Scottish Independence – It’s Very Close Indeed
I’ve updated the graphs with the latest polls and re-drawn them, I’ve also ignored the polls from before March 2014, so this is just the last six months of polling (about 50 separate polls). My original data source is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014
The graph clearly shows that as the poll gets closer more people are making their minds up, and that the gap between the views is narrowing. Yesterday saw a major effort by the No campaign to influence the Don’t Knows which won’t yet have made its way into the opinion data as the latest one was only published yesterday.
If you haven’t made up your mind yet then you might be the person that decides the outcome. Here are some useful links that might be of assistance in gathering the facts (NB apply buckets of salt to anything said by politicians, and these aren’t necessarily free of bias,):
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides
- http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/
- http://whatscotlandthinks.org/
- https://fullfact.org/
Here are a couple of tweets when I asked people to recommend sites. If you have any recommendations then either share in the comments or send me a tweet. If a site supports a campaign be sure to mention that when you post it.
https://twitter.com/Sandyann1964/status/509589741374013440
@greencoatboy not so much impartial, but still a damn good read… http://t.co/wXBBKq9in1
— Glasgow Welsh (@GlasgowWelsh) September 10, 2014
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Try Scot goes Pop for an analysis of the polls. And don’t believe a word the BBC says. I watched part of the FM’s press conference live yesterday and the Q & A when Nick Robinson asked him a question about RBS which he answered comprehensively and later Nick Robinson said he didn’t answer the question! See the clip on Wings over Scotland – handed on a plate.
I watched the video here http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/11/scottish-independence-alex-salmond-nick-robinson_n_5803748.html
Nick Robinson is spot on, Alex Salmond ducked the question. He was asked about the impact of RBS moving to London and instead answered a question about corporation tax. It’s a trick politicians (and others) are taught in media handling courses.
I hear a lot of BBC bias from Yes campaigners, but usually what they are complaining about is that the BBC also reported the other point of view. That’s not bias, but balance. I also think it is fair for reporters to press politicians to answer the question they were asked (after all if was an academic exam the politicians would fail for giving the answer to a different question).