We were just going through our last Panelbase poll this morning looking to round up findings we hadn’t yet published when we suddenly noticed an odd thing.
We had of course previously observed that the Scottish Labour branch office manager Pritchard Leopold (SUB: PLEASE CHECK) wasn’t terribly well known in the nation, with barely over a third of Scots able to pick his name out of a list when prompted, despite a year and a half in the job.
But then we spotted something curious about the numbers.
Because the sub-party’s pseudo-leader was recognised more by voters of EVERY other party than he was by his own. While just 37% of Labour voters from the last election knew who he was, a whopping 61% of Lib Dems did, along with 51% of Tories and 41% of SNP supporters.
Or put another way: the more people could identify him as leader, the less likely they were to vote for his party.
Billions of years from now, when the Sun finally dies and expands to swallow and burn up the Earth in a final cataclysmic explosion, the very last thing to turn to dust and atoms will be Scottish Labour’s brass neck.
Coming from The Eternal Abstainers themselves that’s already quite a breathtakingly hypocritical claim, but if you look at last night’s results closely it gets a lot worse.
The breakdown data from last week’s vote on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement:
ENGLAND: 266 MPs for, 256 MPs against (51%-49%) SCOTLAND: 13 for, 45 against (22%-78%) WALES: 6 for, 33 against (15%-85%) NORTHERN IRELAND: 1 for, 10 against (9%-91%)
Several media outlets today relate a story from BBC Scotland’s fascinating three-part documentary of the indyref, revealing that secret UK government polling in the first week of September 2014 gave Yes a lead even bigger than the famous 51-49 one published by the Sunday Times on the 7th.
And naturally we couldn’t help wondering what might have caused it.
Dr Craig Dalzell of the Common Weal is a very sharp guy we’ve run several pieces by on Wings, and he’s currently appearing all over the place with a highly accessible and concise explanation of how an independent Scotland could sensibly run its economy.
If you haven’t been able to make it out to see him, a quiet Sunday might be an ideal time to catch up with it.
So, some official and very brief Wings analysis, because we just watched an army of pundits on the TV all missing the bleeding obvious and talking as if a delay to Brexit was now a done deal.
After tonight’s series of votes in the Commons, all five of which were technically won by Theresa May, there are three possible outcomes. Let’s whizz through them all.
For some time, most polls for “Who’d make the best UK Prime Minister?” – the stat that really decides who wins general elections – have shown a solid lead for “Don’t know”, narrowly ahead of Theresa May and a long way ahead of Jeremy Corbyn.
It’s a prime symptom of a UK-wide contempt for politicians the magnitude of which we’ve never seen in our lifetime, and Scottish voters are in no way immune.
We loaded this question from our latest Panelbase poll in the party leaders’ favours, because you don’t have to think any of them is doing a GOOD job to say that one of them is doing the BEST job out of the four. Everything is relative – and we also didn’t ask the question specifically about Brexit.
But even with those get-outs, “They’re all useless” came out on top by a clear seven points over Nicola Sturgeon, and the rest weren’t even at the races.
Tonight sees what’s likely to be a highly-charged Scottish Cup quarter-final replay at Ibrox Stadium. Defeat will effectively end the losing side’s season, and games between the participants, Aberdeen and Rangers International, have tended to be fierce affairs ever since the latter club was formed in controversial circumstances in 2012, with this season’s clashes already having seen numerous red cards.
(Mainly for the home team’s temperamental striker Alfredo Morelos.)
Football authorities will be hoping for a minimum of flashpoints on the field which might lead to repeats of shocking recent scenes of abuse and violence from spectators, which have prompted the nation’s media to wring its hands in theatrical angst and demand that something be done.
The public’s view on the subject, meanwhile, has remained absolutely consistent.
Watching the Six Nations rugby tournament every year is usually quite a dispiriting experience – not just because of Scotland’s invariably underwhelming performances (broken up by the occasional false dawn), but because talking about it on social media always results in an extremely tedious flood of comments about how rugby is a sport played and watched exclusively by middle-class Tory No voters.
(That’s Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw there, with Wings mascot Hamish.)
Speaking as someone whose interest in the tournament (in the pre-inflation days when it was the Five Nations) was first sparked when my extremely working-class Bathgate comprehensive school started taking pupils to Murrayfield in the 1980s – 50p for the bus and 50p for the match ticket, which got you a seat on wooden benches actually on the grass – this attitude has always instinctively felt like complete nonsense.
So when we did our latest Panelbase poll during this year’s competition, we figured we may as well actually find out.
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “For those Scots pondering Northy’s undoubtedly unsolicited plug for Professor Baird’s book, it must be pointed out that Northy claims…” Feb 8, 16:18
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “@YL Thanks for the complement. The reality though, unpalatable as it may be, is that sometimes what looks to the…” Feb 8, 16:10
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “The problem with that, TURABDIN, is that we’ll find the sea hoaching with fowk swimming the other way. Just as…” Feb 8, 16:00
Short Changed on A Stitch In Timing: “He can appeal to the King of England, Scottish coronation oath extract – They shall preserve and keep inviolate the…” Feb 8, 15:39
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: “YL: “Heck, by the time of Chucky 1 he had become (à la Teflon Tony) more English than the English…” Feb 8, 15:30
Chas on A Stitch In Timing: “I was feeling far too positive today therefore decided to read the comments for a healthy dose of bitterness and…” Feb 8, 15:28
willie on A Stitch In Timing: “James Cheyne “There is no confusion in my mind between colonialism and crimes and criminals. Both needing money to feed…” Feb 8, 13:48
James on A Stitch In Timing: ““Your rugby league is another example of colonialism that cannot be allowed. William Webb Ellis was another of these privileged…” Feb 8, 13:28
Northcode on A Stitch In Timing: “For those Scots who wander this place and who don’t already know… there can be no doubt Scotland IS a…” Feb 8, 13:15
TURABDIN on A Stitch In Timing: “LES MAINS SALES. The foundations of the British state were laid when frenchified norsemen arrived on Englands southern shores and…” Feb 8, 13:02
Northcode on A Stitch In Timing: ““I think we all get the message” I suspect the ‘message’ is far beyond the ability of your Yankee program…” Feb 8, 12:26
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “@Alf Baird 10.33 am. When you are in a hole Alf best to stop digging. Not sure at what point…” Feb 8, 11:37
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “Alf Baird, Some people may confuse wealth and Colonialism, As i explained in my post a morale compass and integrity…” Feb 8, 11:34
TURABDIN on A Stitch In Timing: “BEHOLD! the veil of Britannia’s insular temple is rent from top to bottom, its gods exposed as childish myth, its…” Feb 8, 11:21
Aidan on A Stitch In Timing: “Well Alf, on this one post you’ve commented no less than 10 separate times with this “Scotland is a colony”…” Feb 8, 11:19
Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “So Mandelson got sacked as ambassador and it now emerges that he got a £55,000 pay off You couldn’t make…” Feb 8, 11:13
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “Aye James, it would help if those who claim to have “campaigned for Indy all my adult life” actually understood…” Feb 8, 10:33
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “H McH You’re projecting again “old boy”..” Feb 8, 10:21
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Love it when you ardent republicans start wanging oan aboot our rich, complex, and above all SCOTTISH monarchy. It’s as…” Feb 8, 10:05
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Subscription AND circulation numbers. I have long given up wondering how that rag (in its latest editorial form) pays its…” Feb 8, 09:25
factchecker on A Stitch In Timing: “James says: 8 February, 2026 at 12:00 am “Oh dear. Poor “fact checker”…he doesn’t even know that it’s rugby union…” Feb 8, 09:24
100%Yes on A Stitch In Timing: “Over the years Wings has posted the newspapers subscription figures, have you stopped doing that? It would also be interesting…” Feb 8, 09:04
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Cynicus @ 1.02am Yes, however the Henry VII quote I noted was the response to one of his close advisers…” Feb 8, 08:57
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “Young Lochinvar @ 21.48. “Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul”. And, surely many of us recall how being thawed out…” Feb 8, 07:07
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: “Young Lochinvar says: 7 February, 2026 at 10:58 pm ‘Or.. To quote English Henry VII (Tudor) marrying off his daughter…” Feb 8, 01:02
James on A Stitch In Timing: ““…have campaigned for Indy all my adult life.” LOLZ. That right, aye?” Feb 8, 00:03
James on A Stitch In Timing: “Oh dear. Poor “fact checker”…he doesn’t even know that it’s rugby union at Murrayfield next week, not rugby league. What…” Feb 8, 00:00
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “Sorry Alf still not sure what your point is and if you are implying I am a non native and\or…” Feb 7, 23:35
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Or.. To quote English Henry VII (Tudor) marrying off his daughter to a reluctant King James IV of Scotland; “The…” Feb 7, 22:58
