ON Monday, the Lord Ashcroft poll placing Yes at 52% was the biggest story of the day, but the BBC News website didn’t cover it. The broadcaster featured polling expert John Curtice talking about it on Good Morning Scotland, and then failed to mention it anywhere else until about 9pm when an article about the First Minister’s Edinburgh Fringe appearance was posted.
The BBC told us they don’t report on individual polls in isolation, and instead wait for patterns to emerge in polling and report on that instead. A BBC spokesperson said: “The results of this poll were covered in an extensive analysis of polling trends from Professor Sir John Curtice on Good Morning Scotland.
“This is in keeping with our editorial guidelines which advise that the result of an individual poll in isolation should not be published as a headline story.”
We wrote an article providing five reasons why this wasn’t a good enough excuse, and one of those points was that the BBC has certainly reported on individual polls before. What we didn’t realise at the time was just how many times the BBC has reported on individual polls.
Reddit user u/bottish compiled a list of 27 times the broadcaster has in fact reported on individual polls in recent times. Some of the surveys had smaller sample sizes than the independence poll – and one was even a Lord Ashcroft survey on independence.
The BBC didn’t respond to our request for comment on how this meshes with their claim.
READ MORE: BBC 'losing relevance' in Scotland as viewership plunges
THE release of the poll sparked a flurry of debate online.
Among those with the harshest words for the BBC was Scottish actor Alan Cumming, a vocal supporter of Scottish independence.
The Good Wife star wrote: “News alert! @BBCScotlandNews is biased and suppressing news about Scottish independence!”
Meanwhile, BBC presenter Andrew Neil questioned the SNP’s mandate for indyref2.
Economist columnist Jeremy Cliffe wrote: “Hard to fault this. SNP stormed to victory in 2016 Scottish election pledging 2nd referendum on independence if a) major shift in opinion or b) “significant and material change” to post-2014 circumstances. Both now fulfilled.”
Neil disagreed: “Explain how a minority government ‘stormed’ to victory.”
The SNP did lose six seats in 2017, falling to 63 MSPs and two short of a majority. However, the Holyrood system is set up in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to secure a majority, as we’re sure Neil himself knows.
The SNP won lead over the Tories, who had 31 seats, sounds substantial to us – though not a “storm”, perhaps.
However, the results of the constituency seats paint a very different picture. The SNP won 59 of those. No other party reached double figures. In fact, the Tories won only seven constituency seats. And with six Green MSPs, Holyrood has a pro-indy majority.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel