Doing it deliberately
The Daily Record carries the results of an interesting poll today. Carried out by the paper itself among its own readers, it shows conclusive support for a range of SNP policies. For example, 79% of Record readers want to retain Sterling should Scotland become independent, in line with the Nats’ position. They want Scotland to remain a member of the EU by a ratio of almost two to one (55% to 29%). They want to stay in NATO by an overwhelming margin of 68% to 13%. And abolishing Trident is backed by more than three-to-two (47% vs 31%) among the poll’s respondents.
You’d imagine that Scotland’s second-biggest-selling newspaper might be pleased that the country’s government so comprehensively reflects the desires of its own readers, wouldn’t you? And yet unaccountably, the Record appears to be furious about it.
“Our poll shows voters back the SNP’s blueprint for independence – and that’s exactly how Alex Salmond planned it”, the Record froths, as if putting forward a manifesto that people like and support was some kind of dishonourable, underhand tactic. “The SNP have thrown political beliefs out of their window in a desperate attempt to convince Scots to put a cross beside the Yes box in 2014”, it continues, seemingly in the belief that listening to the electorate is the most dastardly crime in the government playbook.
Much of the piece is of course given over to angry reactions from Labour and Unionist spokespersons, who we commend the Record on getting to actually turn up. And it ends rather abruptly, as if the Record’s exasperation at the sheer effrontery of the SNP in continuing to be popular has rendered it speechless. But ultimately, even Labour’s most loyal propaganda organ reluctantly faces the basic fact that the SNP can legitimately claim to be speaking for the people of Scotland, while Scottish Labour can’t even speak for itself. We suspect the Record has more such dark days ahead.
How very dare they!!! The sheer effrontery of a party to actually take note of the desires of its electorate, well I never did……………….
It’s disgusting. We, the voters, must wake up and stop voting for this party which so deviously makes popular policies people support. And, as George Foulkes once pointed out, it also deliberately goes about trying to make Scotland a better place. Shameful.
That Record article is amazing. You have to wonder – is it a concerted, conscious attempt to put a negative spin on a positive independence story, or is that genuinely how the poll looks when you’re wearing unionist spectacles? If it’s the latter, then the level of self-delusion is actually pretty worrying.
One of the poll results confuses me. Only 47% want Trident removed, while 31% think it should stay. That suggests that the “independence = no more Trident” line perhaps isn’t anywhere near as popular a policy as us lefties tend to think. It also suggests 31% actually think a nation of 5 million people should have WMDs. Extending that logically, it also means 31% are utter, utter morons.
Our poll shows voters back the SNP’s blueprint for independence – and that’s exactly how Alex Salmond planned it”, the Record froths:
they are doing it deliberately
Literacy lessons needed for Scotland’s second-biggest-selling newspaper, though I guess the FM’s every action is torture to them!
‘And the First Minister’s torturous attempts to justify his positions on the EU, NATO and currency have hit his credibility.’
Clause 4
Would hav been nice if they included a question about Labour’s plans for mean testing of benefits or the Scottish Government existing policies to be carried into Independence.
@Doug Daniel
‘ It also suggests 31% actually think a nation of 5 million people should have WMDs.’
It is slightly surprising, though they might not have thought that hard about what was implicit in the question. They may correspond pretty closely to the hard core of Unionists who think every manifestation of the UK has to be clung onto wherever possible.
someone should remind them that once upon a time, they seethed and frothed at Labour, being as they were at the time a staunch Conservative paper – once Indy happens they are most likely to transform into a staunch Independent Scottish paper.
I have thought for a while that unionists and their media allies just cannot even comprehend the people of Scotland voting for independence. I am not sure why this is the case. Is it that they lack imagination? Maybe they have interests tied to the British state? Are they just simply in denial about the Scottish political situation? The Record’s line about Salmond planning it and a blueprint is odd and funny at the same time. This is because everyone knows that the SNP support independence and have supported it for decades. Of course the SNP have been planning it you fools! They seem to have conveniently missed the main point that the SNP got a massive electoral mandate last year for the holding of the referendum. I wonder why they are so keen to play this down….
Can anyone please tell me which political beliefs the SNP have chucked out the window?
Would that have been trident? Uhu! That was johann.
Clause 4? uhu! That was labour.
Help!
When is a positive story a negative? Answer is when the Daily Record goes into Comical Ali mode. I remember their Comical Ali routine right up to the eve of the 2011 election when self denial and delusional rants became the order of the day from poor deluded Magnus Gardham. He may be gone but it seems now that the lunatics are still in the asylum down Trinity Mirror way! Their hatred for all things independence and SNP trump everything that is good for the country and its people. They really should take their blinkers off to let them see whats coming down the track but then….
Should that not be “Whining On Purpose”?
Doug Daniel:
“Extending that logically, it also means 31% are utter, utter morons.”
2011 Holyrood election result: Labour 31%
Just sayin’, is all…
(I jest, of course: most of those were just gullible, rather than actually stupid)
I have wondered for a while about the question of the media and other institutions in Scotland and their seemingly automatic support for the union. Why is it that no newspaper(s) support(s) independence? Also, why has the SNP got so far down the road to independence without support from the media and other institutions, such as trade unions etc? It would appear to have been an almost impossible task. Does anyone know how the SNP managed this?
This “survey” was only 500 DR readers. Hardly a reflection of Scotland as a whole, so let’s not give it too much time and energy. A waste of space if you ask me. There are more important things to vex us – mainly the lying BBC.
And the Daily Record will still be there if the Andrex* runs out.
(*other arsepapers are available)
SNP are unburdened by policy dogma so can afford to be nimble. They have sneaked a centre left position from Labour and Labour reacts to that by being purely anti-SNP policy, regardless of the actual SNP policy. Therefore further alienating the core Labour vote…..
Labour then share a platform with the Tories on Bitter Together. more alienation…..unless something changes radically in strategy then Labour are still dead in the water. This is why the Record is moaning. You stole our sweeties…..
Interesting wee speech here from John McAllion, ex-Labour MP, coming oot in support of ‘Yes’
Poor confused souls at The Record. They’ll be wanting Magnus back. He would have concluded that 75% of scots have serious mental health problems- so we need the Unions protection.
Separate issue, what crap has Ian Davidson been coming out with now? Missed it.
WM political parties better brace themselves because in 2014 the people of Scotland will overwhelming vote for Independence. We’re maybe wee but we’re not stupid Meanwhile the rest of UK are wishing they had an alternative party to vote for
@Doug Daniel – “It also suggests 31% actually think a nation of 5 million people should have WMDs.”
I don’t think so. I don’t think it meas that 31% would like Trident for ourselves, I think it means that 31% aren’t fussed about the UK keeping Trident here. Maybe they (we) are thinking that it can go in time, but there’s no rush.
Of all the negotiations the SG will have to do with the rUK, Trident is the most fraught and contentious. Perhaps that 31% are aware of that, and are indicating they don’t care. Personally I don’t either, though it is time someone else had it in their backyard.
And I’ve always thought that “lefties” exaggerate the dislike of Trident by most Scots – I really think most don’t care either way. We’ve had it 50 years, so shrug, I’ve not been mushroomed yet!
Just doing the maths, of those that cared, that would be 60% against Trident, 40% “for”.
Oh me, I didn’t realise I was doing so wrong, so I would like to say sorry for wanting nuclear weapons out of my country even though I and all of my fellow countrymen & women did not actually have any choice in putting them in Scotland in the first place. Then I would like to say I’m sorry for thinking that keeping the pound after independence would be of benefit to all countrys in the British Isles, ALSO I am really sorry about wanting to stay in NATO and fulfill our obligations as a member of Nato.
And before I forget my deepest apologies for expecting to be a member of the EU and just incase it comes up I am really really SORRY about universal benefits for all of Scotland, I dont know what I was thinking about.
Please pass on all my regrets for my behaviour to the Daily Record, it was my own fault for expecting my country to become a better nation, a nation that expects “nae limits” to its prospects and to use its resouces in both people and nature to the best of their ability, and to have the social character that protects and supports our most disadvantaged citizens. I really am sorry, HONEST.
This will be the daily record which still can’t make the connection between their stance on the Independance debate with undying love and support for a moronic Scottish Labour party and the massive fall in sales of their dodgy toilet paper…I’m sure the penny will drop soon but will it be too late?
Why any right thinking person would want to spend money on a rubbish paper like the Record is beyond my comprehension. It doesn’t really say much for the masses does it? Do the opinions of the plonkers who buy the Daily Record matter one whit? I very much doubt it. Voat Layburr!
The Daily Record = Twats
“sheer effrontery” brilliant!
“79% of Record readers want to retain Sterling should Scotland become independent, in line with the Nats’ position”
“79% of Record readers want to retain Sterling should Scotland become independent, in line with the Nats’ position”
Suicide. Might as well join the Euro.
Sterling’s just a stop-gap. We’ll be in the Norwegian Krone zone in 10 years. Probably.
One wonders, why they still ran it? For all the ranting that came after it, the message is still plain and simple. The YES camp is giving lots of reasons to go for independence and that rattled the opposition.
Since it got published maybe we are witnessing the beginnings of a civil war in the DR- at least to try and keep it afloat post-Independence.
The SNP are popular because they take heed of what people think. They do this by engaging in social network media and collecting data on the doorsteps across Scotland. The Unionists do not have that in place and the ones that “engage” in it, do so in a “sterile” way- they only respond to fellow travelers or not all.
The Unionist parties are so used to doing what they like in government, irrespective of what is popular with the people, that they are struggling to come to terms with a government that acts in the interests of the people. The Unionists act only in their party interests.
Labour has taken the Scottish vote for granted for so long that they were largely able to ignore the popular will and still be elected. That has now changed! The electorate has witnessed a party in government that can and will deliver competent government and deliver for the people they represent.
One wonders why Labour never thought of that, unless, of course, they were just doing Westminster’s bidding all along!