John swinney

Could Reform’s Scottish surge provoke indyref2?

20 min listen

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney unveiled his strategy for pursuing a second independence referendum this week, arguing that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is the only way to guarantee it. This is seen as an attempt to put Scottish independence back on the table as well as combat the rising popularity of Reform. Pollster Mark Diffley of Diffley Partnership joins Lucy Dunn to unpack the SNP’s independence strategy. Mark points out that while Reform are consistently outperforming expectations, their support still primarily comes from ex-Conservatives. This, plus the unpopularity of the current UK Labour government, could provide the SNP with an opening to exploit and shore up

Seven awful Indyref predictions seven years on

On Saturday it was the seventh anniversary of the Scottish vote on independence – how time flies. That contest saw a decisive ten point majority against separation; not that you’d know it from the way Nicola Sturgeon conducts her affairs. The SNP First Minister succeeded Alex Salmond in the post just weeks after the plebiscite and has spent most of her time in office talking tough and delivering little on making Scexit a reality.   In many ways it’s a good thing the vote did not go the SNP’s way. There’s the whole 300 years of history shtick of course but as the calculations of the 2013 White Paper on independence make