Something Fishy in the Scottish Polls

There are two full days remaining before polls open over Scotland in a referendum that will determine whether Scotland, after 307 years of London rule, will remain with or leave the United Kingdom. Over the weekend the British state broadcaster, the BBC, highlighted the rather dubious, and embarrassingly anachronistic, support for the Better Together pro-Union campaign offered by the intensely sectarian Orange Order in its parade through the streets of Edinburgh. Yet on the other side of Scotland, in Glasgow, tens of thousands of Yes supporters crowded the streets in celebration of their anticipated referendum victory on Thursday, and not a single mention was made of it by the BBC. Over the latter stages of the campaign the BBC have been found to remove Yes supporters from the background of its ‘special reports’ and Photoshop ‘No’ signs where there were none. Under increasing pressure from the people of Scotland, and from the official complaints of Alex Salmond, the First Minister, it has been forced to acknowledge that its coverage has been atrocious. It is now far beyond doubt that the BBC is acting in a manner more fitting a totalitarian régime than the broadcaster of a western liberal democracy. From the outside of Scotland looking in, it is clear that the people of Scotland are being subjected to a powerful campaign of lies and deception, that aims, through fear mongering and blackmail, to turn the tide in the swing to Yes across Scotland that has become a true revolution.

It now becomes clear to the outside observer that even the polls conducted by the Unionist campaign ought to be treated with suspicion. Ever since the YouGov poll, considered to be the most hostile towards Scottish self-determination, published its results last week putting the Yes side at 51% it has been noted that the nature of pro-Union polling has radically altered. Now the ‘undecided vote’ is excluded from the calculations as a rule; a section of the electorate who have consistently shown to edge towards a Yes vote at a ratio of two to one, and the polling samples have shrunk to less than a thousand people. These measures do nothing but distort the opinion of the nation as a whole, and leads to the conclusion that more sinister dirty tricks are being played by those in power. In the week after the shock YouGov result a number of other, re-calibrated, polls were published in a clear attempt to correct the boon to the Yes campaign. Better Together’s Survation survey put No at 54%, the Observer’s Opinium had No at 53%, and the Sunday Times’ Panelbase survey placed No at 51%. It was the Telegraph’s ICM poll that put the fly in the ointment. In spite of the paper’s relentless attack on the idea of Scottish independence its own poll, of only 705 people, found Yes support to be at a whopping 54% – excluding undecided voters. Every effort is being made to stem the flow of Scottish voters to the Yes side, efforts that have not baulked at outright lies. What is becoming increasingly clear is the fact that the larger the poll samples are the larger the Yes support. In less than two weeks, correcting for very obvious government and media manipulation, there has been a groundswell in favour of independence in Scotland. Adding the undecided votes on the 18^th it is not altogether unlikely that the Yes vote may indeed reach 60% and over.