Astounding Alba: new Panelbase poll shows Alex Salmond’s new party on course for FIVE seats

The only thing about this poll that critics of Alba seem to be interested in is whether or not Panelbase once again listed the party as “Alba (led by Alex Salmond)” – the theory being that this would artificially boost its reported support (although ironically that means people are conceding that Alex Salmond is actually popular with some voters!).  I don’t know the answer to that – I can’t see any mention of the wording in the Believe in Scotland write-up.  But personally I’m not sure it’s totally unreasonable to have a few explanatory words explaining to respondents what Alba is – it’s possible that the party’s support might even be underestimated if you don’t do that on the first few occasions.

UPDATE: It now looks highly likely that Alex Salmond’s name was NOT added to the Alba option in this poll – there’s no sign of that in the datasets, and anecdotally, people who were interviewed for the poll say Alba were presented in exactly the same way as every other party.  So the commentators who used “a dodgy question” as the get-out clause for Alba being on 6% in the previous poll will have to dream up an alternative excuse this time.

One thing there perhaps should be a health warning over, though, is the 4% Green vote on the constituency ballot.  The Greens are only standing in a minority of constituencies, so I’d have thought it’s unlikely that their national vote will be that high.  Assuming most Green voters are pro-independence, that means the 47% SNP vote in the constituencies may be a slight underestimate.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest