Can we just get this divorce over with? This thread must have broken some wills. It certainly has mine.

Only needed a quick scan, not exactly rocket science, and only 2 show a widening gap, 3 show a narrowing gap..

3 show the gap widening. Of the ones that don’t 2 show a huge gap. And it’s not “rocket science” to figure out that the gap needs to be in the opposite direction for the Yes camp to win. As I say, there’s less than a hundred days left – perhaps time to start panicking ?

Maybe your laughing is a form of hysteria ?

I had previously thought that Scots would probably vote Yes.

Was this on another thread in a parallel universe?

No on this thread in this universe.

Ernie. Nope utter hilarity reading your reasoning. Away an look at the polls again. 😆

I’m not sure why the nats are finding so much humour in six different polls that all suggest the nats will lose?
😕

sbob – Member
I’m not sure why the nats are finding so much humour in six different polls that all suggest the nats will lose?

Probably for the same reason people in the UK used to laugh at Lord Haw Haw’s pronouncements…

Probably for the same reason people in the UK used to laugh at Lord Haw Haw’s pronouncements…

I see. ICM, YouGov, etc, poll results, are the same to you as Nazi propaganda during World War 2. You laugh at the face of such propaganda. What a reasonable and perfectly fair assessment you have 😀

Was that Godwins

piemonster – Member
Was that Godwins

Nah, it’s just I forgot Ernie can never be wrong 🙂

99days to go.

Was that Godwins

Nah, it’s just I forgot Ernie can never be wrong

You’re becoming increasingly incoherent as you try to shift the focus away from reasoned debate and onto personal taunting.

You really don’t know what to say do you ? 🙂

💡 Try to combine a personal attack with a valid point, if you can think of one.

sbob – Member 
I’m not sure why the nats are finding so much humour in six different polls that all suggest the nats will lose?

beaucse I understand exactly where the lines are drawn and know that it’ll require an extrodinary aligning of the planets to happen. Personally I just enjoy pointing out ernies utter nonsense from time to time. It’s highly amusing. 😆

Personally I just enjoy pointing out ernies utter nonsense from time to time. It’s highly amusing. 😆

Is that what you were doing…….pointing out my “nonsense” ?

I truly thought this was a joke :

epicyclo – Member

Ernie, be careful of believing what the BBC publishes, it uses the same journalistic standards as Pravda.

If there’s such a strong No vote, how come for every public event there is a large local turnout for Yes

But you actually meant it !!!

EDIT : My mistake it was epicyclo that made that “reasoned” comment. What was the “nonsense” that you pointed out ?

Are we now to believe that polls are being fiddled, and that few actually intend voting no? Ridiculous! If yes win 55% to 45%, will it be said that the no vote could not have been that high! No voters have generally been silent, but if we don’t speak up, we will be trampled on after a yes vote.

No voters have generally been silent

Yes and this thread as been 159 pages of yes voters just agreeing

To be fair JY, it’s mostly been filled by non voters

You cannot be accusing of us apathy 😉

It is a fair point you have made

ATG, no voters don’t need to say much. YS is doing a great job at explaining why everyone should vote NO – his own policy recommendations (the ones that stand up to scrutiny) all point one way ie, NO.

No need to engage in/with the additional nonsense as it only legitimises it.

Boring day 99 though. Gordon Brown or nothing…..errrrr,…..nothing please.

aracer+1.

Are we now to believe that polls are being fiddled, and that few actually intend voting no?

No – but I think also we place too much faith in polls. They’re never marvellously accurate at the best of times, and this is an extraordinary situation. There’s never been a referendum like this in the UK, so there’s no previous data to analyse. Turnout looks like it’s going to be massive – that’s unprecedented in modern times too, and of course it’s very hard to predict how someone will vote if they’ve never voted before.

We live in interesting times – when have you ever seen town hall meetings all over the country packed out night after night, with people wanting to talk politics? When has any other election in recent times got everyone this interested?

To be fair Ben, the BBC article’s pretty clear how little confidence they have in the polls.

rUk will base its response on what iS does..stated position of rUK. Given they let the Irish in i think we will be safe.

iS and Ireland are in totally different positions: UK and Ireland have a treaty that provides for mutual voting, travel and residency rights. Everything’s up for grabs between UK and iS as long as iS isn’t an EU member state.

Polls? Only relevant when they tell the story that suits your agenda!!!! 😉

What, you mean like a continual shift towards Yes? 😉

To be fair, since January they seem to have been largely static give or take a point or two.

When are the next high yes polls due out?

Wings/Newsnet Panelbase being the best examples.

To be fair Ben, the BBC article’s pretty clear how little confidence they have in the polls.

The article does no such thing, which presumably is why the BBC has a dedicated interactive page on the issue of Scottish independence opinion polls.

In fact they describe the polls as “important”. They do however caution at oversimplification and assuming that they predict exactly what will happen on polling day, pointing out that they are “temperature readings valid at the time they are taken” and that other factors need to be taken into consideration. All perfectly sensible remarks.

Opinion polls do have a margin of error and they occasionally get things very wrong but there’s a reason why organizations, including political parties (although they always claim not to be unduly concerned about them), pay large amounts of money to have them commissioned – they are extremely useful in gauging public opinion.

And let’s be clear what we are talking about here with regards to opinion polls covering Scottish independence – every single opinion poll, as far as I’m aware, from every single polling organization, has placed the No campaign in front.

Now even if you allow for a huge margin of error it is quite frankly ridiculous for the Yes camp to pretend that there is no need for concern.

There is of course still time for things to change dramatically but time is starting to run out and all the evidence suggests that something substantial is needed to shift things in the Yes camp’s favour.

It’s still winnable for the Yes camp imo and I would be surprised if it doesn’t at least end up much closer than the polls are currently predicting, but it’s rather silly for Yes supporters to pretend that everything is just hunky dory.

Time to start panicking ! 🙂

ernie_lynch – Member

The article does no such thing,

“This campaign will be a real test for the polling companies themselves.

You would think, given the choice is simply “Yes” or “No”, that the challenge to produce accurate figures would be relatively simple; but predicting the same “Yes” or “No” choice in the 2011 UK referendum on the Alternative Vote system caused some pollsters grief.

The September referendum has no precedent for the pollsters to measure their 2014 poll results against.

We need to keep that in mind as the campaign develops and the tide of opinion polls sweeps over all of us.”

From the article : “Individual polls are important”

Funny comment to make if claiming to have ‘little confidence’ in the polls.

As I said : They do however caution at oversimplification and assuming that they predict exactly what will happen on polling day.

Time to start panicking !

Funny how it’s the No camp who seem to be doing the panicking, then – repeatedly lying then being caught out, hiring expensive PR companies to completely rebrand themselves, having a big spat between the “leaders” about whether Cameron should debate Salmond, etc etc.

In no way is it in the bag for either side. I waver between optimism that Scots are smart enough to choose the Yes option, and pessimism that too many Scots are too scared, servile or self-interested to do so.

I think it’s encouraging that, every time there’s a debate in a school, college or community centre, it starts off with a No majority and ends with a Yes majority.

Funny how it’s the No camp who seem to be doing the panicking….

If No camp are panicking then it would indeed be funny peculiar. The evidence suggests that it’s the Yes camp that should be doing the panicking.

And if as you suggest “every time there’s a debate in a school, college or community centre, it starts off with a No majority and ends with a Yes majority” then you better get your finger out – time’s running out.

I can’t imagine why within an 80 year time frame the nats have left it to the final days before a referendum to make the case for independence.

JK Rowling says No Given she knows a thing or two about writing fantasy fiction, that’s a poor review for the White Paper then.

Probably more to do with she’s friends with Alastair Darling.

bencooper – Member

Probably more to do with she’s friends with Alastair Darling.

Or as she herself says:

“The more I listen to the ‘Yes’ campaign, the more I worry about its minimisation and even denial of risks. Whenever the big issues are raised – our heavy reliance on oil revenue if we become independent, what currency we’ll use, whether we’ll get back into the EU – reasonable questions are drowned out by accusations of ‘scaremongering'”.

The statement also said: “I also know that there is a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence and I suspect, notwithstanding the fact that I’ve lived in Scotland for 21 years and plan to remain here for the rest of my life, that they might judge me ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to have a valid view.”

Some great tweets rolling in about it, I’m genuinely not sure if they are satirizing the situation or not.

Becky Ford ?@orknip 12m

.@jk_rowling millionaires may be better-together but the rest of us want the chance to build a better, fairer future. #indyref #YES

Blair Knapp ?@KnappBlair 17m

@jk_rowling how much homeless and poor could you have helped with 1million pounds ?? Instead you’ve backed Tories well done you #scum

Stephen Dobbie ?@DobbieStephen 1m

@Daily_Record @jk_rowling much tax did she save on her millions this year….but she’s never had to struggle frm day 2 day in her life

Kieran Psyl ?@Kieran_Psyl 2m

Why don’t you come to Scotland and visit a couple foodbanks, @jk_rowling? Tell those people that we’re Better Together.

Jason Campbell @jcampbell1888 · 1h

**** you JK Rowling you whore

Rob Dean ?@Rob_Dean1314 50s

@jk_rowling judas

Ross McCafferty ?@RossMcCaff 1m

My favourite so far RT @gazzabhoy1980: **** j k rowling and that wee gadge harry potter

robbie burns ?@stephenkidd56 2m

@blairmcdougall @jk_rowling Money would’ve been more appreciated by food bank charity’s as will my YES vote

but she’s never had to struggle frm day 2 day in her life

she was a single mother living on benefits and actively does not avoid paying tax.
and I thought STW as vitriolic…..not going to on twitter then

Funny how it’s the No camp who seem to be doing the panicking,

The evidence suggests that it’s the Yes camp that should be doing the panicking.

Well this should be fun

TBH neither side is panicking and both are doing what they have done from the start. Little has changed on the ground opinion wise though yes have gained a ;little but are still behind

The undecided are still going to decide it as the others [ yes and no], as this thread shows, are somewhat entrenched in their views and wont be swayed
Saying anything else is an STW squabble.

@ben She is an intelligent woman and she makes many valid points. Her personal friendship is probably driven by her political views.

Her piece is worth reading and worth reading twice.

JK Rowling on Scottish Independence

Her personal friendship is probably driven by her political views.

You mean that her pro-Union views aren’t based on a personal friendship with Alastair Darling as bencooper suggests ?

She’s got her own independent views which aren’t dictated to her by Alastair Darling ?

What’s all that about then ?

After the comments a few pages back about the extent of abuse received by the Yes campaigners I suppose to go with the tweets re. JK Rowling above we could add this sorry tale.

I was wondering when that would come up 😉

She was portrayed as an “ordinary person” – she isn’t. This was pointed out. One person on Twitter appears to have called her a Quisling, which wasn’t nice.

This is the standard Better Together technique – get caught fibbing, complain about hordes of online cybernats abusing them to distract from the fibs, go quiet when asked to produce evidence of the abuse. Rinse and repeat.

get caught fibbing, complain about hordes of online cybernats abusing them to distract from the fibs

What are you accusing her of lying about ? Being a normal/ordinary person/mother ?

A senior special adviser to Salmond has accused her of being the daughter-in-law of someone who she claims to have never met, are you suggesting that she is wrong to complain about that ?

Ms Lally said Mr Salmond visited her home

The bitch is a double agent!!!