On the previous thread, a commenter said that every time he’d heard a media outlet mention the new YouGov poll today, they had been at pains to downplay the headline result on independence (showing a 53% Yes vote) and had instead tried to divert our focus towards the alleged finding that the Scottish public “oppose” the de facto referendum plan. But as far as I can see, no such finding exists. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of the YouGov data tables yet, but the What Scotland Thinks website does have an extensive list of results from the poll, and the only one that relates to a de facto referendum is in response to a question worded as follows:
“Would you support or oppose the Scottish Government declaring Scotland independent without a referendum if the SNP – and other parties supporting Independence – gain more than 50% of the vote at the next General Election?”
That’s a question about Rhodesian-style UDI, not about the principle of a de facto referendum. There is not even a shred of a suggestion from the SNP that they would declare independence unilaterally if they won 50%+ of the popular vote in a de facto referendum – instead they would use the mandate as leverage to pressurise the UK government into negotiating an agreed independence settlement. (Some cynics think they wouldn’t even go that far, and instead would revert to the broken record of begging for a Section 30 order that everyone knows will never be granted.)
It’s difficult not to reach the conclusion that either YouGov or their client (more likely the latter in this case) deliberately asked a leading question about UDI to obtain a negative result, and did so with the full intention of misrepresenting that negative result as being about the principle of using an election as a de facto referendum. It really is a pretty brazen stunt, even by the normal standards of the Brit Nat propagandists in the media.
What they’re rather less keen to mention is that the poll shows that a clear majority (51% to 38%) want an indyref within the next five years, and that an almost identical majority (51% to 39%) think the Scottish Parliament should have the power to call an indyref without the consent of Westminster.
I also see from the What Scotland Thinks site that there are Holyrood voting intention numbers in the YouGov poll, which are markedly better for the SNP than the Westminster numbers –
Scottish Parliament constituency ballot:
