After Scrapbook parodied Alex Salmond’s leading referendum question on Wednesday, Left Foot Forward’s Alex Hern has put the academic smackdown on the SNP’s dodgy wording: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” Technical literature on survey design is clear that questions phrased in this way result in a “small but significant increase in the [...]
Following the announcement of Alex Salmond’s leading “Do you agree …” referendum question, please enjoy Scrapbook’s suggestion for the wording and design of the ballot paper. The SNP’s unveiling of this cornerstone of the poll coincided with Burns Night … by pure coincidence, naturally.
Times journalist Mike Wade’s overtly hyperbolic account of the influence of the SNP’s social media strategy has raised a few eyebrows, not least because of his poorly judged comparisons with the Arab Spring in Egypt. Other highlights include Wade referring to embedding a Facebook “like” button underneath an Alex Salmond speech as an: “ingenious system [...]
Scottish Labour MP David Cairns has died suddenly aged 44. The loss leaves a grieving Scottish Labour Party hoping to avoid a repeat of the Glasgow East by-election in 2008, where a supposedly safe Westminster seat was lost to the SNP. Labour regained the seat with a substantial majority in 2010, but the 42% turnout [...]
It doesn’t take a particularly long memory to recall a time when the SNP opposed devolution. Indeed it was only after their poor showing in the 1997 UK General Election that they changed their tune and decide to support devolution for Scotland, as a stepping stone towards independence. Today the SNP are about to take a step [...]
Harriet Harman’s oddly personal (but nonetheless amusing) attack on Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, whom she called a “ginger rodent”, has generated a minor storm for which she’s been forced to apologise. Some commentators have been highlighting the hypocrisy of a life-long champion of equality mocking a man for a physical trait. Others like [...]
In the lobby of the Scottish Parliament today, Russell Brand makes his feelings on Scottish devolution clear to Nationalist MSP Alasdair Allan: Hat-tip: Kez Dugdale
Glasgow University’s Masters Degree in Political Communication is very highly regarded indeed. Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon would have done well to send someone from her office back to her alma mater to enroll in this course. Ms. Sturgeon’s brand-spanking new website which she proudly boasted about yesterday devotes a whole page to some [...]
