4th May 2023 Comment How Scotland should be governed National identity and cultural issues
The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey on Saturday has unsurprisingly generated a considerable amount of polling on attitudes towards the monarchy in recent week. Much of that has been Britain-wide. However, there has also been some polling of Scotland alone that allows us to examine attitudes north of the […]
27th April 2023 Comment Elections, parties & leaders How Scotland should be governed
The arrest on 5 April of Peter Murrell, until recently the Chief Executive of the SNP, in connection with allegations about the possible misuse of funds collected by the SNP in 2017 to promote independence has given rise to much speculation about the possible impact of the story on the fortunes of the SNP (see, […]
11th April 2023 Comment Elections, parties & leaders How Scotland should be governed
One of the key developments in Scottish electoral politics over the last decade has been a strengthening of the relationship between constitutional preference and party choice. Those who support independence have come overwhelmingly to support the SNP, while those who are opposed have become disinclined to do so. According to the Scottish Social Attitudes survey, […]
14th March 2023 Comment Elections, parties & leaders
SNP members are now voting for the next leader of the SNP. Following a tough interrogation by Sky News’ Political Editor, Beth Rigby last night, tonight the contenders will debate each other in front of a live audience on BBC1 Scotland. The polls suggest there is everything to play for, at least so far as […]
16th February 2023 Comment Elections, parties & leaders
Scottish Labour meet in Edinburgh this weekend in better heart than for a long time. The party outpolled the Conservatives in last May’s local elections, the first time it had done so in a Scotland-wide ballot since 2016. Almost every poll conducted since the beginning of last year has suggested that the party has now […]
28th December 2022 Comment National identity and cultural issues
Scotland is currently preparing to enjoy Hogmanay, one of the distinctive highlights of the country’s cultural and social calendar. We thought we would mark the occasion by reprising a piece of ScotCen research unveiled during the year that looked at attitudes towards another distinctive feature of Scottish life and culture – the Gaelic language. The […]
14th December 2022 Comment Elections, parties & leaders How Scotland should be governed The Scottish independence referendum
The Supreme Court judgement that the Scottish Parliament does not have the legal authority to hold a referendum on independence was widely welcomed by unionist politicians. However, so far at least, it seems to have undermined rather than underpinned the foundations of public support for the Union. Four polls of people’s vote intentions in a […]
22nd November 2022 Comment How Scotland should be governed Policy issues
One remarkable development during the COVID-19 pandemic was a marked if temporary increase in the level of support for independence. Every published opinion poll conducted between June 2020 and January 2021 had Yes ahead of No when people were asked how they would vote in response to the question that appeared on the referendum ballot […]
31st October 2022 Comment Perceptions of government & the Union Policy issues
The latest Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) report on attitudes to government is published today. Given the ongoing coronavirus restrictions in place when the 2021/22 survey was conducted (October 2021 to March 2022), it could not be conducted as previously by face-to-face interviews in participants’ homes. Instead all interviews were conducted over the telephone. This difference […]
17th October 2022 Comment Economic issues
Today Nicola Sturgeon is releasing the latest and most important instalment in the Scottish Government’s series of white papers intended to make the case for independence. The latest publication will address the economy and currency. This is an important development in the independence debate. Attitudes towards the economy played a key role in voters’ decisions […]
Explore the What UK Thinks website. Non-partisan information on UK attitudes to the EU before and since the EU Referendum.
