“Ask John Curtice” was a Twitter meme a few years ago. It was based on the BBC’s endless attempts to get their money’s worth out of Curtice’s role as a studio pundit by asking him about topics that went quite a way beyond his true expertise as a psephologist. People started to wonder only half-jokingly if Gordon Brewer might eventually invite Curtice to give relationship advice to viewers.
I was reminded of that earlier today when I saw that Ruth Davidson had jumped on a Courier article in which Curtice is quoted as saying that the odds are against a second independence referendum being held within the next five years, but “probably only marginally”. Needless to say, Davidson didn’t mention the “only marginally” bit, which presumably should be taken as meaning that Curtice thinks there is at least a 40% chance of an early referendum.
What made me raise my eyebrows, though, is that Curtice seemed to be basing his assessment mostly on a psychological analysis of Nicola Sturgeon – something that as a psephologist he is no more or less likely to get right than you or I. He clearly believes that Ms Sturgeon cares more about keeping her job than she does about independence, and therefore won’t risk calling a referendum because she supposedly knows that she would have to resign as First Minister if she lost. If I was Ms Sturgeon, I would feel somewhat insulted by that assumption. She did, after all, join the SNP at a time when Labour would have been the more natural option for a careerist. I see no reason to doubt that her commitment to independence is genuine, and that she will judge the success of her career by whether she achieved independence or brought it closer, and not by the number of years she stayed in office. So, for what it’s worth, our knowledge of Nicola Sturgeon’s motivations would lead me to the opposite conclusion to Curtice’s – ie. that an early referendum is more likely than not.
Curtice also attempts a bit of Kremlinology by reading huge significance into the supposed lack of activity during the summer. Well, maybe, but remember that the referendum announcement in the spring of 2017 was a complete bolt from the blue as far as the media were concerned. If Ms Sturgeon wants the same element of surprise the second time around, she wouldn’t telegraph a decision in quite the obvious way that Curtice seems to have been looking out for.
What’s missing from Curtice’s psychological analysis is the psychology of the SNP membership and the wider Yes movement. Expectations that the current mandate for a pre-2021 referendum will be used are sky-high, and it’s hard to understand why Curtice thinks the rank-and-file would just shrug their shoulders if the announcement this autumn is a decision to kick the referendum “into the long grass”, as he thinks is marginally more likely. They might accept a very short further delay if the shape of Brexit was still not known, but not a decision to let the mandate expire.
Lastly, I’m bemused by the Courier alleging that SNP depute leader Keith Brown had “signalled” that a referendum would not be announced this autumn, and then providing a quote from him in which he signals no such thing. I suspect there’s a touch of journalistic wishful thinking in there.
