Don’t Be Conned

As younger voters become turned off by the Independence Referendum, this should ring the largest alarm bells with Better Together.
As BBC Scotland and STV and the Scottish media pummel the public in Scotland, the saturation of the airwaves of the “arguments” between the Nationalists and Unionists is irritating enough for me as someone with a keen interest in both maintaining the union, and challenging many of the lies u-turns and misleading statements from the SS (SalmondSturgeon) Party.

My view is that the Yes campaign are not only trying to con the public in to voting for them, but also trying to con Better Together to change their campaigning strategy.

Quite rightly, the Better Together Campaign has challenged many of the Yes Campaign’s lies and u-turns, and shown that there is no sensible basis for separation at all.

After months of disproving and dismantling every “yes” argument, the Nat whiners have decided to change tact and deflect from this by complaining that the “No” campaign is too negative.

While some unionists appear to have accepted that assertion and are set to focus only on selling the good things about the Union, I believe firmly that they cannot stop also challenging the relentless Yes campaign’s questionable claims and assertions.

Take this example of one of the latest opinion polls, from the Panelbase website inaccurately reporting that the Yes campaign are now polling circa 40%.

This is a report in the Scotsman

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scottish-independence-panelbase-poll-boosts-yes-1-3347389

“A total of 40% of Scots say they will vote Yes, according to the poll conducted by Panelbase for Newsnet Scotland. That figure is just 5% behind those who say they will vote No. There are still 15% of Scots who are undecided, according to the poll.

The five-point gap is down from 12 points on a previous Panelbase poll last month which had Yes on 37%, with No on 49%.

The latest poll suggests that excluding ‘don’t knows’, support for Yes has reached 47% with No on 53%. The results suggest a swing of just three points is needed to put Yes ahead in September.”


Actually the Panelbase poll did not say that in the slightest

The actual poll percentage for “Yes” was 38%, but the results show a Raw figure, and also a weighted figure. Guess which figure was issued in the Press Release to Reuters from the nationalist website newsnet Scotland? Yes, that would be the weighted one.

http://www.panelbase.com/media/polls/NewsnetScotlandPollv3.pdf

It should also be noted that excluding “don’t knows” skews the figures

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/faq-dont-knows


Notice that the Panelbase poll also suggest that of those interviewed 35% voted SNP at the last election. Remember that the SNP actually returned 22% of the vote at the last election.
Note also that Panelbase have conducted polls for nationalist leaning websites, including extremists “Wings Over Scotland”.

The polls are not random, and are asked of the same skewed audience each time

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/panelbase-bans-new-members-from-independence-polls-1-3080830

I’d suggest that the relatively static 35-38% Yes figure returned in most polls is far more accurate, but the electorate in Scotland should be made aware of facts and facts only, negative or not

Bill