Six ways Nationalists manipulate polls

#6 Claim momentum where there is none

20 polls in a row! 21 polls in a row! Of course, this is simply false.

Not that we expect truth from The National, but the poll above actually showed a decline of four percentage points.

But the wider conculsion is that, six years on and the needle has barely moved from the 2014 result. As results shift, we can see that the 58% result was an outlier.

Another recent poll noted that just 37% of respondents want a Separation referendum in the next two years. There is no momentum.

Scottish Nationalsim is a toxic ideology used by weak and incompetent politicians who promise future hope, while betting that the public will overlook their failngs in reality. We see this every day as people continue to say that they will vote for the SNP — as a vehicle for ‘independence’ — despite 14 YEARS of failure, no path to a second referendum, and mounting evidence of corruption from the top of the party down.

So what better way to sell that hope than manipulate public opinion, through polls and a compliant media, so that it appears that the end result is inevitable. If it’s inevitable then why not join the crowd? But 50%, plus or minus a few points, using biased and leading questions, isn’t inevitable. It’s a DEAD END.

It’s also no surprise that many of these polls appear shortly after some bad news for Nicola Sturgeon. The beleagured First Minister needs any squirrel she can find to divert attention from her government and personal failures.

The ‘independence’ project is now so closely tied with Sturgeon that it lives or dies with her. She was able to use the COVID crisis to her benefit, but as the virus recedes and her corruption and incompetence are further exposed, she will, like all politicians, return to earth, as will the poll results.

Maybe then we can get back to politics that doesn’t need biased polls to make their case.

Mark Devlin is the publisher of The Majority. Follow him on Twitter @themajorityscot