Survation cross a Rubicon by actively and knowingly pushing a fraudulent propaganda message on behalf of their client Scotland In Union - they must now be deemed partisan actors working willingly and enthusiastically on behalf of the cause of British unionism

As I pointed out in my video last night, the polling company Survation have seemingly prided themselves over the years on maintaining a particularly high standard of political neutrality and balance, even if that means not always going along with what their clients ask for.  And yet whenever Scotland In Union come calling and ask for another of their regular series of propaganda polls, all of Survation's principles just seem to fly straight out of the window.  Pretty much the cardinal rule of polling neutrality, which ironically virtually all polling companies OTHER than Survation religiously adhere to at all times, is that clients cannot interfere with the wording of voting intention questions - the wording of those questions must remain absolutely consistent regardless of the client, and that way the public can have confidence that the result would have been exactly the same no matter who the client was.

But it seems there is an exception to that rule which states that absolutely anything bloody goes when Survation are the pollsters and Scotland In Union are the client.  Suddenly in that context it becomes absolutely fine to replace the standard independence voting intention question "Should Scotland be an independent country?" with the propaganda question "Should Scotland remain part of the United Kingdom or leave the United Kingdom?", even though Survation know perfectly well that this is not an independence question, it doesn't work as a proxy for an independence question, and it would not have a cat in hell's chance of being approved by the Electoral Commission for use in a referendum because of its ambiguity.  The key point is that it's perfectly possible to "leave the United Kingdom" without becoming an independent country - you could become part of another state, or become a dependency like Jersey, or become a freely associated state like the Cook Islands.

Survation also know that in practical terms the respondents in their panel are not replying to the question as if it's a proxy for an independence question, because the "Leave" vote produced by the question is consistently several points lower than the Yes vote in the 2014 referendum, whereas conventional independence polling using the standard question, including Survation's own conventional polls using that standard question, consistently show that the Yes vote is several points higher than in 2014, and may well be in an outright lead.  So the propaganda polls are literally producing worthless results which tell a story that is the opposite of the truth, and yet Survation have passively sat back and allowed their client to deliberately deceive both the media and the public by portraying those results as if they genuinely show that independence support has sharply declined since the referendum.

As I noted in the video, though, in the latest poll Survation have gone a step further, and have become active participants and collaborators in pushing this fraudulent and farcical propaganda fiction.  They have agreed to run a supplementary question that asks "switchers" from Yes to "Remain" to give reasons in their own words for "why they've changed their minds since 2014".  The clear subtext here is that a large drift from Yes to No is a real phenomenon that needs to be investigated, whereas Survation know - know for literally certain - that the polar opposite is true.  Survation have thus crossed a Rubicon and can now reasonably be considered partisan actors working willingly and enthusiastically on behalf of the cause of British unionism.  The only remaining question is why they are doing that - and I find it murderously difficult to come up with a plausible explanation that doesn't involve Scotland in Union paying an extra premium to buy themselves an exemption from the normal rules on impartiality and balance.

Genuine independence polls show that, since 2014, many voters have switched both from Yes to No and from No to Yes.  So it's unsurprising that some of the answers to Survation's question come from people who have genuinely turned against independence.  But it's equally unsurprising that other answers pick up a degree of bewilderment and confusion from people who have no idea why they're being asked to explain why they've changed their minds when they in fact still support independence.  Here is a little selection from the belatedly-published Survation data tables - 

"Scotland never wanted to leave the EU"

"Because I believe Scotland should be independent from England"

"No one has"

"I like the way they lead and organise"

"Needs to be independent"

"It would allow better autonomy"

"Better future and stronger if we stay in the European Union"

"Too much confusion in with the UK"

Remember these are all people who selected the "Remain" option on the headline propaganda question, and are all supposedly explaining in their own words why they "no longer support independence".

Take a bow, Survation, you've just made yourselves look utterly ridiculous.  But you've also just unwittingly demonstrated to the whole world why the headline results from Scotland In Union's propaganda polls are entirely false, and for that you do deserve our grudging thanks.

*  *  *

My latest Holyrood constituency profiles for The National are Dumbarton and Dumfriesshire.