What about cotton that was picked on slave plantations which was the central raw material in Britain’s industrial revolution?!

Next they’ll be claiming fast flowing water and coal were also minor also rans in the story of how Britain became rich.

🚨🧵It’s that time of year again 💃🕺

Scottish Election Study bonanza week, with data, analysis, & events.

But because it’s the 25th anniversary of devolution we’ve made it a FULL MONTH of high-quality entertainment for psephology & devo fans 1/n

NEW: #Election2024 event on 5 June, hosted by LSE Methodology and the BPC. Speakers include Jane Green Patrick Sturgis Paula Surridge Holly Day Sara Hobolt Damian Lyons Lowe Electoral Calculus Luke Tryl Steve Fisher What UK Thinks: EU Will Jennings Patrick English eventbrite.co.uk/e/shedding-lig…

I hope that the politicians and SpAds who came up with the list of approved IDs for elections, who presumably felt very clever in their effort to gerrymander British democracy, have the self-awareness to feel like absolute morons after the farcical displays today.

Because it's inevitable for somebody to compare raw council losses to last year (2023 had three times more seats up), here's some benchmarks relative to total number of contests:
-266 = losses are 10% of all seats
-350 = as bad as last year
-436 = worst for a govt since 1996

We're 'leading an evidenced based reflection on what's happening' in Scotland, with our new polling and podcast. (Thanks Kezia Dugdale 😉)

Have a listen!

👀Watch bit.ly/3wpOW8v
👂Listen bit.ly/4a4OPx3

EVENT: US and UK elections: polls, predictions and global implications.

Join us and Ipsos UK as Kelly Beaver MBE, Miranda Green, Cliff Young, Bobby Duffy & ex-head of NATO George Robertson discuss these two key votes

➡️ forms.gle/Zcmh7cyHfhdpq9…

Curious as to whether this Swinney-Forbes tandem, with the spectre of an impending general election, finally imposes some of that discipline the SNP were once famous for, even if the fractionalisation of the past 5 years can't be reversed. Their M(S)Ps already seem more unified.

NBC catering to you, Russell McLean.

For those who were making something of Forbes' absence from Swinney's launch event this morning:

Different questions, different scales, different answer options. But, it's interesting that Ipsos had Swinney on +14 on their good/bad FM question.

Among 2019 SNP voters, Swinney is on +17 net favourable here, and on +45 net good FM with Ipsos.

One of the biggest divides in British politics is now immigration - matters desperately to core Conservative voters, less so to everyone else ....

🚨NEW Ipsos UK Politics Talk ft Keiran Pedley, Emily Gray, Rachel Ormston and special guest Kezia Dugdale.

They dissect our snap poll following the resignation of the FM- the contenders, fallout and the future👇

Watch: bit.ly/3wpOW8v

More: ipsos.com/en-uk/john-swi…

CONFIRMED: Kate Forbes has decided against standing in SNP leadership contest

And there you have it.

Assuming no further twists, Swinney becomes SNP leader after nominations close on Monday and presumably FM by the end of next week.
news.stv.tv/politics/kate-…

If I recall correctly, the lowest the Tories have ever polled (GB-wide) is 17%, except one PeoplePolling outlier of 14%. So with YouGov's 18% today, we're within margin of error of a historic polling low for the Conservatives - and the polling average has been trending downwards.

Swinney is an exceptionally polished political performer and a very effective operator. If I was an SNP member, I'd be encouraged by the prospect of him as leader.

But, the political fundamentals remain the same. If he does become SNP leader, he still faces an uphill struggle.