DeeTillEhDeh

Oh Chaka - you've used worse. Get over yourself. You and others being deliberately obtuse over a column that I (and others) have read for 30+ years. Clownism at its worst.

NCC in full clown mode.

Street of Shame is a column that appears every issue in Private Eye - there are always at least a few examples of rehashed stories.Or are you claiming said column doesn't exist?

I wish people would stop describing canvasses, online votes, caucuses or any other non-validated method as being a poll - they are not. Anyone with half a brain cell knows how easily they are manipulated or at best are just a platform for the most rabid supporter of a cause. Trying to use such votes to back a cause is self-delusion in the extreme. It's mastubatory ego-stroking at its worst.

Have to back you on this. HB is wrong. Also surprised he hasn't heard of Populus.

Canvass returns are meaningless. Trust me. Fine for targetting on the day to get voters out - nothing more.

Here's one little statistic that shows how much Yes have to do to win. At the last Scottish election much was made of the SNP's performance in NE Scotland - yet when you total all the votes up the SNP only achieved 52% of the vote in what is seen as their stronghold. Now I know that votes for the SNP (or other parties for that matter) may not translate in to Yes (or No) votes. It does, however, seem to me that the Yes campaign, despite the landslide for the SNP, have always had an uphill fight to turn things round in the 3 years since those elections. I still stand by my prediction of a No win - I have said by 57-43 (excluding spoilt papers including mine). Even if that were the result it would not be a disaster for Yes - either a platform to come back in future or to negotiate further powers if (more like when) the SNP win the next Scottish election. Whatever happens I think the status quo won't survive in its present form.

For hacked off Labour supporters. Nowhere else for them to go really.

Agreed. And also when the Trot Nats imploded the SNP was a natural place for many disilliusioned voters. My own mother voted for the SNP for that very reason - but she will be voting No in the referendum.

It looks like the SNP did not benefit from the protest vote as much as 2012 because UKIP took some of that vote.

Not really a good night for the SNP - same polling as last election but 7% down on what they were polling for this election.

Libby makes a better case for No than the party hacks running BT.

I'll need to bookmark that - we are actually in agreement for once.

To be fair - the SNP are no more or less authoritarian than any other major political party.

In our electoral system that kind of margin usually leads to a landslide due to the number of FPTP constituency seats. What's not shown either is the collapse of the LD vote that pollsters accurately predicted.

By saying some Labour voters were thick? They are though.

What do you mean taking it well? I just think (like a lot of people here) that there are more Labour voters who are as thick as mince compared to other parties.

Just checked the vote in North East - SNP did achieve 52% on the list vote which elected one additional member. Labour picked up 3 additional member seats. I need to check the total votes on the constituency votes.What I do know though is that in terms of constituency versus list vote the SNP only dropped 1.4% compared to a 5.4% drop by Labour - the SNP did perform relatively better on the list than Labour. That could be down to a number of factors - my gut instinct is that there are a large number of Labour voters too thick to understand that the second vote isn't a second choice.

The North East one is not as daft as it looks - there are voters out there who will have happily voted SNP for the SP elections who are either DK or No voters (my mother and grandfather for instance). Also although the SNP won lots of seats they did not win a majority of votes in the region as far as I recollect.

Seen both Yes and No voters who are nothing more than loudmouth arses - I don't believe it is the preserve of one side or the other.

Given my own dealings with the far left they probably didn't even carry out a canvass.From personal experience, canvasses are notoriously unreliable - fine for getting your vote out on the day but don't always paint an accurate picture. I take it they didn't have a not in or didn't answer the door option?

This has turned into a car crash of a thread.

Google "Negativity Bias Theory" - there is a plethora of research that would indicate otherwise.