Thursday 31 January 2013

Independence Question"Humiliation" or tweak.

Labour Unionist Left Foot Forward sorry Left Foot Forward once again through its attack dog ED Jacobs blog under  the headline''


Do you agree that Salmond’s referendum question is biased? “YES!” say the Electoral Commission

This is based on the Commission, who apparently asked to "Test " the question proposed by the Scottish Government for the 2014  to a number of voters..
Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country? Yes/No
The report agreed that  the question was clear but concluded....
“Based on our research and taking into account what we heard from people and organisations who submitted their views on the question, we consider that the proposed question is not neutral because the phrase ‘Do you agree…?’ could lead people towards voting ‘yes’.”
The Commission therefore n to recommend  the question put to the Scottish people be:

“Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes/No” 

Jacobs goes on to say 


"Whilst the SNP have agreed to the suggested new wording, the development is yet another humiliation for the nationalists who have faced a string of bad news over independence including  the European Union rejecting the idea of Scotland automatically joining the EU if it became independent and support for independence slumping".

What humiliation? A simple tweak of words which looks more of a result of the Electoral Commission justifying the expense of looking at the question.

Perhaps they could tell us what percentage of the Scottish Electorate where more likely to vote yes in the original question

Over at Better Nation  Jeff points out 

"In 1997 we were asked
“Do you agree there should be a Scottish Parliament?”, 
Which is interestingly entirely consistent with the SNP’s preferred question. I don’t really understand why that style of question was good enough then but isn’t good enough today but, at the end of the day, if voters aren’t convinced enough by the merits of independence that they may be swayed into voting No when they look at the question, then do we really want to embark on this great adventure at all?"
And who put this question? The then Labour Government at the time.

According to Jacobs and the Electoral Commission that question would have led people to have voted Yes.

And maybe so .

But can you really have a question that is fair?

I mean.The SNP may have preferred to ask

"Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country  free from being run by English Tories in Westminster Yes/No
And Ed Jacobs and his Union friends may have preferred 

Should Scotland be an separate country  breaking up the United Kingdom? Yes/No”  

Left Foot forward  are beginning to sound ridiculous and hysterical in their attempts to save the Union by twisting every little story on the Independence debate to claim that it is an "Humiliation for the SNP"

Interestingly from the comments on Jacobs articles most reading them are well aware of his nonsense and are making sensible comments on his page.

Can we have more balance from a supposed progressive blog please and not just the views of Labour Unionists

3 comments:

Cibwr said...

The level of hysteria from the No side is breathtaking, the language is relentlessly negative, making out that the Scottish Parliament is not a democratic institution and that the First Minister is a dictator! And the worst of the lot are consistently Labour. I think its because Labour think they have a god given right to rule in Scotland (and Wales) so any election that doesn't return them to power has to be flawed.

The arguments being advanced by the no side are frankly ludicrous.

Pads said...

And in Wales in 2011

"DO YOU WANT the Assembly now to be able to make laws on all matters in the 20 subject areas it has powers for?"

Pads said...

The 2012 Mayoral referendums asked

"HOW WOULD YOU LIKE [name of city] to be run?"

So Electoral Commission's question is a departure from all other recent referendums in the UK in not using the second person.