Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson managed to make a bit of a balloon of herself earlier this month when she contrived to get THREE fairly key facts wrong in a single tweet about a poll on a second independence referendum.
(We’re not sure who the guy in the picture with her is. Probably a colleague.)
We suspected the reason she’d so badly misunderstood the data was that there were two options for “have another indyref in the next two years” and only one for “don’t have another indyref”, so when we were putting our latest poll together we thought we’d try to make it easier for her by having an equal number on both sides.
There’s a nice piece in today’s Scottish Sun about one of the findings of our newest Panelbase poll, on who was Scotland’s all-time best First Minister.
We thought you’d want a more detailed look at the data behind it.
There were no surprises in our latest Panelbase poll with regard to the independence question, at least not in terms of the headline figures – in line with a flurry of recent polls they came out at Yes 46% No 54%, with 2016’s Brexit vote seemingly having caused almost equal numbers of people to change sides since 2014.
But as readers will know, we usually like to probe a little bit deeper into the thoughts of our respondents than other media do, so we asked a few more questions on the subject. And the results of that were just plain weird.
When we commissioned our latest opinion poll from Panelbase, we were aware that there’d been a lot of polls recently about independence and Brexit/the EU and even Westminster voting intentions, but surprisingly few on the next thing that Scots will actually go to polling stations for – the council elections in May.
That’s odd because it’s a pretty significant vote, and could lead to some fairly seismic changes in how the country is governed. Despite losing the popular vote for the first time in 2012, Labour are still the dominant force in Scotland’s town/city halls, running almost twice as many of the country’s 32 local authorities (either in sole control or in coalition/minority administrations) as the SNP – 16 to nine.
Depending on the outcome in May, the Nats could either secure a grip on all levels of Scottish elected politics for the first time ever, or a Tory alliance with Labour as junior partners could keep most councils Unionist – something which could have all sorts of wider ramifications beyond local services. (That’s an article for another day.)
The ultra-hardcore Unionist community – or the Yoons, as they’re better known – are in a pretty much permanent state of wild and terrified rage, but it’s been turned up to 11 for most of this year. Constantly proclaiming that the people of Scotland don’t want independence, for some reason they’re absolutely petrified of putting that to the test.
Below is part of a segment from Monday’s edition of Good Morning Scotland (from 2h 35m at the link beneath the clip), which featured an interview with Professor Allyson Pollock, an extremely experienced academic in the field of healthcare on both sides of the border who so far as we know has no dog in the Scottish constitutional fight.
There’s a truly abominable piece of hatemongering in today’s Times. A grotesequely dishonest Nat-bashing smear job based on stupendously misrepresented fragments of quotes, it’s penned by Patrick Harkness, someone who the paper identifies as “a past co-chairman of the RSE [Royal Society of Edinburgh] Young Academy of Scotland”.
For some reason it’s chosen to leave a few lines off his CV.
Captain Caveman on These Words Are My Own: “Oh well, England firing six (yes, you heard it right folks SIX) goals against the French – widely fancied as…” Jul 19, 01:02
Young Lochinvar on A Matter Of Declinature: “HMcH Eh?? No. And your point is exactly, beaching a ship holed badly below the waterline allows repairs then refloating?…” Jul 19, 00:57
robertkknight on These Words Are My Own: “Nah…save the expense of construction and staffing and just dump the bastards there and let them fend for themselves. I’m…” Jul 18, 23:21
James on These Words Are My Own: “Oh, wow. You can tell when something ‘gets’ to them eh? They’re not even hiding it now, reams of unionist…” Jul 18, 22:29
James on These Words Are My Own: “Stupid fucking meaningless interjections is what the Site Prick is programmed to do. All day, every day. Rinse and repeat.” Jul 18, 22:16
James on These Words Are My Own: ““Once a Tory Prick, always a Tory Prick” ?” Jul 18, 22:12
James on These Words Are My Own: “The AI site Prick’s mission is to divert, distract and divide. All day, every day; in the hope that the…” Jul 18, 22:10
Red on These Words Are My Own: “Nicola Sturgeon. John Swinney. Humza Yousaf. Jamie Hepburn. Alex Salmond gave all these people political careers, despite their horrible inadequacies…” Jul 18, 21:53
jimburns on These Words Are My Own: “Puzzled me as well. Private Eye points out that the answer might be that as he wasn’t convicted of the…” Jul 18, 21:24
Tommo on Step One: “Indeed.There is a vague parallel I can offer from here in Wales;some years ago the Bonheddigion (look it up) decided…” Jul 18, 21:04
Saffron Robe on These Words Are My Own: “Nice one, Stuart. Let her try to prove her innocence in court. Surely the fact that all the items implicating…” Jul 18, 20:40
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: ““Such a fraud cannot be remedied by colonial elections” Havers, Alf. God only knows what you think the “laws of…” Jul 18, 20:28
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “It is a bit of a stupid fucking meaningless poem, Onlooker, so just what did you expect? And it doesn’t…” Jul 18, 19:16
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: “Andy, Hatey, You are ignoring the greatest fraud against the Scots, which is neither Murrell or Sturgeon, it is the…” Jul 18, 19:04
Red on These Words Are My Own: “Thank you, Reverend. From a grateful and weary Scotland.” Jul 18, 18:59
Onlooker on These Words Are My Own: “What a stupid fucking meaningless interjection from Mr Answer Everything All Day Every Day (I Am Halfwit, Hear Me Roar!),…” Jul 18, 18:15
Carol Neill on These Words Are My Own: “And the place is nearly empty The lion the witch and the audacity of that bitch” Jul 18, 18:08
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Great post, Andy. “a plebiscitary general election fought on a platform that won’t take “No” for an answer” is, of…” Jul 18, 17:42
100%Yes on These Words Are My Own: “I believe we are dealing with no ordinary people, if anyone was to come forward it would be for money…” Jul 18, 17:36
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “What did a tiger ever do to him? There’s no hatred in a tiger, nor in any predator that ever…” Jul 18, 17:33
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “@Alf 3.20pm On the contrary Alf I’m quite aware of the rupture in the movement and of the creation of…” Jul 18, 17:31
100%Yes on These Words Are My Own: “The worry for Sturgeon is, what secrets does wings have hidden away in that large safe.” Jul 18, 17:08
Onlooker on These Words Are My Own: “THE GENIUS OF THE CROWD By Charles Bukowski There is enough treachery, hatred, violence, absurdity in the average human being…” Jul 18, 16:33
LinaryG on These Words Are My Own: “Now that really is interesting. Getting control of The Scotsman would have given a nationalist slant to a major paper…” Jul 18, 16:24
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “I’m genuinely curious, Alf. Of your “numerous former colonized peoples, now UN member states”, how many of these were split…” Jul 18, 16:01
Insider on These Words Are My Own: “Ian Foulds says: 18 July, 2026 at 2:57 pm Now is the time and now is the hour Nope! Memmi…” Jul 18, 15:37
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: ““The non-SNP parts of movement has signally failed so far to come up with any plausible alternative… as far as…” Jul 18, 15:20
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Aye, Alf. We have no choice. We have to be back-stabbing thieves, crims, degenerates and embezzlers. Epic fuckups too. Some…” Jul 18, 15:15
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Well said, Alf. You, of course, must be withholding the additional taxes levied on Scottish residents by the non-existent Scottish…” Jul 18, 15:03
