New poll finds anti-Scottish bias south of the border

With two of the possible contenders or the coming Labour leadership battle being Scottish – Gordon Brown and John Reid – there are some worrying findings for the party in an an ICM poll carried out for today’s “Politics Show” on BBC1.

When asked if they thought it “wrong” that in the era of the Scottish parliament a Scot should become Prime Minister of the whole of the UK 52% said they did with 45% said they did not mind and 3% said they did not know.

But there are some sharp region variations. A total of 75% of the Scottish respondents said they “did not mind”. This compares with 59% of those in the SE of England saying it was wrong, 55% saying the same in the North of England and even 54% of those in Wales.

Before we get too worked up it could be argued that the question in the ICM survey seems to be a leading one designed to produce the answer it got.

The poll finding looks as though it was it was “bolted on” to one of ICM’s regular omnibus surveys and the sample would probably not have been corrected to be politically balanced.

Even so, assuming Brown does get it, this could be an issue at the next General Election and probably explains the Chancellor’s move earlier in the year to promote the concept of Britishness.

Meanwhile Nick Cohen in the Observer today has some acute observations about people who use this site. This is what he writes.

“Politicalbetting.com is a website for hopeless junkies. It uses the respectable cover of a gambler’s tip sheet to hide its true role as the political equivalent of an opium den. Thousands of addicts meet there to indulge their fixation with the minutiae of polls. If a website could wear an anorak, this one would….”

Surely not Nick? We are all totally normal, balanced well-adjusted people who do have real lives which is why I am posting this at 3.26 am on a Sunday morning!

For latest Labour leadership and other betting odds click here.

Mike Smithson