SCOT GOES POP / PANELBASE POLL: An overwhelming majority of the Scottish public demand the devolution of broadcasting. And a stark message to the Royal Family - STOP INTERFERING in the independence debate...

You might remember that after the UK's latest calamity at the Eurovision Song Contest in May, I made two attempts to get a petition started on the UK Parliament website calling for Scotland to be given its own Eurovision entry with a view to restoring some national dignity.  Both attempts were rejected due to supposed technicalities (none of which actually made any sense), so I got around the problem by thinking much bigger, and submitting a petition calling for law-making powers over broadcasting to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, with a Scottish Eurovision entry listed as one of the many benefits.  It's actually been a reasonably successful petition, attracting well over 2000 signatures, but perhaps inevitably it ran out of steam after a while. With only a few weeks left to go it's unlikely to reach the 10,000 signatures required to trigger a response from the UK Government, and is extremely unlikely to reach the 100,000 required to trigger a debate at Westminster.  (Although by all means prove me wrong - here's the link if you haven't signed yet.)

But am I deterred?  Pah.  Not a bit of it.  Here's what is probably a much more effective way of demonstrating how the people of Scotland feel about broadcasting - a question in our new Scot Goes Pop / Panelbase poll.  

Scot Goes Pop / Panelbase poll (a representative sample of 1001 over-16s in Scotland was interviewed by Panelbase between 20th and 26th October 2021)

Which parliament do you think should have law-making powers over Scottish broadcasting? 

The UK Parliament: 22% 

The Scottish Parliament: 65% 

With Don't Knows excluded - 

The UK Parliament: 25% 

The Scottish Parliament: 75% 

I have to say I think that's an absolutely sensational result.  I anticipated that there would be a majority for the Scottish Parliament to have control over broadcasting, but I thought it would be a fairly tight result along traditional Yes/No lines.  Instead, there is actually a plurality for Holyrood control among those who voted No in 2014, albeit by the narrow margin of 46% to 39%.  (Needless to say, Yes voters plump for Holyrood by the mammoth margin of 89% to 6%.)  What's more, 60% of both Labour and Liberal Democrat voters take the same view, along with a very healthy 30% of Tory voters.

This is, in fact, not really about independence or the independence movement - there is a genuine and overwhelming pan-Scotland demand for Home Rule of the Airwaves, encompassing unionists and Yes supporters alike.  This revelation will be something of a shock to anti-independence campaigners, who probably took it as read that Scots, or at the very least unionist Scots, would regard broadcasting and the BBC as one of the unifying points of Britishness that should 'obviously' remain subject to Westminster control.  

The reserving of broadcasting to Westminster is essentially about keeping a tight grip, and preventing Scotland from collectively thinking too much for itself.  It's one thing if that can be justified due to genuine support for the current set-up from the Scottish people. But with voters instead clearly eager for change, it starts to look much more like a form of colonialism.

It's also worth noting that the question asked in the poll was so simple and straightforward that I don't see how anyone can really call into question the credibility of the results.

Now let's turn to the Royal Family, a group of saintly individuals who are martyrs to centuries of tradition and to the sacred principles of constitutional monarchy, which require absolute neutrality on all matters of political controversy.  Except, of course, when there are uppity Jocks who need to be put in their place, in which case absolutely anything goes.  It was really striking that when Buckingham Palace reacted with fury after David Cameron let it be known that he'd asked the Queen to intervene in the 2014 indyref, they weren't angry because his claim wasn't true.  It was true.  They weren't embarrassed because they realised on reflection that it was extremely foolish for the Queen to betray her constitutional duties.  She had taken that course of action knowingly and would clearly do so again.  No, they were simply upset that they had been found out, and that half the population of Scotland were suddenly aware that their own Head of State was hostile towards them and their aspirations.

There was very little point in using the poll to ask people whether the Royal Family should stay out of politics, because the royals clearly take the view that they can meddle and try to influence public opinion to their hearts' content, and that as long as they keep up a public charade of neutrality they're still entitled to claim with a straight face to be scrupulously apolitical.  So instead I took a different tack and asked about whether it's all right for the royals to interfere indirectly. 

The former Prime Minister David Cameron revealed in a TV interview that he asked the Queen to intervene in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 by "raising an eyebrow". After his request, the Queen was shown on news bulletins telling a member of the public that voters in the referendum should "think very carefully about the future". Which of the following statements is closest to your view? 

It is acceptable for the Royal Family to take sides in the Scottish independence debate, as long as they superficially appear to be remaining neutral: 29% 

It is not enough for the Royal Family to superficially appear to remain neutral - they have a duty not to take sides in the Scottish independence debate in any way: 52%

With Don't Knows excluded - 

It is acceptable for the Royal Family to take sides in the Scottish independence debate, as long as they superficially appear to be remaining neutral: 36% 

It is not enough for the Royal Family to superficially appear to remain neutral - they have a duty not to take sides in the Scottish independence debate in any way: 64%

It's a rather irritating and over-used expression, but it's appropriate in this case: "we see you". People have wised up to what the royals are doing, they know it's inappropriate and they want it to stop. Even from the point of view of sheer self-interest, it would actually make sense for the royals to end their meddling, because the prospect of independence is not necessarily an existential crisis for them - it's entirely conceivable that an indy Scotland would choose to retain the monarchy.  But that's much less likely to happen if 50% of voters come to regard the Queen, entirely accurately, as a political opponent.

In spite of the decisiveness of the poll result, there is one rather depressing detail - by a margin of 45% to 36%, people who voted No in 2014 think it's perfectly OK for the royals to interfere in the referendum debate, as long as they only do so with a nod and a wink. Which ironically means that those who believe in Britain the most are also the most cynically dismissive of British constitutional norms.

SCOT GOES POP POLLING FUNDRAISER: I hope you'll bear with me as I continue to heavily promote the new fundraiser, but as I've explained a few times, the crowdfunding for this current poll did not meet the full amount required, and I'm having to cover the shortfall with my own money.  So running any future Scot Goes Pop polling - on independence or other Scottish political issues - will be pretty much impossible unless we reach the £6500 target figure, or at least get very close to it.  At present we're more than 40% of the way towards the target, so a million thanks to everyone who has made donations so far.  I know times are really tough at the moment, but as I noted the other day, thousands of people read Scot Goes Pop every week, and if just 10% of those people were to donate just £10, the target figure would be reached straight away.  Of course some people can't donate for very good reasons, but one really helpful thing you can do is to share the fundraiser page and spread the word with your friends and family.

If you'd like to donate, please click HERE, or to read more about why it's so important for the pro-independence movement to occasionally crowdfund our own polls, click HERE.