Do Lord Ashcroft’s Polls Tell Us Anything New?

9th September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

One of the ways in which former Tory treasurer, Lord Ashcroft, spends his money these days is on commissioning his own polls and focus groups. Many of them, such as one he released last week on attitudes to immigration, are unusually big. Indeed they are sometimes big enough to permit robust comparison of attitudes in […]


Now the Don’t Knows Have It! New TNS-BMRB Poll

4th September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

What a week! And it is only half over! On Sunday YouGov told us that Scotland was swinging towards No. On Monday Panelbase advised us that the country was swinging decisively in the Yes camp’s direction.  And, now, what do we learn today from TNS-BMRB? – that far from swinging either Yes or No Scotland […]


SNP/Panelbase Poll Shows One Point Yes Lead

2nd September 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

Well, at last we have a referendum poll that is generating some excitement. Hitherto every poll has put the No side ahead, and indeed often (as in Sunday’s YouGov poll for Devo Plus) quite a long way ahead.  Many a commentator has been wondering whether the contest is already all over bar the shouting. But […]




Wings Over Scotland Crowdsource Funded Poll

12th August 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

An interesting new development for polling in Scotland over the weekend. Concerned about the paucity of published polls about the referendum, the pro-independence website, Wings Over Scotland, raised from its own readers the funds needed to commission a poll from Panelbase. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time that a conventional […]


Nationalists for No: The Real Referendum Battleground?

8th August 2013 Comment Elections, parties & leaders The Scottish independence referendum

Rather a lot of political excitement has been caused recently by claims that the Labour for Independence campaign was a front populated by current and/or recent SNP activists rather than a grassroots organization consisting of genuine Labour members – see, for example, these articles by Severin Carrell and Tom Gordon. Apart from casting aspersions on […]


Panelbase July Poll

1st August 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

Just when Scotland’s politicians – and its psephologists – thought it was safe to lie in the sun and forget about the referendum for a while, up popped the Sunday Times last weekend with its Panelbase July poll. So apologies that it has taken us a little while to catch up with what was the first regular public […]


Welcome to the What Scotland Thinks website

19th June 2013 Comment Site News

As Scotland decides how it is going to vote in the independence referendum on 18 September next year, the site brings together all the key polling and survey evidence on how the Scottish public thinks their country should be governed. The website features key headline figures from all the recent polls and surveys of Scottish […]


Yes are behind – but how far?

19th June 2013 Comment The Scottish independence referendum

Eight polls have so far been conducted since the Scottish Government accepted in January that the question on the referendum ballot paper should read, ‘Should Scotland be an independent country’, as recommended by the Electoral Commission.  Every single one of those polls, conducted by no less than five different companies, has put the Yes side […]