Thank you, Keir Starmer, for telling Scots where our priorities lie
SUPPORT for independence is on the rise.
The recent opinion poll by Norstat, published by The Sunday Times, found that 54% of those polled support independence, and that figure was arrived at after the pollster's sample was refracted through the increasingly indefensible methodological practice of weighting by the result of the 2014 independence referendum. With the 7% don't knows discounted, the raw data in the poll shows a stupendous 61.3% for Yes and just 38.7% for No. With more up to date 2025 demographic weighting, the poll would show 57.4% for Yes and the No vote on 42.6%.
It seems that we are now at the point where even weighting polls by the outcome of 2014's referendum is not sufficient to turn an underlying Yes majority into a headline result giving No a lead. All that the practice does is to reduce the apparent size of the Yes majority.
This is the same poll which reported that 58% of respondents would favour Scottish independence should Nigel Farage become the next UK prime minister. Without the 2014 weighting used by this polling company, that figure would certainly have been well in excess of 60% of Scots in favour of independence.
However, Keir Starmer took time out of his busy schedule of avoiding the Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse Holyrood by election to go on BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland show to tell the people he refuses to meet face to face that he's not going to allow them to have another independence referendum, not even if the SNP win a majority in next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
Asked about the issue of another independence referendum, Starmer said: "Nobody's raising that with me as their first priority."
He added: "Certainly, in the discussions I'm having with the First Minister, we're talking about jobs, energy, security and dealing with the cost of living crisis."
He continued: "I think it's really important to focus on the priorities that matter most.
"We got a big election win last year on the basis that we would stabilise the economy and ensure that on that foundation we built a stronger Scotland in a stronger United Kingdom and that's what I intend to do."
Well of course nobody is raising the issue of another independence referendum with Keir Starmer, he carefully insulates himself from anyone in Scotland who is not either a Labour Party member or supporter. If you lock yourself in the cellar and stuff your ears with cotton wool, no one is going to tell you that the house is on fire, but that doesn't mean it's not a priority.
Why, thank you so much for telling us what our priorities are, Keir. And there we were labouring under the misapprehension that the whole point of this democracy lark was that the people tell politicians what the priorities are through the medium of the ballot box.
Reacting to Starmer's comments, SNP MSP Keith Brown said: 'These comments are not remotely surprising – Keir Starmer has proven that he doesn't care what anyone thinks except Nigel Farage.
"He visited Scotland yesterday and couldn't be bothered speaking to voters ahead of Thursday's crucial by-election. Independence is essential to tackling the cost of living, improving the economy and delivering more funding for our NHS."
"Not only is Westminster control demonstrably making Scotland poorer – with Brexit and austerity damaging our economy and our living standards – but neighbouring independent countries similar to Scotland are all doing better than the UK. The evidence is staring us in the face.
'Support for independence is rising in Scotland, while support for Labour is collapsing.
"We will continue building up a broad base of support for independence – in the election next year people in Scotland will have the chance to deliver their verdict on Westminster's contempt for Scottish democracy.'
But it's not really surprising that Keir Starmer doesn't want to listen to the people of Scotland, despite their claims to the contrary, Scotland is and always has been a side-show to British politicians. Starmer and the other anti-independence parties are able to maintain the fiction that independence is not a priority due to polling which, aided by increasingly questionable methodological practices, continues to show a Scotland evenly divided on the independence issue.
Yet with the looming threat of a far-right English nationalist party waiting in the wings and the slow march of demographic changes in Scotland, time is running out on this delaying tactic. The time is coming when the issue can no longer be ignored, and it's coming a lot sooner than Starmer might like.
Farage doubles down on baseless claim
For his part, Nigel Farage continues in the truly remarkable achievement of outdoing Starmer in the lies and duplicity stakes. Farage has doubled down on his baseless claim that the anti-independence newspaper The Herald tipped off the anti-racism protestors who besieged him in Aberdeen and Hamilton and told them his location. Farage has now claimed that The Herald had the "deliberate intention of trying to provoke violence and discomfort."
Speaking to LBC on Tuesday, Farage was questioned about why he had hid from the media and protesters.
He said: 'What a load of cobblers. I had 18 journalists in a room yesterday in Aberdeen and took questions from every single one of them. Keir Starmer would have taken three, Kemi would have taken two. No, absolute nonsense.
'What we did have yesterday, though, was a newspaper called The Herald in Scotland informing protest groups like Antifa where I was going to be with a deliberate intention of trying to provoke violence and discomfort.
'And so, yeah, did we give The Herald and others the slip and go and do campaigning in the streets, meeting normal people without a bunch of thugs with masks on? Yes."
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