A new YouGov poll of Scottish voters was released today. It had no voting-intention figures, and concerned itself mostly with people’s assessment of the main Scottish and UK party leaders. The Labour-voters column was interesting to say the least.
That’s rather a lot of love for a Tory PM from people who voted Labour at the last UK election just over a year ago – more of Scottish Labour’s remaining voters found Theresa May likeable than dislikeable. But then things got even weirder.
“Bias” is a word we hate. Other than in the article you’re about to read, you’ll almost never find it used on this site, for a string of reasons. It’s one of those words that – regardless of context or literal justification – simply makes people switch off instantly and dismiss your arguments. (See also: “Zionist”, “Quisling”, “fascist”, “Liebore”.)
It’s also largely irrelevant, because there are very few people or organisations who have any duty NOT to be biased. When it comes to Scottish independence we’re as biased as all heck, and there’s no legitimate reason to expect the Daily Record or Scotsman or Daily Mail to be any more impartial than we are. They’re privately-owned businesses and entitled to take any position they like.
(The difference, of course, is that unlike them we’re committed to still telling the truth when we’re being biased, and to always providing linked original sources so you can judge our biased interpretation of facts and events for yourself.)
You can’t throw a brick at the Scottish media at the moment – however much you’d like to – without hitting half a dozen articles all repeating the same mantra: that despite the post-Brexit surge in support for independence, a Yes vote would be more difficult to achieve because the economics are now harder than they were in 2014, due to the collapse in the oil price.
Weirdly, almost all of these articles simultaneously insist that any new White Paper for independence would have to abandon the Sterling currency union advocated by the Scottish Government the first time round (despite there being little to no concrete evidence that it was a significant factor in the No vote, other than the commentariat all loudly agreeing with each other that it was).
The problem is that those two claims – if for the sake of argument you take them both to be true – introduce a whacking great elephant to the room, which all the people making the arguments are pretending not to notice.
If there haven’t been as many posts on this site as people might expect at a time of such incredible political turmoil, it’s because Wings isn’t at heart a commentary blog. We don’t do a lot of flat-out opinion pieces, tending to concern ourselves more with measurable, empirical facts, and since nobody knows anything about anything at the moment, we haven’t had all that much useful to say.
But the closest thing there is right now to a certainty is that sometime quite soon, Unionist politicians in Scotland are going to have to grow up and deal with this:
And their problem is that there’s no possible way to.
So the official Westminster line is that Scotland will HAVE to become independent if it wants to remain in the EU. We’re sure the FM will be absolutely gutted to hear that.
Colin Alexander on Or Something: “An FOI to the Electoral Commission on related Police / SNP matters was also refused with a: “can neither confirm…” Aug 3, 13:38
Willie on Or Something: “When you read responses like the one thst COPFS has just sent you realise that the COPFS has just issued…” Aug 3, 13:35
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Or Something: “No, there’s a third option: simply explain the reason someone was not prosecuted in the face of what appears to…” Aug 3, 13:10
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “OK, so I lazily exaggerated. I’ll re-write. Over the months of July and August, when the schools are out, sufficient…” Aug 3, 12:42
agentx on Or Something: ““Sandie Peggie’s employment tribunal appeal to go ahead next year. A statement released on behalf of Peggie’s lawyers said a…” Aug 3, 12:35
Campbell Clansman on Or Something: “The letter demands that the government agency admit they are institutionally inept or corrupted. Here’s a list of the number…” Aug 3, 12:33
H Scott on Or Something: “‘everybody will be on holiday’ Not in Scotland.” Aug 3, 12:20
joolz on Or Something: ““there are only two possibilities: COPFS is institutionally inept, or COPFS is institutionally corrupt. Neither would be a good look.”…” Aug 3, 11:59
am firinn on Or Something: “In fact COPFS have all sorts of duties to explain things. Notably, under section 6 of the Victims and Witnesses…” Aug 3, 11:59
Skip_NC on Or Something: “As I recall, this started as a criminal complaint to the police following John Swinney’s confession and they kicked it…” Aug 3, 11:46
David W Aitken on Or Something: “Is there the slightest prospect of a private prosecution here? It seems clear that only this would break the mulish…” Aug 3, 11:36
AlMac on Or Something: ““Please do not make the mistake of thinking that I will eventually get bored and go away. I will not.”…” Aug 3, 11:28
Frank Gillougley on Or Something: “I think that what they have said to so far amounts to no more than this: 1. Now be a…” Aug 3, 11:14
Robert on Or Something: “COPS may well, and quite reasonably, reply that it’s not their job to explain the law to anyone, or their…” Aug 3, 11:00
DaveL on Or Something: “On number 6 of your listed points, COPFS being either inept or corrupt I have no doubt (despite their inept…” Aug 3, 10:31
Sean Duffy on Or Something: “Excellent riposte. Reminding them that this is not simply going to go away and die quietly and unseen in some…” Aug 3, 10:29
Arbroath1320 on Or Something: “Please do not make the mistake of thinking that I will eventually get bored and go away. I will not.…” Aug 3, 10:22
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““wha aye hauds pouer in a donsie wee colony?” According to Fanon, the whites. According to Hatey, that’s a useless…” Aug 3, 10:22
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Excellent article. It really could not be made any simpler or any clearer. “in around a month’s time” would be…” Aug 3, 10:18
factchecker on Or Something: “Excellent. Could not be made plainer. Hard for them not to address the real issue without looking either stupid or…” Aug 3, 10:18
Tony Little on The Deaf Eyes: “On the contrary @Northcode COPFS chose to ignore the simple fact that on EVERY occasion the SNP asked people to…” Aug 3, 10:15
Alf Baird on Or Something: ““why COPFS is turning a blind eye?” Good question, Rev. This business suggests people in very powerful positions may be…” Aug 3, 10:06
Ronnie on Or Something: “When you come for the King…….yie ken the rest.” Aug 3, 09:49
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “An interesting article about how the EU – that wonderful EU that so many “Indy” Scots yearn to join with…” Aug 3, 08:25
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: ““a godsend to Scotland…..liven the place up from its geriatric torpor. many of them are rather well educated to boot”…” Aug 3, 07:32
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Not a bad post from Confused, there, shows what he can do when he’s not obsessing about his #1 and…” Aug 3, 07:18
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “” Right, so before much was known about it and no-one was reporting accurate numbers because they were not known,…” Aug 3, 06:48
twathater on The Deaf Eyes: “What a despicable response , as Knuckle_Heid upthread stated the condescension and contempt is palpable ,the fact that these people…” Aug 3, 03:04
Peter McAvoy on The Deaf Eyes: “Regarding a written constitution the term unwritten constitution is an oxymoron that has never to my memory been challenged. Most…” Aug 3, 02:33
Angus on The Deaf Eyes: “Do not let them defeat you.” Aug 3, 00:06
