As the polls close, let’s wrap up some unfinished business

It’s 10pm, the polls have closed, and if this was a UK general election we’d have just instantly found out the entire election result via a BBC exit poll.  But as this is ‘only’ Scotland, there’s no exit poll, and as there’s also a pandemic, we’re effectively living in 1923 and won’t know the full results until Saturday.  Until then, let’s kill some time by dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of the Scot Goes Pop / Panelbase poll – this is the very last result, and the only one that produced an out-and-out negative outcome.  I asked whether the fact that a number of MPs and local councillors had joined Alba meant the party should receive roughly the same level of coverage from the broadcasters as the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.  Although only a minority of people agreed, it was a substantial minority, and it’s worth making the point that a previous poll showed majority support (excluding Don’t Knows) for Alba being included in the leaders’ debates.  Taken together, the two polls suggest the centre of gravity in public opinion is that Alba should have received considerably more coverage than they did over the course of the campaign, but not necessarily full parity with the longer-established parties.