Former First Minister Jack McConnell recently dismissed the surge in SNP support as a “protest movement”. Hearing that brought to mind a scene from a Mel Brooks film[1]: Count De Monet: It is said that the people are revolting. King Louis: You said it; they stink on ice. In October 2014, not long after the referendum, I heard […]
There’s a very interesting piece of analysis by “Ian and Charlie” comparing aspects of the three referendums held in Scotland, in 1979, 1997 and 2014. It can be found at this link. I’m not completely convinced by all of the arguments made, particularly because the 2014 referendum was different in a pretty fundamental way from […]
Blair Jenkins of Yes Scotland has said that the BBC was not biased in its reporting of the referendum campaign.[1] For my part, I believe that much of the criticism aimed the way of the BBC is misguided, in the sense of being misdirected; that’s not quite the same as saying that the criticism is […]
About this time last year I attended a lecture given by a US academic. His theme was, broadly speaking, a review of the various recent experiences of the splitting up of states. The idea was to identify any learning which might inform the debate on the referendum on Scottish independence. I wasn’t happy with his […]
On Tuesday, 23rd September I attended a presentation by Prof. John Curtice, the doyen of TV pollsterism, on the subject of “How Scotland’s Citizens Voted”.[1] Warning us that everything was so hot off the press that there were bound to be typos and glitches, Prof. Curtice took us through his analysis of the referendum result. […]