We didn’t do a stats post at the start of April (still just under 4m pageviews a month, if you’re curious) but when someone tweeted these figures this morning we thought they were worth a wee toot, because they’re more than just nice news for us.
They’re from the independent web-traffic analysis site Alexa.com, and they detail the relative rankings for the seven biggest dedicated Scottish politics sites on the web.
The last batch of data from our Panelbase poll concerns social attitudes, away from directly party-political issues. We did a whole bunch of these last time, with a mixture of predictable and unexpected results, and Scots had a surprise or two for us again.
We’ve had these sitting around for a few days without getting round to posting them, but as we’re currently knee-deep in the last tranche of data from our Panelbase poll, it seemed as good a time as any to clear the decks.
First up in the ambiguously-named Posterotron is the “respectable” face of British nationalism, in the form of UKIP European-election candidate David Coburn.
That virtuoso display of Olympic-class irony from Mr Davey was part of the latest fearbomb from the No camp – Nick Clegg’s plea for a “Sunshine Strategy” apparently having been a casualty of Lord Robertson’s “cataclysm” – in the shape of yet another “Scotland Analysis” report from the UK government insisting that every single aspect of Scottish independence would be comprehensively and unequivocally disastrous.
With the Scottish Parliament on a two-week break, it appears to have fallen to the Telegraph to take on the role of Johann Lamont this Thursday.
Scottish Labour’s regional manager has recently been under the curious impression that the most pressing issue on the minds of the people of Scotland is the fine detail of the First Minister’s hotel bill during a trip to America to promote the Ryder Cup in 2012, and the Telegraph seems equally obsessed.
But that dramatic splash isn’t quite what it seems.
We particularly like the Scotsman’s use of the word “error”, as in “Whoops, we totally accidentally rewrote this story three times in 24 hours, with four different headlines, in order to make it more and more pejorative and sneery. Tch, clumsy old us, eh?”
We had a couple of questions in our poll that were quite complex and involved, so to give people a wee bit of respite we threw in a little light-hearted one as well.
Q: If this was the referendum ballot paper, how would you vote?
As well as asking the respondents in our latest Panelbase poll what they were thinking right now, we also invited them to have a shot at peering into the future – to be more specific, the future of the UK.
It’s fair to say that their predictions weren’t exactly overflowing with optimism.
If it’s Wednesday, Labour must have changed their position on their future-devolution proposals again. Following our latest highlighting of the glaring contradictions in the shambolic “Devo Nano” plans, responses have started arriving to your letters.
If you’ve been listening closely, you’ll have heard that the position on whether the Scottish Parliament would be able to reduce taxes below the UK level has see-sawed from “No you can’t” (Johann Lamont MSP, 18 March) to “Yes you can” (Richard Baker MSP, 28 March) and back to “No you can’t” again (Tom Clarke MP, 4 April).
Well, sort of, anyway. We were going to have another poll post tonight, but your eyes go a bit squiffy after an entire day of cross-referencing spreadsheets full of percentages so instead we’re just going to allow ourselves a wee brief glow of pride about this.
We hadn’t any idea the vote was taking place so we couldn’t even shamelessly urge readers to stuff the virtual ballot boxes, so we’re pretty chuffed to be sharing what we’re officially calling “joint 11th place” with some very decent reporters indeed, and to even be on the same list as the likes of Alex Thomson of Channel 4 and other people who get actually shot at for a living (instead of just on the internet) isn’t the worst feeling we’ve ever had.
And the fact that we’re the only other crowdfunded operation, along with the winner, means that you – Wings Over Scotland’s readers and employers – get the credit too.
Thanks to anyone who voted for us, and to everyone who’s helped make it happen.
Alert readers can’t have failed to spot that we’ve been devoting quite a bit of attention on Wings to Labour’s devolution proposals, chiefly because they’re by default the closest thing to the “more powers” option that’s so conspicuously missing from the referendum ballot paper at the insistence of the Unionist parties.
James Barr Gardner on The Final Robbery: “Dented buoys an’ Aspro pouder ?” May 28, 11:46
Geri on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Bloomberg also mentioned a staggering £177 billion excess profits for Energy firms. So there is more income down the City…” May 28, 11:30
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““Of course the ONS doesn’t take an institutional view of political questions…” Time for another packet of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes…” May 28, 11:28
Izzie on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Im at a loss as to how this endless stirring and poking advances the Cause. The Unionists should be the…” May 28, 11:10
DavidT on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “The Spectator on X has posted a very good graph showing SNP funds spent by Peter Murrell over the years.…” May 28, 11:08
Alf Baird on All The Dirt From My Eyes: ““the workings of the state institutions in current-day Scotland” ..is indeed a subject requiring of careful consideration, especially given the…” May 28, 11:00
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Of course the ONS doesn’t take an institutional view of political questions, it collects, analyses and publishes data. So what…” May 28, 10:49
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““Unlike you, I’ve never tried “… pushing shite uphill.”” On the contrary, Northy. Most would conclude that’s an activity (hopefully…” May 28, 10:40
Kate on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If only we could see front page headlines followed by a full investigation of the behaviour of SNP & especially…” May 28, 10:39
Nemisis Benn on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It’s irrelevant whether the accounts are signed off by the Party Leader or the Treasurer – at least one person…” May 28, 10:38
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “I could be wrong, of course… there is always that remote possibility to be considered. But I think this is…” May 28, 10:38
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Unlike you, I’ve never tried “… pushing shite uphill.” Tell me, is it really a very difficult thing to do,…” May 28, 10:31
Geri on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Data shite in = data shite out. A. GERS has been admitted by various ex London MPs that it’s bullshit…” May 28, 10:29
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Ah, my bad. Of course! The ONS are “in on it”, all part of some grand Fanon-tastic conspiracy – in…” May 28, 10:25
Spartan 117 on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Keep digging and asking the awkward questions, Stu. As another commenter stated, it gives a good insight into the workings…” May 28, 10:24
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““The ONS hasn’t a clue…” On the contrary, I think the ONS knows exactly what it’s doing when it omits,…” May 28, 10:18
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “You’re lucky to be so near the coast to see all those divers. We stayed in a house over-looking “Anthrax…” May 28, 10:00
Northcode on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I believe that what Fanon is really doing here is trying to break a psychological chain. Colonised peoples are often…” May 28, 09:57
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““I wouldn’t trust much of what the ONS has to say” Well, therein lies the problem, in a nutshell. “The…” May 28, 09:50
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Conclusion This report looks at the social background of the people who run Scotland… Our research suggests that the top…” May 28, 09:35
TURABDIN on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “«To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try,…” May 28, 08:48
Andouillette on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Thick? Or devious? Maybe both. One thing I am sure of is endless paragraphs of “Oooh look, squirrels” from the…” May 28, 07:11
DavidT on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It is hard to believe that Colin Beattie could have been paid for being the SNP treasurer all those years,…” May 28, 07:11
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Well here’s the good news Geri, the Office for National Statistics produces an extraordinary amount of high quality data through…” May 28, 07:00
robertkknight on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I’m not surprised it doesn’t resonate with the equally deluded and myopic types I imagine you speak to… all regular…” May 28, 04:59
gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Stuart McDonald is down as treasurer. My theory doesnae work then! They couldbae hae been that brassneckit.” May 28, 00:42
Young Lochinvar on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Izzie & 7.05 Is that, Izzie, the word coming down the line from the top to the party-before-country faithful? What…” May 28, 00:30
gm on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If someone else had put themselves forward for selection that would look terrible. If no-one else wanted the job then…” May 28, 00:05
sarah on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I don’t know the facts, I just read somewhere about it. I got the impression that it wasn’t that the…” May 27, 23:51
