So this site is thrilled by the announcement from the SNP that they will, after much speculation in the media, vote against (and therefore likely condemn to defeat) the UK government’s plans to relax England’s fox-hunting ban to a point at which it would be de facto repealed entirely.
And not just because foxes are a lot cuter than Tories.
The Scottish Daily Mail today leads with a screaming banner headline announcing in its trademark style that, according to a poll it commissioned with Survation, Scots are massively opposed to any income tax rises when Holyrood eventually gets power over the rates under the new Scotland Bill.
And the reason that’s weird is that we commissioned a poll on the very same thing just days before, and got a dramatically different answer.
Yesterday we listed some of the nastier items from George Osborne’s horrifying 2015 budget that Labour had said they wouldn’t be opposing, including the public-sector payrise freeze, the reduction in the benefit cap and the slashing of child tax credit for families with more than two children.
Our latest Panelbase poll was conducted from 26 June-3 July, before this weekend’s astonishing events involving Greece, which are currently being documented on Twitter under the hashtag #ThisIsACoup.
We’re going to ask the exact same question again in our next one, so we can see if the EU’s actions have caused any significant change in public opinion. It should be pretty interesting either way.
Of course, it’s entirely natural that the Labour Party and The Economist should be on opposite sides. But somehow everything seems to be the wrong way round.
One of the worst things about running this website is that eventually it causes you to doubt the existence of reason. Things happen that – even putting all partisanship to one side, in so far as is humanly possible – it’s impossible to believe any remotely rational being or organisation would ever think, say or do.
A recent obvious case in point was the election of Jim Murphy as Scottish Labour leader. SNP supporters rubbed their eyes in disbelief as Labour and the media rushed, with apparent sincerity, to proclaim one of Labour’s most right-wing and divisive MPs the party’s saviour.
So unable was the nationalist side to contain its glee and amusement at what was a plainly suicidal move to anyone sane, the Unionist establishment persuaded itself a bluff was afoot and that the laughter masked fear. We all know how that turned out.
But what we want to talk about in this article is how, no matter how often that same tragi-comic farce is played out – in 2007, 2011 and now 2015 – the astonishing fact is that it never seems to make any difference. In defiance of the most famous quote attributed (apocryphally or otherwise) to Albert Einstein, Labour and its cheerleaders keep right on repeating the same actions over and over, expecting different results.
For those of us who cling to reason as the hope of mankind, increasingly despite all the evidence, it can cause outbreaks of incredulous despair. “They just CAN’T be this stupid!”, we exclaim, only for Labour to prove us wrong by offering their long-suffering Scottish members a prospective dream team of Kezia Dugdale and Gordon Matheson.
Because our recent Panelbase poll shared a sample with one for the Sunday Times, there was an unasked-for bonus in the data. The ST had asked Panelbase to divide the 1002 Scottish residents into those born in Scotland, those born in England and those born elsewhere (including the rest of the UK).
The paper has a slightly unsavoury track record for doing so, and it did it this time for the sake of running a deeply statistically-iffy question aiming to prove that a lot of Yes voters were anti-English, but we’ll get to that in another article.
What that meant was that we were able to cross-reference the “ethnicity” data against all of our questions, and that resulted in a couple of interesting findings.
Captain Caveman on List Voting For Cretins: “Ah yes, the Metropolitan Left, Guardianistas being the epitome, spitting their dummies out because the rest of the UK (and…” Jan 2, 13:22
Aidan on The Gulf War: “Of course though the example you give isn’t human hallucination, it is an accurate statement of the UK’s constitutional structure…” Jan 2, 13:20
Alf Baird on List Voting For Cretins: ““I would vote for anyone who is sincere about indy” Yer wiss haes bin gied tae aw Scots fowk. ‘Liberate…” Jan 2, 13:19
Aidan on The Gulf War: “Will you once again decline to offer us a suggestion as to how this ethnicity-based voting franchise would be defined…” Jan 2, 13:10
Confused on List Voting For Cretins: “SNP = devolutionist grifter paedo advocacy woke nutter pension and caravan afficionados Green = life hating death cult which wants…” Jan 2, 12:55
Al-Stuart on List Voting For Cretins: “. Dear Stuart, What are the odds that Jimmy-The-Holiday-Grifter over at Midden Mansions in Crowdfunder Street by ScotPhut Town’s head…” Jan 2, 12:54
Confused on List Voting For Cretins: “a good point : the weasel wording of “populism” is right out of the oxbridge school of sophistry. While “democracy”…” Jan 2, 12:45
Alf Baird on List Voting For Cretins: “We also have to remember that the UK devolved assemblies (unlike Westminster) are required to use ‘local government’ electoral franchises,…” Jan 2, 12:44
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on List Voting For Cretins: “Yes. Swinney of course. But he is just the current stooge. We can assume that since 2014 the comprehensive re-emasculation…” Jan 2, 12:24
Andy Wiltshire on List Voting For Cretins: “Swinney wants to win this time and next time – he’s said as much. So there will still be a…” Jan 2, 12:05
Vivian O’Blivion on List Voting For Cretins: “A front page article in The Guardian this morning reads like Swiftian satire. An exercise in projection, and inversion. “Populists…” Jan 2, 11:54
Alf Baird on The Gulf War: ““In the final analysis, the only ones to blame for that are Scottish independence supporters themselves.” That’s not even a…” Jan 2, 11:50
100%Yes on List Voting For Cretins: “Of course they know, that’s the point. The SNP DOES NOT WANT INDEPENDENCE and it certainly doesn’t want a majority…” Jan 2, 11:20
100%Yes on List Voting For Cretins: “The SNP stopped working for Scotland the day Salmond stood down. John Swinney is holding a full deck of cards…” Jan 2, 11:15
Ian on List Voting For Cretins: “Scottish elections – 1st vote first past the post, 2nd vote D’Hondt. UK elections – FPTP Scottish council elections -…” Jan 2, 11:08
100%Yes on List Voting For Cretins: “So stand up John Swinney your a moron. So we have 815,420 votes wasted on a party who just isn’t…” Jan 2, 10:54
Skip_NC on List Voting For Cretins: “Well, when you have Scotland’s foremost pishologist saying that SNP and Greens are on course for a “pro-independence” majority and…” Jan 2, 10:42
Effijy on List Voting For Cretins: “Could some crackpot at SNP try to offer what on earth is going through their minds that they cannot comprehend…” Jan 2, 09:58
Alex on List Voting For Cretins: “Ummm because the snp do not actually want independence and their rabbid supporters just want them to get more votes…” Jan 2, 09:56
Xaracen on The Gulf War: “sam said; “This occurs when AI systems generate plausible but entirely fictitious legal cases or statutes. Such errors can mislead…” Jan 2, 09:50
Mach1 on List Voting For Cretins: “Despite your sterling efforts to communicate the bleedin obvious it seems to be futile in many cases, comments online continue…” Jan 2, 09:49
David on List Voting For Cretins: “How can we get this message across? The SNP keep saying vote SNP 1 & 2. Why has this strategy…” Jan 2, 09:37
Andy Ellis on The Gulf War: “It pays to be suspicious of folk who cast doubt on polls carried out by reputable polling companies using accepted…” Jan 2, 09:16
Andy Ellis on The Gulf War: “We need to nail this ongoing bullshit argument that the reason “minor” pro indy parties are failing to make progress…” Jan 2, 08:40
Alan C on The Gulf War: “‘Sovereignty party leader Brian Nugent announced this morning he would be standing for both the Shetland constituency and the Highlands…” Jan 2, 07:19
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “The people whom died in WW11 fought for our freedoms, our rights in a free Country a Britain that was…” Jan 2, 06:43
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “The error Alba made and still make is trying to emulate the Snp old party that had long gone. That…” Jan 2, 06:07
Young Lochinvar on The Gulf War: “Correct. Can the talking heads here who brook no disagreement please advise; who should we actually vote for? ISP and…” Jan 2, 03:50
Phil on The Gulf War: “The fatal flaw of this excellent site is the dogged insistence on taking these independence polls seriously. Thus a ‘six…” Jan 2, 03:07
Cynicus on The Gulf War: “Lorna Campbell says: 1 January, 2026 at 2:41 pm “Somebody biased almost certainly had a hand in the decision. Don’t…” Jan 2, 01:13
