I know many of you will already have done your philanthropic duty for the month by donating to the annual Wings Over Scotland fundraiser (which smashed through its £45,000 target within hours!), but if by any chance you've still got the odd pound or two burning a hole in your pocket, don't forget that local SNP campaigns up and down the country are currently running Indiegogo fundraisers to build up a war-chest for the UK general election, which is now only two months away (yikes). There are lots and lots of these, so I won't overload you, but here are three good ones to be getting on with for now. Obviously the first is closest to my heart, but there's a regular commenter on this blog who I suspect will be most interested in number three...
Elect Stuart McDonald in Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East : Target £1500
Elect Margaret Ferrier in Rutherglen & Hamilton West : Target £1500
Elect Emma Harper in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale : Target £5000
* * *
Many thanks to the several people who left comments or sent me emails to say that they've been called recently by Populus, which in most cases will be for the second batch of Ashcroft constituency polls. What's striking is that only a very small number of constituencies have been mentioned, but in each case they've been mentioned by more than one person. That leads me to suspect that the process is in its early stages and that we may have at least a couple of weeks to wait (unless of course he's only doing a limited number this time).
So far we have...
Dumfries & Galloway (Labour-held)
Ross, Skye & Lochaber (Lib Dem-held, Charles Kennedy's seat)
East Renfrewshire (Labour-held, Jim Murphy's seat)
Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath (Labour-held, Gordon Brown's seat)
I'm slightly unsure about whether East Renfrewshire is an Ashcroft poll, though, because we know that Labour have been using Populus for internal polling in that part of the world.
Also, I chanced on this - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-marion-kick-frank-roy-out/x/7094293
ReplyDeleteThey didn't put SNP in the title so struggling a bit.
Agree with the one for Marion Fellows - they need to promote it properly.
ReplyDeleteThis SNP fundraiser is struggling a bit, with only three days to go https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/denny-and-dunipace-snp-campaign-fund/x/2351308
ReplyDeleteIt is really hard to contribute on that site. Wings was easy. You have to sign up or log in with facebook and if you log in with facebook it sends you friend details to indiegogo which is a bit weird.
ReplyDeleteIn another case you needed a PayPal account which I don't have because I hate PayPal. But I have my debit card sitting here ready to contribute out of guilt as I have skipped canvassing at 10.30.
You should ask Indiegogo to make it more like the Wings contribution page.
Denise, the person who sets up an Indiegogo fundraiser decides on the settings - Paypal or card payments can be enabled or disabled, and so on. So each one is potentially a bit different.
DeleteYou can sign up to Indiegogo on the main page, without using Facebook.
Deletehttps://www.indiegogo.com/
It's really inpossible to contribute unless you have a Indiegogo account - it doesn't give you an opportunity to create one or you are OK having your facebook friends lists distributed. It's a bit off putting
ReplyDeleteIt should be possible to quickly create an account and then return to the page?
DeleteYou don't need an account. I've been using it for ages without one. I always use Paypal if possible.
DeleteThe Barrhead News has a poll showing Labour on 33, SNP on 31 and Tories on 27
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barrheadnews.com/news/roundup/articles/2015/02/27/525793-mep-rallies-behind-east-ren-tory-hopeful/
I have always thought that a lot of the Labour vote comes from SNP voters voting tactically. Hopefully this will change at this election.
Annoyingly they don't quote the source. Could be a UNS projection.
DeleteI always thought a lot of the Labour vote in East Ren came from Thatcherites voting for a Blairite
DeleteMight it not be an idea for SNP voters to respond to polls by saying they are going to vote Labour, and lull them into a false sense of security?
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no! Particularly in a Westminster election, we need expectations to be as high as possible - that's our ticket to coverage in the London media that would otherwise be denied to us.
DeleteHuge thanks to James as this is a real service linking to the SNP fundraisers because, be in no doubt, scottish Labour might have a pathetic number of members but big business and big unions are still funding Labour overall. So we do need to help the SNP campaigns as much as we are able and every wee bit helps.
ReplyDeleteIf there's any kind of fundraising activity going on in your area come along and you'll not only be helping ensure that we forward the cause of independence while ensuring a better scotland, but you'll get to meet meet plenty of likeminded people who will only be too happy to see you. :-)
Opinium cross-break: SNP 31, Lab 27, Con 22.
ReplyDeletehttp://ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/sites/ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/files/vi_24_02_2015.pdf
Usual stuff from them. SNP down-weighted from 64 to 46.
Mike Smithson showing his usual level of expertise about Scottish politics (i.e. none), by asking if the Scotland rugby team losing to Italy would have any effect on the SNP.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/571706051365625856
The man is a self-parody. (Probably an observation I've made before.)
DeleteI was at Murrayfield today - thrilling low-quality photos of the calamity to follow.
Hi All
ReplyDeleteI signed up at Indiegogo
Thanks for suggestions
I am an East Renfrewshire voter and received a phone cal from Populus. They seemd to be canvassing a specific age group as they wanted to know if anyone aged 18-44 was in the house. I would assume that this was a poll done on behalf of the Labour party because the woman read out a list of Labour policies/claims and asked if I would be more or less likely to vote for Labour because of them e.g. only labour can stop the toreis, the lifting of the alcohol ban at football matches etc. They also wanted to know how I voted in the referendum, would I be voting in May and how I had voted last time round. I'm not sure what anyone else was asked but this was my experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Edinburgh West and got the same questions as the poster from East Renfrewshire.
DeleteYes, that's not an Ashcroft poll, because apart from anything else, Ashcroft doesn't ask for referendum vote.
ReplyDeleteQuite interesting that Labour are polling in two of the wealthier constituencies. It ties in with that Independent article that said their canvassing was showing a bit better support in that type of area. Suggests that Labour may be abandoning lower income seats to the SNP and trying to tailor their message for more realistic prospects of holding (or gaining from the Lib Dems in the case of Edinburgh West).
DeletePlease please help this one.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-elect-a-real-borders-mp-calum-kerr
It's not my constituency (thanks for putting that up front James), it's the one next door currently held by Michael Moore. Calum Kerr ran the Yes Borders campaign and he's absolutely dedicated and extraordinarily effective. If we can get him in Westminster, we should.
so do you think that smurph announcing he is standing in east Renfrew means his private polling would be showing he will hold his seat?
ReplyDeleteAsk me again if and when he actually does announce that.
DeleteI realise there will be 59 constituencies in Scotland who will likely need time and resources, but Inverclyde is on a knife-edge, and as the referendum showed us, EVERY vote counts:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/inverclyde-snp-westminster-campaign/
Count on Cowan, people!