by Christian Wright

Alex Massie, writing in the Spectator, puts much of the SNP’s rise to 62% in the latest TNS Holyrood election poll down to a bandwagon effect.

“People like to support successful teams. That’s why there are far more Chelsea fans now than there were 20 years ago. It’s why, in Scotland, Celtic and (until recently) Rangers carved up the country between them.”

And on the electorate’s view of the SNP government’s performance

“Consider these findings: just 25 percent of voters think the SNP is doing a good job on the economy while 24 percent are disappointed by the party’s economic record (45 percent say its neither good nor bad).

As for the NHS, well, 34 percent of voters are happy with the government’s record, 29 percent are unhappy and 33 percent are neither gruntled nor disgruntles[sic].

Education? Shamefully, 30 percent think the government is doing well while just 19 percent disagree and 40 percent are in the neither well nor poor camp.

On crime and justice the numbers are even less flattering to the nationalists. Just 23 percent of respondents are happy with the government’s performance, 29 percent say the SNP are doing badly in these areas and 40 percent dinnae ken.”

Massie argues that such overwhelming support despite this “awful” performance, demonstrates that the SNP is being given a pass by a befuddled electorate.

Alex is on a Unionist jihad and is blind to the truth as all McHadis are.

You see, according to Alex it’s not he who has it wrong – it’s them! You know the voters. They’re not thinking with their heads, you see. They don’t understand.

With respect to the SNP government’s performance data in key areas, here’s what the voters are saying

Scottish GOVERNMENT is DOING well or not doing badly

Econ – 69%
NHS –   67%
Educ – 70%
Just –  63%

Now that’s the reality and is the main reason for the SNP’s ever rising popularity.

Massie really jumps the shark with the claim that much of the rise can be put down to a bandwagon effect. There is no evidence to support this but then, evidence is not what Massie’s about.

He is a believer in the Union and Conservatism. He’s a fundamentalist. For him Tory Unionism is a religion. His politics are faith based and he exhibits magical thinking seldom encountered outside a clinical setting.

Despite all the evidence that support for the SNP by those who voted NO, stems from the reality that the SNP are extremely competent at governing, the Spectator’s resident McHadi through willful ignorance, remains clueless.