Do you remember back in 2018 or early 2019, when the bulk of us in the independence movement were still giving the SNP leadership the benefit of the doubt in relation to their assurances that an independence referendum had merely been delayed slightly and would still take place before Brexit? Journalists and certain academics used to treat us as hopelessly naive, and would say that "everyone knows...

A reader has just emailed me.  He had complained to the press regulator IPSO this morning about the Daily Record's blatant lie that the new Redfield & Wilton poll shows a "drop in support for independence" (in fact the result is literally identical to the previous poll).  IPSO wrote back to him requesting supporting evidence within seven days about the results of the poll and how...

Answers on a postcard, folks.  The new Redfield & Wilton poll on independence shows a literally identical result to the last one, with 44% saying they would vote Yes and 47% saying they would vote No.  (Those figures do not exclude Don't Knows.)  And yet for some inexplicable reason that is probably a mystery even to themselves, the Daily Record have decided to report the poll...

A few years ago, I had a brief discussion on Twitter with the pollster Keiran Pedley (then with GfK NOP, now with Ipsos-Mori) about what I believed to be the unfair practice of polling firms failing to include one particular political party in the main menu of options that respondents are provided with, even though other parties of similar size are included.  He made the point that it wasn't...

I'm really honoured to say that I've been elected as one of the eight ordinary members of the Alba Party's National Executive Committee.  The successful candidates are:Female ballot: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Michelle Ferns, Denise Findlay, Suzanne BlackleyMale ballot: Roddy MacLeod, Josh Robertson, James Kelly, Hamish VernalCongratulations to all of the above, and commiserations to the many...

I'm really honoured to say that I've been elected as one of the eight ordinary members of the Alba Party's National Executive Committee.  The successful candidates are:Female ballot: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Michelle Ferns, Denise Findlay, Suzanne BlackleyMale ballot: Roddy MacLeod, Josh Robertson, James Kelly, Hamish VernalCongratulations to all of the above, and commiserations to the many...

In order to justify throwing the book at Craig Murray, the presiding judge notoriously dreamed up the novel principle that us mere bloggers must be held to a different legal standard than 'proper' journalists, on the dubious grounds that the latter are bound by codes such as the IPSO Editors' Code of Practice - a voluntary set of rules that to the best of my knowledge has no legal underpinning...

A couple of people asked what happened to my blogpost from last night. I realised when I woke up that it (unwittingly) contained misleading information, and I didn't have enough time to edit it, so I just took it down. Alas, the Stack Data poll turned out to show the complete opposite of what I thought - I was led astray by the unconventional way it was presented in a tweet. It in fact showed a...

I've got a fair bit of half-news for you tonight, but hopefully the mists will have cleared by the morning.  There seems to be a new Panelbase poll on independence (Marcia warned us to expect one), because a right-wing commentator on Twitter is furiously spinning some of the supplementary results, but I haven't seen any sign of the headline Yes/No numbers yet.Secondly, there's a single tweet...

If you registered for the Alba party conference, you can vote for me online, today or tomorrow (11th-12th September 2021) for one of the male positions on the National Executive Committee.

If you're an Alba member and have registered for the inaugural annual conference, which takes place tomorrow and Sunday, you'll be able to vote online in the ballots for the female and male ordinary members of the National Executive Committee.  I'll be a candidate on the male ballot, along with fifteen other excellent candidates, so welcome along to my little pitch for you to give me, James...

So a couple of things.  First of all, my sincere thanks to all Alba members who nominated me for one of the male places on the party's National Executive Committee.  I reached the required threshold, so I'll be on the ballot over the weekend.  Anyone who is registered for the conference will be entitled to vote between 12pm tomorrow and 5pm on Sunday, and it looks like it'll be an...

YOU almost have to feel sorry for the anti-independence pressure group Scotland in Union. They must have thought the path was clear for them to use their now-familiar tricksy poll question about “leaving the United Kingdom” to convince the media that support for independence has dropped.

Opinium / Sky News poll:Should Scotland be an independent country?Yes 51% (+1)No 49% (-1)More details and analysis to follow shortly....

It's absolutely uncanny.  The five predictions I made about the poll Scotland in Union were trailing last night proved to be pretty much accurate - albeit the media can't seem to make up their minds whether it's a Survation poll or a Panelbase poll, and the tacked on SNP quote comes from a generic spokesperson rather than Keith Brown.Crucially, the latest installment of the Remain/Leave farce...

The anti-independence propaganda outfit Scotland in Union have helpfully warned us to be on the lookout for an opinion poll tomorrow.  I will now proceed to make a series of predictions about this poll.  1) This poll will be a Survation poll commissioned by Scotland in Union themselves.2) In common with their previous Survation polls, it will not ask about independence, but will...

It's obviously bad enough that Scotland is being hit with a UK-wide tax rise to pay for an England-only policy change, but that's a structural problem with the way that devolution was set up in 1999, and won't be resolved without either full fiscal autonomy or independence.  Much more remarkable was a story (I think it was in the Independent, but I can't actually find it now) claiming that...

It seems to me there are two different types of life lesson.  There are the lessons you genuinely have to learn the hard way, and then there are the truths you kind of instinctively know from the start, but that are continuously reaffirmed by experience.  This is a blogpost about two lessons - one of each type.The first lesson is one that I learned when I was 7 or 8 years old. ...

When I started doing the podcasts a few months ago, I was strongly advised not to use Zoom.  But as the months have gone on, I've belatedly realised that the disadvantages of all the other options probably outweigh the disadvantages of Zoom, so I've given in to the inevitable.  And one big side-benefit of using Zoom is that it means I'll sometimes be able to bring you a video version as...

William Duguid is a Twitter legend, the benevolent dictator of Yes Perth City, and an all-round good egg. I spoke to him on 2nd September 2021 about the current state of the pro-independence New Media in Scotland, the SNP-Green deal, the prospects of the London government annexing Helensburgh after independence, and...