that as a key pledge in 2007, with the report published in 2015? And which government hamstrung this enquiry by not giving it permission to compel witness from the rUK to give evidence?
Thanks in advance.
Have a braw wee break 🙄
So, not much to go on so far, but found we have two time series to work with, one from Ipsos, Edinburgh, Scotland and another from Savanata, London, England. Now the IPSOS one is a panel poll, so that may be disadvantaging Swinney somewhat. Savanata is definitely disadvantaging him due to the apparent sampling artefacts we have at present.
This makes the results particularly amazing, as both are showing clear positive trends for Swinney, and for overly unionist respondent pools. That indicates that unionists are warming Swinney like we know they are to independence.
Beats me why Brits like the polls at the moment. Maybe it’s their failure = success thing?
It does very much remind me of 2011 where all polling data said Scots thought labour were rubbish. Gray was a pants leader, Labour were not trusted, they would not make a good government etc… Yet headline VI had them on for a majority. By contrast, Scots were increasingly rating Salmond and the SNP in terms of performance, yet SNP VI was low 30’s.
Then the electorate started to engage and the rest is history. Enjoy Paul and co:
Soaring Swinney:
Vs yesterday’s sinking Starmer:
https://imgur.com/WKLFImj
Aye, as I said must be the case. Swinney’s positive ratings are coming from former unionist party voters, not just SNP. This has to be the case if he can get good rating in polls that are favouring unionists due to oversampling.
Positive ratings from Lab, Lib and SNP 2019. Only Tories have him strongly negative, which is excellent news too.
Looks to me that Sarwar, Ross and Cole-Hamilton were idiots to take out Yousaf. They replaced someone they saw a decent threat to the union with someone that’s an even bigger threat.
NHS, Post office, Waspi women, English water, British rail, Oil and Gas, Brexit, Covid contracts, and the list goes on and on of services owned and controlled by the government of the *UK* with each one disaster after disaster ending up in scandals enquiries deaths and the avoidance of compensation to people in each of the countries of the so called union that is totally under the control of the UK government as voted for by the population of England
And this is just a short list of the fairly recent stuff
This is the same UK government that instructed their Supreme court to create a law that says Scotland cannot democratically ask itself a question over our own future, if our Scottish government were to try to implement that which we the population of Scotland voted for they’d be arrested and tried as criminals against the Crown
Time for a new slogan:
“Vote union get criminals”
Hopefully you’ll get some nice weather, enjoy the break anyway and we’ll see you when you get back.
Enjoy your break , Paul !
By the time you get back Starmer will have added to his ”6 Steps” – No. 7 , Change the name of The Party to avoid their share of the fallout from the Infected Blood Scandal , ‘though he may just blame it on those pesky Socialists who used to infect The Party in those bygone days . He’s the man to deal with ”infection ”!
I never realised that the infected blood inquiry released today could be so damaging for both current and especially so those politicians largely responsible who turned a blind eye.
This report is so damming of the regime in power through the 70’s and 80’s that I think even the most extreme Thatcherite’s will find this difficult to explain away as “the market”.
Despite Scotland not even having a devolved parliament in the 70’s and 80’s it has somehow found itself in the Sky News article into the report issued today as being somehow to blame.
The report itself correctly points the finger at Thatcher and her Health Minister Kenneth Clarke but I can’t help thinking that the inclusion of the word “Scotland” right after “Westminster” has been deliberately inserted into the report after review by the Government of today.
The facts are clear, it was Kenneth Clarke and other Westminster politicians who were wholly responsible for the NHS in the entire UK at the time these infections took place. Any one of them could have stopped the use of infected blood being used at any time. There is not a single person in Scotland who could have done anything about it at all at the time this was happening since there was no Government Health Department in Scotland.
We really need to be aware of this, if any blame is being laid at the door of Westminster for any mistakes of the past they will somehow try to drag Scotland into it as well. That’s how close they feel they are to losing Scotland to Independence or should I say how close we might be to winning it.
This is worth a read at least until something better comes along, on top of everything else recently, I think this might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and Sunak might as well have the General Election ASAP.
https://news.sky.com/story/infected-blood-inquiry-who-is-criticised-in-new-report-13140244
I imagine the public is a bit punch drunk by now. The Covid inquiry is ongoing, the Post Office inquiry is ongoing, raw sewage is routinely dumped in English rivers and people are coming down with parasites, prisons are over flowing too and courts can’t dispose of cases because of the backlog. Universities are shedding staff because the flow of foreign paying students has dried up, so fees will have to increase in England.
Have I missed anything?
I noted being promoted elsewhere “Unlike in the rest of the UK, the vast majority of infections in Scotland came from blood donations from within the country”…
Well, you and me both know exactly where that patter is emanating from!!
I was given a blood transfusion in the late 1970s. I was lucky it wasn’t infected. Maybe it’s because I was in a wee hospital in the middle of nowhere in Lanarkshire!
Ehm, no – It all came from the BTS no matter where you were…
That’s what makes Pacific Quay’s article on this so preposterous – Unless Yorkhill had made prior arrangement with BTS for a specific batch to be reserved for their sole use for reasons unknown, they would have been supplied from general stock, same as your “wee hospital”…. https://archive.ph/jp0ja
There is a Scottish Blood Transfusion Service. Blood collected in Scotland is dispensed in Scotland. Blood collected in England is dispensed in England. Under normal circumstances it is not Sent to Scotland.
Mainly true – I had relatives working in Scotland’s BTS in the 70s who explained they would periodically import from England when they were running low on reserves, and vice versa when overstocked and a shortage in England. That all changed when the balloon went up and screening became an issue…
Your nneed for a blood Transfusion must have been overwhelming because by the late 1970s they were being a bit more ‘stingy’ about giving blood transfusions. Partly because they were getting the first inklings that something was wrong.
I was in a very bad car crash
I had a huge haemorrhage after I gave birth in late 1970s. Haemoglobin fell from over 13 to just under 11 but they said they would not give me a Transfusion. My husband was working in Blood Transfusion at the time and knew they were being very careful about giving transfusions. Although I had lost a lot of blood my haemoglobin was within normal limits – just – so they did not transfuse me.
I, still, have no memory of what happened to me. I only know what I was told after, and that was I briefly died, was given blood, don’t know how much or levels, had lots of broken bones and many, many stitches to my face (luckily for me done by a visiting leading expert on such things, I was told). I was not a pretty sight I believe with my sister being sick when she saw me and a friend fainting.
I hope you and yours are all well and healthy now after a traumatic start
OMG what a terrible experience that must have been. The body has a fantastic ability to heal so I hope you made a full recovery.
Legerwood too.
Thank you, yes I recovered not too badly, I was 17 and young bodies heal well
Yes we are fine thank you. I hope you made a full recovery. Perhaps not remembering any of it is a blessing of sorts.
Here’s another blatant example of how this report has been “tampered” with in my opinion, this time in another article from Sky News by Beth Rigby.
https://news.sky.com/story/all-sides-aligned-in-non-political-day-for-apology-to-infected-blood-victims-13140394
There were no “governments” in the UK while this scandal was taking place and what Sir Brian Langstaff the reports author is referring to when he talks about “Scotland” is the Scottish Office run by whoever government was in power in Westminster. This is from the report in the section about Scotland which is in Volume 7, I’ve removed the .pdf part of the link so as it doesn’t embed here
https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/sites/default/files/Volume-7
https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/sites/default/files/Volume-7.
What we are witnessing here is a rewriting of history in which it appears that the “Scottish Government” who did not exist were just as bad as the Westminster Government who were the people in charge.
This is how the media can include “Scotland” in their damming reports as if we were as much to blame as the bastards who were. This is not an accident, “now they come to fight you”. That’s where we are now.
In 1972, the Parliament of Northern Ireland was abolished and direct English rule imposed 6 weeks after bloody Sunday.
“… their treatment, and by their governments“. you have misinterpreted that phrase in the report. There were successive governments, and they were UK Westminster Govs, involved from the 1970s to the 1990s: Callaghan, Labour; Thatcher, the Major, Tories. From 1990s onwards it was the various UKGovs – Blair, Brown, Labour; Cameron, Clegg, Tory/LibDem then Tory, Tory Tory.
The Governments are the UKGovs over the last 50 years who have obstructed, lied, covered-up all supported by the UK Civil Service
I might have but what can explain this?
Since there was no Scottish government there could not have been a Scottish Health Department. I see such words as being deliberately misleading.
So to me the writing of “… their treatment, and by their governments“ could just as easily imply a Westminster and Scottish government as well as a succession of Westminster governments.
Shoddy writing by the journalist at Sky news.
“The failure lied…”
Those were obviously not the words of the reports author and explains why it is not in italics in the article as he never used those words at all.
There was a ‘Scottish Health Department’ which was part of the Scottish Office from the inception of NHS Scotland until devolution in 1999
NHS Scotland has always been seperate from the rest of the uk. And legally is not allowed to share patient data without jumping through hoops.
There was a scottish health department, which folloed goals and targets set by secretary of state for scotland.
who is of course a member of westminster government.
NHS in Scotland has always been a seperate organisation since the nhs existed. and even before the nhs existed in Scotland. Health was seperate since 1707.
And Scotland pioneered social healthcare with Highlands and Islands Medical Service (HIMS) before the NHS was created.
more info this subject here…..https://peopleshistorynhs.org/encyclopaedia/scotland-and-the-national-health-service/
Forgive me if I am wrong, but I was young at the time but have we all forgotten the NHS’s and westminster’s first total cluster f**k up. THALIDOMIDE. The death rate for the victims is, was horrifying. Untold numbers of miscarriages as a result of this medication. And the artificially shortened life of a great many of the survivors. and the ever decreasing head count of those left with ongoing complicated medical needs and inadequate support or compensation. No the “contaminated blood scandal” is not a one off, or something new, WESTMINSTER AS FORM.
Latest English Yougov poll of the Scotch is just more of the same rubbish VI like early 2011.
What’s interesting is the Tory collapse in Scotland is not being hidden so much anymore by sampling problems. It’s now emerging here. They are tanking (just 12% from a very pro-union English pollster) and Labour is benefitting in ‘British Scotland’. English R&W polls of us jockish are showing the same. It’s the exact pattern seen in England where Tories are saying they likely won’t vote, helping Labour, while Labour have not actually really made any progress in terms of winning anyone over. However, as ‘Scottish Scots’ disengage, so our own polls look more like English ones given samples become dominated by more British folks. Hence Reform surging and whatnot lol. 13% ‘other’. Oki-doki! I don’t button up the back English Tory pollster owners!
Combined unionist party share of the total electorate remains no further forward on 2019. Edges down a bit on average in fact.
What’s causing the more labour VI is the record joint lowest turnout prediction found by Yougov in many years, and along with Survation, the lowest turnouts of all predicted. These are super low numbers. To compare, Yougov had 67% certain to vote in their final 2019 poll which underestimated SNP. This one had just 59%. That’s a huge fall. 1/10 voters from last time are ‘missing’ from the sample. Optimistically for the UK, we are looking at another 36% turnout UK equivalent (SNP/Green/Alba voters don’t count here as they want indy). That’s dire.
I’ve not seen Scots this turned off by UK politics since 2012- early 2014 when polls showed Yes falling back to the low 30’s, when of course it had actually risen from 40 to 45%, and SNP support was approaching 50%, not 30% as polling suggested.
But the more Scots turn off Britain, the more polling will seem to favour it, ironic as that is, as least outside of campaigns. Going to be like that until Scots have an opportunity to affect change. Only then do they engage and you start to see what they plan to do.
What’s nice is Yougov can’t help but find Scots want another referendum on indy in the next 5 years, no matter how hard they try from London to find otherwise. Nice wee majority on average in the last month:
Also this lol. Swinney the most popular of all leaders after just a few weeks in the job and with artefacts overwhelmingly favouring unionists.
NET favourable / unfavourable:
-3% Swinney
-9% Sarwar
-11% Starmer
-34% Ross
-61% Sunak
Golden rule says the SNP will win an election even if Labour seem to be ahead on VI based on leadership ratings once more.
Hey hey, once again more unionist samples think he’ll be a good FM.
Do you think John Swinney will do a good or bad job as First Minister for Scotland?
35% Good
31% Bad
33% DK
That’s nuts. Sunak and Starmer would kill for that kind of thumbs up.
F**k me, Swinney is top of the list and positive in leadership ratings in the worst polling possible for the SNP due to SNP voter disengagement. As a rule, this should bode very well when engagement happens.
I think it’s clear, the polls of around 1000 people are NOT anywhere near representative of the entire population of Scotland. This will only become clear once we have the General election.
My own personal view of looking ta the predictive power of UK polls in recent years is that they are only fit for the bin. Ignore them, they are basically… shite.
You only have to look at mid term polls vs election outcomes to know that the former are, as a rule, generally a pile of sh*te. It beats me why people, including PMs like Theresa May and hopefuls like Keir Starmer, put so much faith in them.
If the certain to vote level is low, then poll = guff. If it’s super low, then it’s super guff. The latter is where we are, and why we have such total contradictions. Here is a dead giveaway:
Yougov 17th May with changes on 29th April
John Swinney
35(+10) Favourable
38(-2)% Unfavourable
26(-9)% Don’t know
-3(+12)% NET
Keir Starmer
37(+2) Favourable
48(-)% Unfavourable
15(-1)% Don’t know
-11(+2)% NET
Anas Sarwar
26(-3) Favourable
39(+1)% Unfavourable
35(+1)% Don’t know
-13(-4)% NET
English Yougov also have Swinney soaring, and he’s overtaken his nearest rivals in less than 3 weeks. That’s 3 pollsters all saying he’s soaring, including Scottish IPSOS. So I think we can conclude he’s off to a brilliant start.
Yet Yougov have Labour’s VI for Westminster with it’s biggest gap over SNP yet. This comically contradictory square needs circled somehow.
It’s easy. Labour are being oversampled due to SNP despondency / disengagement, and Con too. That artificially inflates Labour’s lead over both. Yet at the same time, Labour / unionist voters are steadily going off their own leadership, which we know is happening, and this poll has the same. Combined, Sarwar and Starmer are down yet again on average. Ross and Sunak too. The consistent decline for all continues.
We’ve had all the same contradictions before when SNP voters disengaged under a barrage of negative attacks, being told their cause was finished etc. Like Yes support falling 2012-2014 when it was really rising. SNP falling over the same period when it was of course heading for 50%, up from 45% in 2011. 2009-Q2 2011 was the same, SNP were heading for a Holyrood landslide, yet polls said Labour were.
In all such cases, you saw glaring polling contradictions, with a mismatch with leadership being a classic. Salmond was soaring while Gray was stuck in the doldrums. Sturgeon was soaring while Lamont / Murphy / Miliband were crashing and so forth. Mid term, the trend in leadership is what to look for to gauge the way the wind is blowing. Not absolute values, but trends. Right now, this looks very good for Swinney / the SNP in the firsts sets of polls we have.
If polls are inflating your opponents, but your leadership are soaring in them while their own crash, then your opponents voters must be warming to your party and going off their own. It cannot be explained otherwise. So you can expect, when the engagement happens, you have your own voters turning out for you, plus those that have come from your opponents.
Which is exactly what happened in the 6 weeks ahead of 2011. Also just after iref1 late 2014 ahead of 2015. In both cases, polls turned on their heads in a very short space of time.
It’s not just Yes Scots disengaged right now, it’s Tories in England too. Hence Labour are apparently well ahead there, even though they’ve not really won over anyone since the disaster of 2019. It’s why Starmer’s rating are totally rubbish, yet he seems to have a big lead. That’s your classic mid-term contradiction which tells you VI is pants. He’s no Tony Blair. Much more a Miliband.
A seasoned veteran who’s been through it all many times before explains:
https://archive.ph/N9elK
Labour ‘not ambitious enough’ for supporters and polls will tighten, says Kinnock
Neil Kinnock has said Labour supporters would like to see more ambitious policies in Keir Starmer’s manifesto and that the party must prepare for its lead in the opinion polls to shrink in the run up to the election.
In an interview with i, the former Labour leader said he puts Sir Keir’s more cautious approach down to trying to attract enough votes from non-traditional supporters in order to become the largest party in the House of Commons this year.
He added that the election is “a long way away” and that the opinion polls were likely to tighten as it gets closer.
“Whether that means Labour is the largest party or wins a majority, I don’t know,” Lord Kinnock said.
This will not quietly go away and neither should it. The people who were given the power to run the United Kingdom weren’t up to the job. In fact they were a disgrace to the job and should never have been anywhere near power.
https://twitter.com/StephenFlynnSNP/status/1792617686133850487
Stephen Flynn gets it right, this was one gigantic cover up that has lasted decades. We can do better but only with Independence, that’s a simple fact.
Scotland needs the ”broad shoulders of the Union ” to protect us from the catastrophes that this cruel world may throw at us ;
e.g Infected Blood scandal ; Thatcherism ; Windrush scandal ; Blairism ; Iraq War ; Grenfell Tower disaster ; Austerity ; Horizon Post Office scandal ; Nigel Farage ; Brexit ; HS2 ; Water Companies pollution scandal ; Boris Johnson ; Covid V.I.P procurement ; Covid Test and Trace ; Liz Truss , Piers Morgan ; Jeremy Clarkson …
From CNN: “The immediate problem for Israeli officials under any ICC arrest warrant would be that the court’s 124 member states would be under a legal obligation to arrest such officials if they traveled to any of those 124 countries,”
The likes of Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Canada, Australia are members – so also is the UK. But the USA is not (nor Russia, China).
The non-existent special relationship may find itself under strain.
There’s quite the opportunity in the latest Yougov poll for some hardy folk to broadcast the electoral calculus userpoll of the values, which puts Labour at 41 and the SNP on 8 seats. Rather than the other one with Labour on 38 and SNP on 11.
Thing is this; there’s a lot of Indy supporters saying they’re not prepared to hold the nose and vote SNP again – but do they really want to see Starmer prancing around like Edward Shankspony with his 41 MPs as though he owns the place? Remembering that during the Smith Commission Labour’s grudging offer was far less than even the Conservatives would go for?
The other figure being touted is 11 SNP MPs, but seeing the SNP in single figures might be enough of a shock to bring people back to the fold. I’ve already seen some having their doubts.
If the independence forsake the SNP for the false gold if Starmer’s authoritarian centre right hegemony then I fear for not only independence but devolution. Starmer will brook no dissent in his party and no existential threats to England (I don’t think he thinks in terms of the UK.)
We are at a pivotal moment in history.
It’s a general election year so we’ll be getting polls every 20 minutes “informing” us of how we’re all going to vote
If there were no election in the offing there’d be just the usual SNP bad stories and deafening silence on what’s happening in Westminster, but the media powers that be are backing the change to Labour so they’re making sure we all know about how wonderful they say it’s all going to be with the SNP gone
I still wouldn’t count any chickens on any of that happening, even though the Tories are in all sorts of trouble they always find a way of killing off Labour when they need to, and as for Scotland going back in time to vote Labour? a hae ma doots
The electorate could not be more disengaged right now. Labour are only up because certain to vote levels have hit a new low. This election is the biggest turnoff ever to the English never mind the Scots. We must remember we are not the average Scot. We are engaged all the time, they only do so around elections or when they see major movement going on. It’s ironic that the more papers tell voters that the SNP are done, the more polls will seem to show that, even as Yes support climbs and quite likely SNP with it. We’ve seen this many times before.
There’s really no point whatsoever in putting current VI silliness into seat calculators. Sh*t in, sh*t out. CTV levels render VI meaningless. Far to many regular voters not responding to pollsters. Busy with other stuff and just cannot get excited about England’s election.
As a share of the total electorate, unionists are no further forward on 2019, even down. That much is sure in polls, even this Yougov.
We also know from Yougov that Swinney is soaring while unionist leaders tank. Also that Scots want iref2 within 5 years.
That’s not a good poll for unionists. If all measures say you are very unpopular and this is getting worse bar VI for you, it means the latter is a sampling mirage. Ian Gray was getting 30% at best rating him, yet 45% VI. It was nonsense.
I don’t know what will happen, but there is no unionist revival in Scotland. Quite the opposite.
But seats in Westminster are useless ultimately. We need votes for independence. If the SNP aim for independence, not seats, they’ll get both I’d wager. If they don’t, then independence support will keep on ticking up, but they may lose a lot of seats in England’s parliament as Scots don’t want these.
I know people think that polls change public opinion, but that’s nonsense. Folk don’t vote for a party because they think people they don’t know are going to do that. Hence Labour leads vanished like snaw aff a dyke 2011 and 2014 no matter how much the press insisted the SNP were a busted flush with polls to prove it.
Watch Leader ratings while CTV levels remain low. That will tell you the direction of travel as a very good rule of thumb. Yousaf was actually making slow but steady progress here. But voters were not impressed with the end of the BHA. Swinney is off to an excellent start. His ratings are frankly looking amazing for polls that are so Labour / unionist heavy.
Normal disengagement is 66% CTV. We are down to 63%. You can see engagement kicking in with the UKSC case. SNP shot up and Yes with it. These people have not moved to Labour / the union. Quite the opposite. They are so sick to death of it they’re totally disengaged and have good silent, making samples diluted by regular non-voters, hence low CTV.
Meanwhile Scottish unionist voters who are more engaged as the GE is their union election, move to Yes. These are saying they are notably more likely to vote Yes if Starmer makes No 10 (Savanta). Another hilarous polling artefact contradiction! 🙂
A problem for the SNP is this and similar, and it’s continual repetition:
“… if the SNP were a genuinely independence party.“
BUT that’s fairly easy to fight against – a de facto GE referendum being one but I daresay there are others. That could rally the somnolent Indy supporters who might stay away or abstain – or even vote labour.
For me though it’s very quickly getting the SNP back to being centre-left; Swinney continuing what he’s doing. With the focus on the economy while keeping an eye on others things like even climate change. Which the Green Party National falsely headlines as “top priority” rather than “A” “top priority”.
Then when she’s ready, Forbes showing what she’s made of, and my hope will be as well as the economy she goes back to the idea of post-Indy finances to complement GERS which is due out in August I think. Maybe with her model to match GERS in September or October.
Then some real answers for Indy about mortgages, and the usual currency plan – my favourite being a parallel sterlingisation for 3 to 5 years while our own currency takes over at a controlled pace. That’s similar to what has happened with other countries joining the euro for instance, but spread over 3 to 5 years rather than days or weeks!
But even for me, it’s competent governance first.
It may be that support for the SNP is over 50%. We can’t know. Support for Yes is over 50%, and that’s with polls favouring unionism. No SNP have moved to unionists either.
The SNP had 45% support in early 2011 when polls found them on 32%. We had the comical situation 2011-early 2014 when polls found yes to be falling, and right down to towards 30%, when the reality was it just climbed steadily from 40% to 45% in 3 years. The drop was all a mirage. There was no drop.
Which is why Yes politicians should completely resist becoming polling weathervanes. Polls are a lot of crap most of the time as samples are not representative mid term. So basing policy on them spells trouble. Polls can insist the public want a policy, when in fact the public strongly oppose it etc.
It is full election outcomes that matter, along with turnout. If the coming UK election has a big turnout with serious movement from SNP to unionist, then the SNP need a big change in direction. However, there is not the slightest indication that’s going to happen. At worst, Scots may just not turn out en masse, disgusted as they are with Westminster. So we end up with them rejecting the UK regime in the same way Iranians will soon do again in their new presidential election. That would serve to tell the SNP that they’re not getting seats in Westminster anymore, but it would not impact the march to indy one bit, no matter how much the press tried to spin it. Spin has zero effect. No amount of the press insisting indy is dead will change real support for indy.
So the SNP should keep with the same strategy for indy no matter what polls say. If not, they become seen as indecisive like Starmer’s Labour. If their strategy fails at the ballot box, then it’s time to revise the approach. Putting indy on the ballot is a member strategy and will do them no harm. Probably a great deal of good.
But people need to stop believing polls when they churn out nonsensical guff. Why folks never seem to learn from this is beyond me. We can’t have Labour deeply unpopular, Yes hitting new highs and Labour projected to make big gains in Scotland. That is just nonsense pigs will fly polling. So folks need to ask what numbers are wrong? Is it everything is wrong (leadership, Yes numbers, party favourability, the news, Labour losing members like there’s no tomorrow, divisions at the border over policy, Labour going all brexiter…) except VI numbers? Or is it everything is pointing in the right direction, and it’s VI that is wrong, as usual outside of campaigns?
I’m betting it’s more likely the latter. However, the SNP do need to offer change. Real change. Hope. And that’s independence, not loadsae useless seats in Westminster for another term while the economy continues to go to hell / the cost of living crisis spirals out of control.
Here is Prof Robertson’s collection of articles on the infected blood scandal. Corrects the media misinformation with awkward facts.
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=blood
Since the wealthiest have seen an enormous increase in their wealth throughout the “austerity” years, this sounds fair.
Scotland’s 10 richest families could fund 10,000 public sector workers
https://archive.ph/3irrN
Roz Foyer says:
What powers over tax do the Scottish Government have that would allow them to create an entirely new tax or is she saying they can use the existing tax powers?
Here is the complete list of existing tax powers:
In addition, the Scotland Act 2016 included powers in relation to the following taxes:
The Scottish Parliament also has the power to create new local taxes (i.e. local taxes to fund local authority expenditure). Looking at that lot I fail to see how the Scottish Government can somehow target a wealth tax on rich individuals that happen to reside in Scotland.
Even if they could what is there to stop these rich individuals from declaring their main home and place of residence as in England or anywhere else for that matter?
The Scottish Government can and does set rates of income tax. It already taxes higher earners a higher rate. Thee is nothing to prevent them creating a top rate.
The Scottish Government has full powers over local government There is nothing to stop them replacing the community charge with a land tax.
Income tax is specifically a tax paid on earnings from work. It does not tax earnings from interest paid on savings nor dividends paid on investments. It does not tax profit from business or growth in the value of assets held. The powers over tax on interest and dividends is still held by Westminster.
The Scottish government be able to collect only that money deemed to be “income” from earnings paid for a job which for the richest 2% of people is trivial compared to income from other sources.
I agree that Land tax would go someway towards collecting more money from the richest people who own large amounts of land or vast estates in Scotland. That though is something entirely different from this proposed “wealth tax” on the richest 2% who might pay nothing at all if they didn’t own any land in Scotland.
I would like to see the STUC analysis which comes up with the £459 million figure which is very precise so clearly I must be missing something.
STUC report here https://www.stuc.org.uk/resources/scottish-tax-options.pdf
Article explaining it on STUC site from Dec 2023 here:
https://www.stuc.org.uk/news/news/stuc-launch-tax-proposals-to-save-scotlands-public-services/
The STUC site seems to be down, neither link works and I’ve tried some others as well.
I have read another article this time in the Herald from last year with the headline:
Humza Yousaf: wealth tax possible due to pressure on public finances
The following paragraph explains how it would be done.
So, it would have to be a local tax and currently local taxes go straight to councils as part of their budget and currently at least it could not be used directly as part of the Scottish budget.
The main problem though that I see with this type of tax is that you could only tax wealth held in Scotland and I don’t see how you could go after wealth if the person being taxed claimed domicile elsewhere and didn’t keep his wealth either in property or land in Scotland.
link https://archive.ph/lRBby
Links work OK for me.
Not for me.
Try swapping browser Alex, I’m seeing it fine on Mozilla and Chrome, so it’s not a link issue…
I was using a VPN, I switched it off and can access it now. Cheers.
Of course, taxing income wouldn’t touch the vast wealth held in land. You would need a land tax for that.
Rich List: Wealthiest people in Scotland revealed
https://archive.ph/7ZkJA
As I’ve been saying would happen.
https://archive.ph/L6LUF
Census: More Scots than ever identifying as ‘Scottish, not British’
TWO-THIRDS of people in Scotland identify only as Scottish, not British, according to new findings from the census.
The data, which was published on Tuesday and collected by a nationwide census in 2022, also found that the majority of the Scots population say they have no religion – for the first time ever.
The census was the first one run in Scotland since 2011, and the results have painted an interesting picture of national identity.
It found that, of the 5,436,600 people living in Scotland, some 65.5% of them identify only as Scottish. This has increased by 3.1 points since 2011, when 62.4% of people said they were Scottish, not British.
The number of people identifying only as British has also increased, and at a greater rate. In 2011, 8.4% of people in Scotland said they were British, not Scottish. In 2022, that was 13.9% – an increase of 5.5 points.
The percentage of people who identify as both Scottish and British has decreased by more than 10 points, from 18.3% in 2011 to just 8.2% in 2022.
The percentage of people who identify as both Scottish and British has decreased by more than 10 points, from 18.3% in 2011 to just 8.2% in 2022.
A slightly higher percentage of females (66.3%) said their only national identity was Scottish compared to males (64.6%).
The census data also reports the ethnic groups with which people identify, and found that 77.7% of people said “Scottish”.
This is not people changing identity, it is Scotland changing generationally as young Scots replace older brits.
And Britishness is not increasing, this is simply people who regionally identified as Scottish (and British) before, saying British only due the constitution situation. Ian Murray types. Scotland naturally becoming more Scottish / less British, but this threat has more British people grasping onto that more tightly.
66% Yes on the day is a totally achievable target. 78% is the new 74% of 1997.
A Tax on Scottish Labour Peers sitting in the HoL , using Scottish names in their Titles, would bring in a hefty number of Smackaroonies !
There appears to be a never ending supply of these strange Socialists , so future taxable income is guaranteed !
We could call it the FFSFoulkes Tax !
Another reminder of why only idiots would use current polling to predict the UKGE outcome when voters themselves specifically tell them not to.
Those responding say they are still very uncertain how they they’ll vote. The numbers are the same in Scotland.
This will be a combination of actual uncertainty, and the fact disengagement causes respondent pools to have more non-regular voters diluting them. This causes uncertainty to rise and error to widen.
You need that 46% to fall back to around 20% before I’d put money on the outcome. You can see you normally need to wait to the last few weeks ahead of an election for this.
Voters are literally saying that they are not certain at all about putting Starmer in No 10, yet some people’s response is to believe they are; the exact opposite of what they’ve been told by voters.
I do worry that Labour could march in with a 200 seat majority taking 43% of a 50% turnout. The spin doctors will call it a massive mandate despite their support only being one in five of the electorate.
No one cares much about the didn’t votes. Starmer like the Vogan captain will say “no sympathy, bloody apathetic voters” and then read us some excruciating poetry in praise of his victory.
SNP voters need to turnout or hold their peace. There is no point moaning about it after the event. If Starmer is as bad for Scotland as I think he will be there will only be one question…who did you vote for?
A massive Starmer majority that Scots didn’t vote would see indy by 2026.
No amount of spin solves this. Establishment can’t be like ‘Starmer has a massive majority so huge mandate meaning you can’t vote SNP/Yes in 2026 and must now give up on indy!’. Voters will just ignore such nonsense and do what they want. As I’ve said before, the entire media telling us that poll after poll showed Labour on for a big win in 2011 didn’t have Scots go out and vote Labour. Quite the opposite. In fact maybe we can thank the polls / press for their Labour predictions as it maybe got Scots out to vote SNP. 🙂
Same again in 2011- early 2014. The message was relentless; that Scots were drifting away from Yes and the SNP. Polls did show that at face value, and the more the message was pushed, the more Scots turned away from it and got on with things. Then when the time came, they popped their heads back up and we went from low 30’s to 45% Yes followed by a Labour Westminster landslide to a total wipe-out in a matter of just months.
It’s why I’m not so bothered about the UK election. If it’s not a defacto iref, then what is most important is Starmer wins in England, but loses in Scotland. Losing in Scotland means having like just 20% turn out for him, even if that does bring in some seats because Scots don’t want them.
We need a Labour government Scots didn’t vote for. Polling shows that will increase support for indy, and that’s in polls which favour Labour right now due, it seems, to sampling issues again!
However, I do encourage people to go out and vote. And I don’t know if Yes Scots will stay at home. That’s not what they are saying. A large section are not saying anything at all. It’s this that has caught pollsters out big style before.
And it’s not the same as 2017 at all. Ahead of this, the SNP were riding high. A victory looked dead cert. But that’s because unionists were disengaged. As they made their moves and SNP voters couldn’t see a way to affect change, so the union got it’s dead cat bounce in the final few weeks. Polling now is far more like 2009-11 and 2011-14 and the total opposite of 2017. It may be that the ‘dead cert’ SNP win message in 2017 compounded the problem for them, discouraging their turnout.
When you take a look at the figures for identity in Scotland it shows that 65% of Scots have no interest in the minority BBC as a broadcaster, so it came as no surprise when the BBC announced that their flagship channel 9 was to cease broadcasting due to the total lack of interest in it, except, they still are, why?
In other figures Scots have lost interest in religion, and again that should come as no surprise given that Scotland has suffered hugely from sectarianism and bigotry, and our young people have had more than enough of that so reject the entire concept of the trouble it causes, except the minority BBC that we reject interviewed a man who said he was a Rangers supporter, so in his words “I guess that makes me British then”
I’ve said many times there is indeed a church of Rangers, and being a member of that church determines religion and nationality, and yet we know that around 40% of Rangers supporters now favour independence for Scotland, again odd because at no time did the interviewee or the BBC think to mention that Rangers were a football club
Perhaps many Rangers supporters don’t care about the actual football part of their membership, and that’s a shame, because that’s the only part I actually like, and why I don’t and haven’t attended matches since I was a boy, and again oddly the minority BBC refuse to show them on their broadcasting programmes, yet appear to support the anti social and minority church part that connects them to being loyal to the British crown?
Is the BBC in Scotland admitting that they support minority rule and a minority religion that the majority of Scotland rejects? they must be
Another excellent history of the blood infection scandal, mostly the result of Labour negligence and secrecy in the 1970s but with Tory collusion as well, from Prof Robertson.
(I think there is mistake in the date of the World in Action documentary. It must have been in 1975 and not 2015.)
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/05/21/the-largely-untold-story-of-how-labour-failed-to-protect-scots-haemophiliacs-from-infected-blood/
Land is exempt from tax to keep farms together. Scotland makes £Billions from food and drink products. A land tax would divert that and cause problems.
Rateable value could increase. There is already corporation tax on profits. Income tax and capital gains tax.
Tax evasion costs £Billions a year. Taxes not enforced by Westminster Gov.
and what of the uber rich minority who own the majority of Scotlands land.
should they not pay a land tax on their massive estates?
Anders Holch Povlsen, Danish billionaire, is the largest private land owner in the UK and hence in Scotland. He pays taxes on his Scottish estates – to Denmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Holch_Povlsen
Council tax is a fraction of Council spending. The majority comes from Gov. Edinburgh, Glasgow £1Billion+.
Your occasional reminder, updated with the latest data, that if you are directly comparing polls now with polls before ‘the drop’ – i.e. around the time of Sturgeon’s resignation – then you are comparing haggis with neeps statistically.
It’s quite possible that the SNP have not dropped at all in VI in reality. We can’t know this though. All we can know is that pollsters are not polling the same groups of people.
As you can see, the roles have reversed. Before the drop, SNP 2019 respondents were undersampled 18% of the time. Now it’s 35%. Labour were notably harder to reach at 30% undersampled pre-drop, but that’s halved to 14% (if numbers don’t seem to add up perfectly it’s just rounding error).
Since 45% voted SNP in 2019 and just 19% Labour, the former should be far easier to find. And they used to be. Then they went quiet. Now when e.g. Yougov send out their mass targeted emails from London, England, to the panel members who’ve told them they are in Scotland, they find Labour voters much more eager to respond, but 35% of the time can’t get enough SNP. That’s huge for the biggest party in Scotland in the last 2 elections, and for targeted panel polling, i.e. Yougov know what their panel members voted in 2019, and are directly targeting these to obtain quotas. They are being ignored, and by SNP 2019 voters.
And the English pollsters will know this. They’ll know their relative response rates have changed. Upweighting SNP 2019 to plug the gap cannot correct the problem, as that implicitly assumes the views of those SNP 2019 who are responding are the same as those who are not, which the evidence suggests is highly unlikely to be the case. Not if you have a sudden differential response rate change like this in terms of political affiliation. No, the assumption would be is that if Labour are now being oversampled, then your SNP 2019 are likely more Labour / No leaning SNP, not representing the bulk of their fellow brethren. A small group are now being exaggerated.
And that is how you end up with cross tabs telling you there seems to be modest movement from SNP to Labour, yet as a share of the total electorate, this just has not happened at all, NET.
Only once those response rate numbers reverse, and the biggest party in 2019 becomes the easiest to reach once more, will we know what public opinion really is.
For now, we should just be pleased that Swinney is soaring in samples that are unquestionably oversampling Labour 2019 voters. That and ‘the drop’ may simply be yet another mid-term mirage, just like we’ve seen before in Scottish politics when ‘independence was dead / the SNP was a busted flush’.
Certainly, there is no evidence at all Yes / SNP have lost any voters to the union. Polls say that has not happened.
To clarify, this is based on unweighted vs weighted bases. When e.g. Labour 2019 in the unweighted base needs down-weighting due to too many in the respondent pool, that is ‘oversampled’. When there were too few and their views needed inventing (which is literally what pollsters do), it’s ‘undersampled’.
Ireland, Norway and Spain have announced that they have recognised Palestine as an Independent State, in return the Israeli Government have ordered their ambassadors from Ireland and Norway to return to Israel.
https://archive.ph/rUMp6
I wonder if these countries recognise that Scotland is an imprisoned state held within a fake undemocratic system by the will of an English hostile government
A sign of sanity at last. There is no hope of the US or UK supporting this so a veto at the UNSC is inevitable. But there is a mechanism for the whole of the UNGA to vote on an issue and that is where they will likely be heading.
Well done Ireland, Norway and Spain. Show what a sovereign country can do.
The same Spain that won’t allow Catalunya to have a vote on independence from Spain
During the 2024 referendum,I was of the opinion that it was up to those of us who supported independence to make the case.
Now,after all the lies have been exposed,those who support the so called union have to justify Scotland not having it’s own government.We are open to persuasion,so let’s hear it.
It is British nationalists that have made the strongest case for independence.
They are almost wholly responsible for the long term decline of Britishness in Scotland.
Doing things like saying in their courts that Scots need England’s permission for independence is a continuation of their work to break the union.
They blame the SNP, but the SNP are a symptom, not the cause. People move to independence then to the SNP, not the other way around.
Another month and Labour still no further forward in terms of winning over real walking around voters compared to their ‘worst defeat since 1935’ in 2019.
Their ‘popularity’ is a total mirage, being entirely projected turnout related. IPSOS had ~25% of total respondents certain to vote Labour on the eve of the 2019 GE. That has basically not changed since, apart from a brief post-mini-budget bounce that waned over the course of 2023.
As things stand, Starmer has won over nobody. He even managed to lose those he was gifted through the mini-budget.
The guy is a total failure, hence his heavily negative ratings.
As a lawyer ( and a Human Rights one ), what is Starmer’s view of the ICC seeking warrants for Israel’s and Hamas’ leaders ?
Does he still support the view , despite months of evidence to the contrary , that Israel is NOT committing War Crimes ? Is another U-turn in the offing /
A trip to the Hague may be in the offing, along with David Cameron.
As Israeli Ambassadors are recalled from Norway and Ireland ( and threatened to Spain ) over those countries signalling they will recognise Palestine as a state, I suspect shrinking sphincters are back in fashion in London.
Just to put that into perspective – As of May 2024, 142 of the 193 member states of the United Nations recognise the Palestinian State – That’s 74% recognising what started in 1948 has gone on for far too long, whilst the 26% keep quiet as accusations of being anti-semitic, and desiring to “repeat the holocaust” fly with gay abandon from the 5%…. Including Starmer…
…as the 0.5%…
Rumours about that Sunak is thinking about a UKGE during the Euros to boost the patriotic vote, what with Scotland in the tournament.
Last time we qualified was the year before we voted 74% yes to semi-independence in 1997.
Lot’s of journo types tweeting about it and Stephen Flynn in the HoC as well has a wee dig at Sunak.
https://x.com/StephenFlynnSNP/status/1793262209608388744
Maybe tempted by the latest polls from Scotland? I do hope so.
We all know what happens to parties when they spring general elections on the electorate as they think polls are to their advantage.
The public hate such self-interested behaviour.
This is from the Political editor of the Times.
is inflation coming down to 2% the holy grail Sunak was looking for or a straw beckoning to a drowning man?
So, to predict the future, cheap and nasty mid term English panel polls which are almost invariably wrong, or the census?
That peak British national identity has shifted 11 years upwards since the last census in 2011, hence we are now on the brink.
It’s interesting, as you can see how recent British is. It didn’t really exist as an identity before the post WW2 social democratic consensus that created it, at least in Scotland. It neatly shows why Yes isn’t linked to age, but is generational. The silent generation and those before them were less British than the boomers. They fought as Scots in the world wars. To defend Scotland, their country, in the main. A Scotland that was part of an empire in a world of empires, with little choice in the matter.
Look at the future. Holy sh*t. Way up over 75% Scottish (+/- other but not British, such as my Scottish-French European daughter). British means nothing to the vast majority of young Scots, not unless they have some clear and direct family connection to it through parentage etc. These youngsters are so very different to those who came out of the baby boom, where far more felt British even if they’d never been out of their own town never mind Scotland.
That younger working age bump of ‘other only’ would be mainly our ‘new Scots’, who predominately come from Europe. They of course now back Yes. They are also responsible for the increasing number of Scottish + other (European, but not British) kids wandering around. 🙂
This is why No is stronger in the elderly. It’s not conservatism with age. It’s generational identity.
Thatcherism battered the British out of Scotland steadily, as you can see from the slope from peak to the under 40’s where it settles out to a low that it’s never recovered from. The children of devolution no longer have any sense of it. The union flag is a foreign flag. The flag of a country that has taken away their European identity, their future, and will not let them vote. They really don’t like the English government for it, believe me. Totally understandable.
The summer is election is ON according to the Guardian, cabinet meeting taking place now.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/may/22/uk-general-election-july-2024-sunak-starmer-senior-sources-say-uk-politics-live-news
July the 4th seems to be the date being touted. It will be no doubt be all hands to the pumps for the SNP.
I thought that John might have a few months to get his feet under the table but there is a definite advantage in having an election two years before Holyrood 26. Unfortunately a few Westminster seats might be lost in the short term but two years of Starmer should put a different gloss on things for the more important prize of Holyrood.
It looks very much like it, 6 weeks tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the polls in the next few weeks LOL
Snap elections can create the greatest poll shifts because the electorate are more likely to be disengaged from the political process at the time of announcement.
There were huge changes ahead of 2017 and 2019 as voters engaged. That said, even 2015 had fair shifts. Labour were way oversampled here, hence the hung parliament became a notable Tory majority.
Lets all hope Starmer makes No. 10. It’s what we need to show Scots they can never have a UK government they like / want.
I’m not bothered if that means we lose some titanic deckchairs to him here in Scotland because Scots don’t want these but independence.
We need to get this largely pointless election out of the way so we can move to two years of a hated English Labour government Scots didn’t vote for ahead of the election that matters. Our own. That is lining up to be our date with destiny.
What is the betting that Branch Form will suddenly burst into life in a panic because of the surprise election 🤔
Yeah, they will look rather stupid if they do but that won’t bother them. What iceberg?
4th July is a nice one for the SNP to use in slogans.
Couldn’t have written the script better, how incompetent are that lot Hahahahaha
Campaign video?
‘And it still goes on like the 4th of july
And my heart still beats like you’re by my side
And I dream of the day when you’ll be mine’
Independence day it is 😀
What a embarrassment, a fitting end to the Tories reign.
Standing there getting soaked in the pouring rain while his speech was overshadowed by protestors blasting out “Things can only get better” outside the gates of No 10.
He looked utterly ridiculous and will never live this down. Fucking Beamer! LOL
Yup its already being made into memes.
Talk about a drowned rat …
3888.jpg (1400×934) (guim.co.uk)
like this
Let’s make Scotland and Wales Tory free zones (like before!)
The SNP could not have written a better script for this coming election. Sunak humiliates himself on the steps of No 10 looking like a complete fool and getting drowned into the bargain.
Best of all as Skier mentions is choosing “Independence Day” for the day of the vote. What an idiot, he has done in Labours chance of winning the most seats in Scotland in my opinion.
This whole election is now all about “Independence Day” which is guaranteed to get the supporters of Independence into the voting booths. This has to give the leadership of the SNP a boost and the way is obviously clear as to what they must make this election all about.
You really couldn’t make this up and we better make the most of it. Get in there!
What happened to the concept of an umbrella ☔
Weird!
Future PM’s will be doing their big announcements from inside number 10 from now on, not to avoid the rain but the music LOL
Well they spent enough on that room but don’t have the sense to use it when it’s raining
Larry the cat hid the umbrella!
The Tories know they’re in the s**t. They need Scots to vote SNP, not Labour. That might just save their bacon or at least stop Starmer getting an outright majority.
They don’t care how many seats the SNP get if it’s not to be some sort of defacto indyref.
If they lose the election and Scotland goes independent in 2026, it’s all Labour’s fault. If they win the election, and we vote Yes in 2026, they’ll worry about that when it happens. Maybe send in the tanks or something. It’s two years away, and that’s so far into the future for the party of short term selfish gain.
Scotland in the Euros. Voting day on 4th July. If you want to get Scots out voting pro-indy, this is the timetable.
So if Benjamin Netanyahu turns up in Scotland he will be arrested as per the ICC ruling, but what’s interesting is the Scottish branch of the British Labour party have backed the SNP decision to do that
Now over to Sir Kier Starmer to ask what he thinks about this, or when will he pay out the infected blood victims, or when will he pay the Horizon victims, or for all the other stuff that Sunak promised he would pay for if still in office
General elections are so much fun for the incumbent government, they can promise anything they like and all the pressure lands on the opposition to prove they’ll not only do the same but even more
Let the Hyena media savagery begin
I kinda think Starmer’s goose will now begin to be slow cooked
So if Benjamin Netanyahu turns up in Scotland he will be arrested as per the ICC ruling
There has been no ICC ruling
There won’t be a ruling in any recognised sense. The ICC chief prosecutor has requested arrest warrants and is waiting to see if they will be issued. If they are then the Hamas leader in Qatar and Netanyahu in Israel will not be travelling abroad much.
They’ve ruled that they agree with each other the man should be arrested, or what was the point of the statement?
The cross border labour rift will grow ever wider as Holyrood 2026 approaches. We need right-wing English Starmer in No. 10 overturning polices dear to left of centre Scottish Labour MSPs, including devolved policies.
Anyhoo, I shall be keeping a close eye on CTV levels. A announcement does not mean polls will suddenly show real outcomes, but things should start to move as it filters through. If they don’t rise, then we are looking at a mass boycott and a serious constitutional crisis. If they rise in Scotland, it should be to the SNP, and a constitutional crisis either way ahead of 2026.
Tory voters in England will need to decide now if they want to let a hated English Labour government walk into No 10 basically unopposed. Maybe best to hold their nose and vote Tory again no matter how pissed off they are with them etc. Scots might think the same, even if they are thinking this election is pretty pointless, which it is as it’s not a defacto iref for them.
For Labour, it is now toilet roll at the ready waiting to see if deeply unpopular Starmer does lose 10 points in the run up like pretty popular Blair did. That or they are being well oversampled again like it was with Miliband.
Watch for how many times the media in Scotland use Alex Salmond to insist the SNP are in *deep serious* trouble, and the ex members interviews littering our screens, along with all the *right* pundits and pollsters telling us about how it’s all a worrying time for the SNP and the big losses they could be facing
The media game has begun already
If 65% of Scots identify as Scottish and not British why on earth would any of those people vote for political parties that identify as British?
One more thing, For over 60 years Scotland’s votes have made no difference to the party elected as the government of the UK, this has always been decided since then by the voters of England
Are Scottish voters really going to help England ice their own cake for them?
Remember Brexit?