18th October 2013 Comment Cross border attitudes How England should be governed
There has perhaps been no clearer indication of the fragility of the Union. This weekend the SNP are gathered in Perth laying out the case for Scottish independence, while in London the IPPR think tank are holding a Festival of Englishness. The two countries would seem intent on going their separate ways. Indeed, part of […]
11th October 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum
At first glance it would seem that there is little of interest in the latest TNS-BMRB poll of referendum vote intentions released today. It looks like yet another poll that shows how difficult it is proving to be for either side to change the balance of opinion. But once we take a closer look, the […]
8th October 2013 Comment
We are pleased to announce the release today of a major new feature on the What Scotland Thinks website. Regular users will be aware that since its initial launch in June the site has provided access to a comprehensive collection of data from polls and surveys on people’s attitudes towards Scotland’s constitutional future. Since then […]
27th September 2013 Comment National identity and cultural issues
The publication yesterday of the second tranche of results from the 2011 Census in Scotland caused a certain amount of excitement. What caught many an eye was the finding that no less than 62% said that they were Scottish and nothing else, while only just over a quarter acknowledged being British, either alone (8%) or […]
18th September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum
The Ipsos MORI poll that was originally expected to appear last night has now been published. It will doubtless raise the spirits of the No camp, but whether it should is less clear. The Yes vote is put at 31% while No are reckoned to be on 59%. That represents no less than a 28 […]
18th September 2013 Comment Elections, parties & leaders The Scottish independence referendum
As regular readers of this blog will by now have come to appreciate methodology can make a difference to the results obtained by polls when they ask people how they would vote in the referendum. So how does the methodology of today’s YouGov and Progressive Scottish Opinion polls stand up to scrutiny? One important methodological […]
18th September 2013 Comment Cross border attitudes The Scottish independence referendum
On this day next year Scotland will cast its verdict on whether it wishes to become independent or remains part of the UK. The date has been marked by the publication of two polls this morning, while we also have the first reading for a long time of what people in England make of it […]
15th September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum
Apart from asking people how they currently think they might vote next year, today’s ICM/ Scotland on Sunday poll also returns to an aspect of the role that the devolution max debate might play in determining the outcome of the independence referendum. This issue was first addressed by aYouGov/Devo Plus poll a fortnight ago. It […]
15th September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum
After the excitement generated during the last fortnight by some highly divergent polls, today we have two polls that tell much the same story. Some valuable light is shed too on some of the methodological debates that have been occasioned by the recent big differences between some of the polls. First Panelbase have undertaken the […]
10th September 2013 Comment Cross border attitudes How England should be governed Perceptions of government & the Union
According to Lord Robertson, Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary during the 1990s, introducing devolution would kill nationalism ‘stone dead’. In contrast, his former backbench colleague, Tam Dalyell, argued it would prove to be a ‘slippery slope’ towards Scottish independence. With a referendum on Scottish independence due to be held in a year’s time, at the moment […]
Explore the What UK Thinks website. Non-partisan information on UK attitudes to the EU before and since the EU Referendum.
