Friday, April 4, 2025

Another day, another new Kendall-driven polling low for Labour, as they slump to just 24% with Techne

Two new GB-wide polls today, and it's the Find Out Now poll that's attracting the most interest, because it shows Reform UK with a six-point lead over Labour, and the 'Stats 4 Lefties' account is arguing that would be enough to produce an absolute majority of seats for Reform.  However, in my opinion Techne's poll is even more significant, because it shows Labour on a new post-election low of 24% with the firm, reinforcing the impression that Liz Kendall's all-out war on society's most vulnerable has made things even worse for Labour than they already were.

GB-wide voting intentions (Techne, 2nd-3rd April 2025):

Reform UK 24% (-)
Labour 24% (-1)
Conservatives 23% (-)
Liberal Democrats 13% (-1)
Greens 8% (-)
SNP 3% (+1)

Although it often feels like Labour voters from last July have moved to Reform in their droves, according to the Techne data tables only 6% have actually done so.  There have been slightly greater movements to the Tories (9%), to the Liberal Democrats (9%) and to the Greens (8%).  The mind boggles as to what the effect would be if Reform do start breaking through with Labour voters to a greater extent.

GB-wide voting intentions (Find Out Now, 2nd-3rd April 2025):

Reform UK 28% (+2)
Labour 22% (-1)
Conservatives 20% (-2)
Liberal Democrats 13% (+1)
Greens 11% (-)
SNP 3% (-)
Plaid Cymru 1% (-)

22% isn't a new post-election low for Labour with Find Out Now, but it does equal the previous low.  Bang in line with the Techne poll, the data tables show that Labour have lost only 6% of their 2024 voters direct to Reform, although here the biggest slippage has been to the Greens (13%) - logical enough in the light of the anger about Kendall's announcement.

Would the Find Out Now numbers actually produce an overall Reform majority?  Maybe, although the projection will vary a bit depending on the model you use.  I put the percentages into the Electoral Calculus model, and it did produce a Reform majority but not by a safe margin (the target for a majority is 326 seats) -

Reform UK 332, Labour 138, Liberal Democrats 58, SNP 48, Conservatives 44, Plaid Cymru 4, Greens 4, Others 22

That would be quite something, wouldn't it - without even moving out of fourth place, the SNP would have overtaken the Tories UK-wide!

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I received a sort of marketing email a few days ago asking me to give a mention to an updated Top 100 ranking of Scottish blogs of all types - ie. not just political blogs.  I'm happy enough to do that, because it has Scot Goes Pop in a very healthy seventh place - and in fact the top four places are all taken by newspaper feeds, so in terms of 'real' blogs, Scot Goes Pop is actually in third place.  I've no idea what the criteria for the ranking is - there are various metrics mentioned, but none of them seem to tally very precisely with the ranking itself.  

I've been receiving these emails periodically for about eight years, and they always remind me of being in Ibiza, because that's where I was when I got the first one in September 2017.  I checked back and Scot Goes Pop was in eleventh place back then, so there's been some progress in line with the recent increase in popularity shown by Stuart Campbell's favourite comparison site.  (Incidentally, the trend shown by that site has been accelerating - since I last mentioned it, the 28-day number of visits for Scot Goes Pop has increased from 60,000 to 72,000, while Wings' visits have dropped to just under 200,000.  Stuart used to boast about having ten times as many visits as Scot Goes Pop, which I doubt was ever really true, but the ratio has now dipped to less than 3-1.)

It's worth looking through the whole Top 100 ranking, because you'll find lots of interesting blogs of all types that you probably never knew existed.  It answers the oft-asked question "where are all the women bloggers?" - as you can see, they're out there in big numbers, but they just don't seem to be writing about politics.  There are travel blogs, fashion blogs, theatre blogs, lifestyle blogs, etc, etc.

41 comments:

  1. Anyone jumped out a Wall St trading-room window yet?

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  2. Could you clarify why Rev Stu's blog isn't on the list?

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    Replies
    1. Possibly because it's based in Somerset, but I've no idea, really.

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    2. It says it has ranked sites by "relevancy, authority, social media followers & freshness".

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  3. Mike Thurston of Thurston Air Handling SolutionsApril 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM

    All very nice but the reality is of course over four more years of Labour with a majority of 150+. Liz Kendall, I suspect, gives zero f**ks what the public think of her.

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  4. Where is Sarwar? Has he said anything about this disgraceful Labour government policy?

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  5. James, how do you see the upcoming Runcorn/ Helsby by election in light of these figures, please?

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  6. Just in: Jamie Greene MSP, ex Con & Unionist party, joins Scots Lib Dems.

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    Replies
    1. He did it for Beth.

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    2. Off to the Liberals? Will he notice any difference?

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    3. He is said to be a good shot for a regional seat as a Lib Dem in his home region.

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  7. Although I'm no fan these days I'm surprised there's no mention of Wee Ginger Dug (though there is a Wee White Dug).

    I look forwards to you overtaking Bella.

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    1. According to the comparison site, Scot Goes Pop is already well ahead of Bella in terms of traffic. So I don't really know how this Top 100 ranking was worked out - it doesn't seem to be specifically based on traffic, or on social media reach, or on anything in particular. Maybe it's just subjectively curated.

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    2. SGP and WGD have been differentiate one form the other since the Great Re-Reformation of the former's owner.

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    3. That might have been more intelligible in Latin.

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    4. Canis rufus loopy de loopy est

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    5. pro patria mori

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    6. Bella is kind of intellectual highbrow arty, not just Indy. It gets support from people who don't support Indy, whichis good because therefore it presents Indy to them almost as an aside. Something I did during the ref was get people talking about the debate, and just drop in that I supported Indy without making any argument for it. It helped to open minds. I don't read it though, and don't post there - it suffers from a lack of tolerance of other ideas; you get BCE (E for Editor) with some snotty reply which puts people off. But the others BTL are open.

      WGD suffers from that complaint, but suffers badly from a very small group who ruin the roost and sadly influence the blogger. There's a lot less commenters there than used to be, and it gets derailed by Trump and Musk (and Farage). Which is like WTF have they got to do with Indy in general, and why should everyone be expected to have the same opinion about an almost irrelevance?

      Wings still does do the occasional good article, and the guy does still have the ability to do research to a purpose and the analysis to go with it. BTL is like a loony bin mostly, with the few sensible posters drowned in moonhowling.

      Peter A Bell has a lot of energy and does think out of the box. Doesn't brook disagreement, and can get very abusive. The good thing though is you can get just as abusive back at him, and he doesn't delete your comments.

      There's one or two blogs that are like the Praetorian guard for the SNP and the Sottish Government, the problem is they don't let facts get in the way of a good rant.

      I think there are other blogs that tackle a particular subject like history, the beauty of Scotland, tourism, wildlife - and like BC but less so, introduce Indy in a gentle way. I think that's a great technique, slow but sure and steady.

      Scot Goes Pop is obvious. Do the polls in a correct fashion, unlike some who bend them to show the SNP are supreme over everything even when they've clearly lost a lot of suport since the better days (which we hope will return along with Indy).

      And that's it from me. My own little wordpress blog was special purpose and not open to comments from arsehole clowns like me. Well out of date now.

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    7. bella is a cesspit of middle class pseudo bollox, the only entertaining thing being how, very often, the shite articles are destroyed by the commenters, particularly "date"-guy.

      template for a bella article :

      asylum seekers, housing activists, transwomen and the BAME community are the vanguard of scottish nationalism, a civic nationalism, both queer and islamic - this is what the SNP stand for; glory holes and no usury, freedom cum all ye (on my face)

      the middle class solution to all problems is typically a - "workshop" - so, e.g. gaza can easily be solved by a gender balanced poetry workshop full of diverse activists

      - then you step out of the reality distortion field and realise such things can never, ever, work.

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    8. Yes indeed :-)

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  8. Good to see 'The National' in 4th place.

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  9. 'Visit the blog to read about Politics, Eurovision, Sport, Gun Control and more. ' I dimly recall your mentioning Eurovision but the last two?

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    1. Somewhere between 2009 and 2011, I can't remember exactly when it was, there was a period of a few months when Scot Goes Pop was practically a gun control blog. The genesis of that was all very complicated. I initially got into an argument with American gun nuts on a blog written by a Texan called Rachel Lucas. That brought me to the attention of another American blogger (I think from Arizona) called Kevin Baker, who instructed his fan club to descend upon Scot Goes Pop and bring the gospel of heavily-armed "libertarianism" direct to me here. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then - I wonder if he's under the MAGA flag these days.

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    2. I've just checked and I can report that Kevin Baker in the year 2025 is indeed a Trump disciple. That doesn't really tally with conventional American libertarianism, so there is of course a convoluted "explanation".

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    3. Your blog sidebar suggests an interest in anti-aging too, though there hasn't been anything new for quite a while.

      Incidentally some of the blogs linked are just gone, such as Missy M Missives. Time for a tidy?

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  10. There would appear to be a lot of moon howlers in Scotland ...

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    1. The moon howlers tend to read an English blog by some fake minister guy. They are known up here as mouth frothers and he does the Indy movement a huge favour by keeping them away from the main Indy movement.

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    2. 6.59

      Thanks ... Wolfie

      Love & kisses

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  11. Interesting week.

    Trump's Tariffs send the Dow Jones Index plummeting 3000 points in just two days.

    Almost Half a Trillion Dollars wiped off Tesla's overall value and Musk booted out of Trump's Govt on indefinite gardening leave.

    Le Pen banned from standing in next French Elections.

    Great Spring Weather arrives in Scotland.

    All good.

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  12. The Honourable Sarah SmythApril 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM

    Q. Which male Tory politician is the most nauseating?
    1. Douglas Ross
    2. Ian Murray
    3. Anas Sarwar

    Q. Which female Tory politician is the most nauseating?
    1. Dame Jackie Baillie
    2. Baroness Colonel Ruth Davidson
    3. Her Grace Kay Adams

    Other suggestions gratefully accepted.

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  13. Interesting week, continued;

    From 'Nation Cymru' newspaper -

    "Majority would back independence for Wales if it meant we could rejoin the EU, says poll"
    04 Apr 2025

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    1. Is that another funny ... Franny?

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    2. How is it funny?

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    3. Seems odd since Wales is so Eurosceptic.

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    4. Wales has obviously seen how rotten Brexit has been and has now changed its mind on the EU.
      Was always going to happen.

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    5. @Anon 10.14 The Welsh aren’t euro sceptics
      The English who live in Wales are
      Bit like the reason for polling numbers Y/N up here
      Our exceptionalist neighbours at work yet again

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    6. The Welsh residents of Wales were largely against Brexit. It seems that it was the newer residents who were in favour and determined the outcome.

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    7. The voters in Wales (regardless of origin) are the people who vote.

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    8. As in most colonies.

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  14. Deleted Anon at 2am: I don't know if you honestly thought you had successfully disguised who you were by posing as a 'concerned well-wisher' but your writing style always gives you away instantly. You always post at the same time of night anyway - although doubtless it's the middle of the day where you are. If you're so determined to vote Reform, I hope you've got your postal vote sorted - it's a long way from Bali.

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