It seems that we’re letting the side down a bit here. If the same percentage of us were willing to vote Yes as the men, we’d be home and dry come September 18th, living in a nuclear-weapon-free democracy for the first time in our lives. But it seems like a lot of us are either not convinced or haven’t begun thinking about it yet.
I don’t believe it’s the former: anyone genuinely looking at the arguments, not to mention the behaviour of those on both sides of the debate, could hardly fail to be convinced that independence is a good thing. So I’m guessing it might be the latter.
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).
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “Hatey, It needs all the peoples to not recognise the legality of the SNP and the devolved parliament from Westminster.…” Oct 13, 10:52
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “It is not Scotland protecting Nicola Sturgeon or John Swinney, Englands Westminster parliament [ Scotland Act ] is under the…” Oct 13, 10:17
TURABDIN on Still Time To Save Her: “My last on the soi disant Bayeux Tapestry, not technically a tapestry but a refined piece of needlework by anglosaxon…” Oct 13, 10:16
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “Then again, James, might is right. If you believe that the SNP government is illegal, then you should really live…” Oct 13, 09:51
Aidan on Still Time To Save Her: “The Scottish Parliament in Holyrood is a creation of the Scotland act 1998. It is not a successor to the…” Oct 13, 09:37
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “The legalities of the SNP sitting in a Scottish parliament are nil, They are a business registered in England, in…” Oct 13, 09:27
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “Aidan, Speaking of old laws and legalities, There has been no Scottish parliament in the Great Britain parliament for over…” Oct 13, 09:09
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “An interesting article on what might be considered President Trump’s greatest success in his second term, his reduction in US…” Oct 13, 08:46
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “It occurred to myself a long time ago that the other 40 odd % that want independence of their Country…” Oct 13, 08:41
Aidan on Still Time To Save Her: “@Northcode – you need to look again at REFERENCE by the Lord Advocate of devolution issues under paragraph 34 of…” Oct 13, 08:15
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “Does anybody need a heat pump? With millions of tons of oil and gas going up in flames most nights,…” Oct 13, 07:58
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “It’s far more than just that, SBS. It’s a message from the people of a millenium ago. A warning from…” Oct 13, 07:55
McDuff on Still Time To Save Her: “Exactly so. They are all walking about with the confidence that they are untouchable.” Oct 12, 20:45
Northcode on Still Time To Save Her: “Aidan’s comment above mixes together domestic law, international law, and recognition in a way that doesn’t quite hold together. Here’s…” Oct 12, 20:35
Mark Beggan on Still Time To Save Her: “Well aint that a bitch. Does anyone have a Heat Pump? Not anymore you don’t. The money is going to…” Oct 12, 20:24
Southernbystander on Still Time To Save Her: “They think they will be looking at a 230ft long, 1000 year old embroidery of 53 scenes depicting the events…” Oct 12, 20:19
Mark Beggan on Still Time To Save Her: “Fuck International law. It aint worth a toilet roll. The last bastion of benefit cheats and nonces.” Oct 12, 19:53
Northcode on Still Time To Save Her: ““Does international law recognise a self-determination referendum as democratically legitimate if the answer is ‘No’?” “Is there a time limit…” Oct 12, 19:48
Dan on Still Time To Save Her: “@CC Daf Truck Fan… WTF are you on aboot? The closest I’ve come to that is when serving my time…” Oct 12, 19:45
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: ““you’re that fucking stupid you’re on a Scottish independence blog flogging the Bayeux Tapestry pish as a culturally enriching episode…” Oct 12, 19:35
Bilbo on Still Time To Save Her: “CC You said you’ve paid millions in taxes yet you spend a lot of your time posting on a blog…” Oct 12, 19:15
Captain Caveman on Still Time To Save Her: “Yeah, it’s a real surprise you got yourself permabanned on X, Twat. 😀 Silly old fool.” Oct 12, 18:57
Aidan on Still Time To Save Her: “Northcode is both right and wrong: – under the UK’s domestic legal framework, Holyrood cannot hold a referendum on independence.…” Oct 12, 18:47
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: ““Holyrood can hold an advisory(consultative) referendum without Westminster’s permission and international law will recognise it if it is democratically legitimate”…” Oct 12, 18:23
sam on Still Time To Save Her: “No legal basis. No political basis either since such a referendum is likely simply to be ignored and without participation…” Oct 12, 18:22
twathater on Still Time To Save Her: “Yeh and you’re that fucking stupid you’re on a Scottish independence blog flogging the Bayeux Tapestry pish as a culturally…” Oct 12, 18:16
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “@ twathater says: 12 October, 2026 at 5:49 pm See how much BETTER his posts are when CAPS LOCK doesn’t…” Oct 12, 18:14
Northcode on Still Time To Save Her: “Professor Robert McCorquodale is one of the world’s leading authorities on self-determination, international law, and constitutional transitions. His core position…” Oct 12, 17:52
twathater on Still Time To Save Her: “@ aydan ,funnily enough I’m surprised you’re not banned from WOS for being an obnoxious prick that you have shown…” Oct 12, 17:49
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “Fa’s Mr Lavrov when you need him? Tragic to think of poor old CM carting his kilt around the world…” Oct 12, 17:21
