. . . By contrast, the online companies trotted out the same, wrong, figures day after day with extraordinary regularity: literally just a point at most up or down throughout almost the entire campaign. It was as if they'd damped or adjusted out every movement, whether real or not.
The idea that "margin of error" is meaningful let alone accurate in these polls is risible.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
You should look at reality on education instead of listening to Labour drivel.
I know, I know, its working class Vocational Course numbers that are down while Middle Class Degree courses are steady (albeit with fewer poor students.....)
PS: Like Labour she can make up any fairy story given they will have ZERO chance of ever having to implement them.
Good morning all. I couldn't care less about Scottish educational policy, but it's a good place to express my general frustration about the death of non-academic F.E. courses.
Our local F.E. used to offer a raft of things like 'spinning and weaving', which while supremely useless in that dreary, Brownian universe where humans are merely economic units-of-measure, were still wonderful places where older people could meet, learn and socialise.
All the college provided was a classroom - people funded the tutor themselves. It's a shame that we can't appreciate the intangibles that things like knitting classes provide.
Use your own house or rent a hall/room yourself. My taxes should not be getting used to provide recreation for rich old codgers looking for friends or something to do. Join a club.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
You should look at reality on education instead of listening to Labour drivel.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson is pledging more than £100 million extra cash for colleges over the next parliament to help them reverse the fall in student numbers.
Colleges have endured "appalling treatment" from the Scottish Government, she claimed, with statistics for 2013-14 showing the number at colleges is down by more than 140,000 since 2007-08.
I know, I know, its working class Vocational Course numbers that are down while Middle Class Degree courses are steady (albeit with fewer poor students.....)
They have concentrated on real full time education courses that lead to employment
Which has benefited the Middle Classes at the expense of the poor.
Why not just admit it?
Give in to your inner Tartan Tory......
Its free in case you had not remembered, you don't need to be rich to be educated in Scotland.
Hmm. I've travelled in most of North Africa and whilst there's the image of hospitality/courtesy, if you're female, it's drowned out by overt misogyny and revolting touching up, letching and treating Western women as sex dolls.
Merkel has imported over a million with this sleazy attitude. And we've seen it here in spades a la Rotherham.
I've never experienced this from Hindus or Sikhs or any other culture.
I don't like Islam much. At all. On the other hand there are many people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin I work with who I like a lot. They're basically secular though. I do hope we can find a way to make Islam 'go away' in our society - as in less less in my facer, lees problematical, less annoying. Either Islam itself becomes more accommodating of host culture or it doesn't. If it doesn't I suspect that a much more violent, expulsive credo will take root. Will the Europe of the 21st Century have the pogroms and violence and expulsions it did in the 20th - only this time with Muslims instead of Jews? Maybe. The worst thing is I'd much prefer that than see my daughters lose their personal, sexual and visual freedoms. I'm probably not alone in feeling we've just about reached Peak Muslim.
i used to admire Islam. Genuinely. I have travelled very widely in Islamic countries - Morocco to Indonesia, Syria to Palestine, Turkey to Azerbaijan. i lived in Egypt for a few months. What always struck me was the courtliness, the hospitality, the kindness - such that it put us to shame.
It's all gone now. Islam has mutated, horribly. Even in moderate Muslim countries (Malaysia) you can detect a sneering insolence, this manic desire to see themselves superior despite all evidence. Thence springs Islamism.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
APD makes no difference whatsoever to me , it going will help poorer people afford flights.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics has shown that the SNP’s plan to halve air passenger duty would save the top 20% of earners £73 whilst the poorest would save just £4.50.
Yes - but how long before former Labour voters in Scotland wake up to what the Tartan Tories have been up to?
You really are a bumptious oaf. Your assumption that all Scottish people are thick and vote without knowing what is going on is not just offensive. Methinks you have had too much sun in that tax haven and addled what little brain cells you previously had , or maybe just your hatred of all things Scottish blinding you.
You Tartan Tory You!
Free Prescriptions for the Middle Class! Free University Education for Middle Class Children! Cut Price APD for Middle Class holiday makers!
Paid for by cutbacks on health and education for the poor....
CDU/CSU - 32,5 % (Tories) SPD - 22,5 % (Labour) Greens - 9,5 % (Green) FDP - 6,5 % (Lib Dems) Left - 10,0 % (SWP/Corbyn Labour) AfD - 12,5 % (UKIP) Other - 6,5 %
Highest ever score for AfD and CDU/CSU down 9 points from the election. This would still produce a grand coalition, but one which would be much less stable given that they would be down from a joint 68.2% to around 55%.
Not sure I buy all of those descriptions.
I'd have CDU as Blairites. I've always thought that Blair was in essence a Christian Democrat and didn't really fit that naturally anywhere in the British system.
The FDP are far to the right of the British Lib Dems; they're more old-school classical Liberals: free-market libertarians.
The rest I'd go along with. AfD are the interesting ones. They were more centralist (Tory Eurosceptic) but underwent internal ructions and were overtaken by a more radical faction. They're still not extremist but will have a lower ceiling on their support now. One thing I'd watch for is their support in the east, where cultural sensitivities of the past aren't as strong.
I think Cameron is as well, so maybe replace Tories with Cameroons/Blairites.
It was difficult to place the FDP, we don't really have a party like that. UKIP pre-2009 might be the closest.
Whatever else it is, I think Britishness is about tolerance and adhering to the once-important idea that anything is legal unless it is illegal.
We wouldn't be having this exchange without the terrorism angle. When I walk through Chinatown I don't worry that such separation is a breeding ground for extremism, radicalisation, etc, etc. I think - how nice: very colourful, great char siu bao.
I don't think that the Chinese are going to subvert our culture and I don't mind that many don't integrate and perhaps there are many families living together, the elder members of which can only speak Hokkien, because generally they don't want to overthrow the state by force.
(snip for length)
Really good post IMO. I think the fight against terrorism and criminality like FGM is actually hindered by the attempt to tag on to it grumbles about different cultural habits and lack of integration. If I were a moderate Muslim, I'd feel annoyed and alienated by the attempt to make me "more English" - I'll be as English as I like and no more, that's bloody part of being English.
In fact, it's because I'm white and English-born that I feel free to say cheerfully that there are aspects of foreign countries that seem to me to work better. If I was Pakistani-born and said that about Pakistan, people would look at me suspiciously and wonder if I was an ISIS sleeper.
Having that duality where British Muslims feel a greater allegiance to their "home country" than the country in which they were born, raised and educated is what creates the problems we have now. I feel no more allegiance to India than I do to any other nation in the world outside of the UK. India may be where my family come from (via east Africa), but that doesn't mean I fell more Indian than I do English or British.
This is true for a lot of outside cultures. I can see people in the British Indian community that have the same duality and hold India closer than this country and I don't like that either. I think the difference is that when an Indian does it, there isn't really any conflict between Indian/Hindu/Sikh culture and British culture. The values are different, but compatible. The issue is that Muslim values are not compatible with British culture. On women's rights, gay rights, transgender rights, respect for other cultures and tolerance/acceptance of Jews there are massive and unbridgeable differences between what British people consider acceptable and what Muslim people consider acceptable.
By contrast, the online companies trotted out the same, wrong, figures day after day with extraordinary regularity: literally just a point at most up or down throughout almost the entire campaign. It was as if they'd damped or adjusted out every movement, whether real or not.
Well that's exactly what YouGov did, by design. They froze their General Election panel base to those who had completed a mega-survey in January, and surveyed samples of that panel to see who amongst them had changed their vote.
Quite apart from the fact that this fossilised the original erroneous sample, I would also worry that this introduces an observer effect in that people who are frequently polled might be less willing to admit that they had changed their mind (as this is often associated with weakness).
Whatever else it is, I think Britishness is about tolerance and adhering to the once-important idea that anything is legal unless it is illegal.
We wouldn't be having this exchange without the terrorism angle. When I walk through Chinatown I don't worry that such separation is a breeding ground for extremism, radicalisation, etc, etc. I think - how nice: very colourful, great char siu bao.
I don't think that the Chinese are going to subvert our culture and I don't mind that many don't integrate and perhaps there are many families living together, the elder members of which can only speak Hokkien, because generally they don't want to overthrow the state by force.
(snip for length)
Really good post IMO. I think the fight against terrorism and criminality like FGM is actually hindered by the attempt to tag on to it grumbles about different cultural habits and lack of integration. If I were a moderate Muslim, I'd feel annoyed and alienated by the attempt to make me "more English" - I'll be as English as I like and no more, that's bloody part of being English.
In fact, it's because I'm white and English-born that I feel free to say cheerfully that there are aspects of foreign countries that seem to me to work better. If I was Pakistani-born and said that about Pakistan, people would look at me suspiciously and wonder if I was an ISIS sleeper.
Having that duality where British Muslims feel a greater allegiance to their "home country" than the country in which they were born, raised and educated is what creates the problems we have now. I feel no more allegiance to India than I do to any other nation in the world outside of the UK. India may be where my family come from (via east Africa), but that doesn't mean I fell more Indian than I do English or British.
This is true for a lot of outside cultures. I can see people in the British Indian community that have the same duality and hold India closer than this country and I don't like that either. I think the difference is that when an Indian does it, there isn't really any conflict between Indian/Hindu/Sikh culture and British culture. The values are different, but compatible. The issue is that Muslim values are not compatible with British culture. On women's rights, gay rights, transgender rights, respect for other cultures and tolerance/acceptance of Jews there are massive and unbridgeable differences between what British people consider acceptable and what Muslim people consider acceptable.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
APD makes no difference whatsoever to me , it going will help poorer people afford flights.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics has shown that the SNP’s plan to halve air passenger duty would save the top 20% of earners £73 whilst the poorest would save just £4.50.
Irrelevant, what is that as a proportion of income? I suspect that £4.50 is a higher proportion of income for the poorest 20% than £73 is for the richest 20%. So cutting the tax is a progressive policy like cutting taxes generally is. Good Tory-lite policy.
Ha Ha Ha Carlotta is using the barmy Labour numbers to rubbish the SNP, you could not make it up , a chump could refute them in no time.
''Even in moderate Muslim countries (Malaysia) you can detect a sneering insolence, this manic desire to see themselves superior despite all evidence. Thence springs Islamism.''
You don;t need to go to Malaysia for that. You can get it in the streets of Poplar.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
APD makes no difference whatsoever to me , it going will help poorer people afford flights.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics has shown that the SNP’s plan to halve air passenger duty would save the top 20% of earners £73 whilst the poorest would save just £4.50.
Yes - but how long before former Labour voters in Scotland wake up to what the Tartan Tories have been up to?
You really are a bumptious oaf. Your assumption that all Scottish people are thick and vote without knowing what is going on is not just offensive. Methinks you have had too much sun in that tax haven and addled what little brain cells you previously had , or maybe just your hatred of all things Scottish blinding you.
Poor old Yoons, lurching between dangerous Lefty SNP bad or Tory lite SNP..er..still bad. Of course in their wee, Tory-surging hearts they know that a SLab revival is the only possible saviour of the Union, hence an outbreak of tartan Tory bollox. They'll be back to 'Socialist Nicola' by the next lunar cycle, they can't help it.
Well that's exactly what YouGov did, by design. They froze their General Election panel base to those who had completed a mega-survey in January, and surveyed samples of that panel to see who amongst them had changed their vote.
Quite apart from the fact that this fossilised the original erroneous sample, I would also worry that this introduces an observer effect in that people who are frequently polled might be less willing to admit that they had changed their mind (as this is often associated with weakness).
Yes, that was absolutely baffling. Even on its own terms, it made no sense at the time - why assume that the vote-share figures at one particular date were an accurate baseline?
Its free in case you had not remembered, you don't need to be rich to be educated in Scotland.
Yet the abolition of fees has done surprisingly little to widen access to higher education. Indeed, since 2011 the proportion of students from state schools entering Scotland’s elite universities has fallen. And while the proportion of university students from non-professional backgrounds has risen by just 0.2 percentage points, to 26.8%, in England it has gone up from 30.9% to 33.1%.
Although the poorest Scottish students are guaranteed an annual income of £7,625—higher than in England—most of this is in the form of loans. The level of non-repayable support has fallen sharply. Grants offered to poor students in Scotland are now worth little more than half those offered to the English. Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a policy analyst, calculates that the net effect of the SNP’s no-fee, low-grant policy is a £20m-a-year transfer from poor students to their richer classmates
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
APD makes no difference whatsoever to me , it going will help poorer people afford flights.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics has shown that the SNP’s plan to halve air passenger duty would save the top 20% of earners £73 whilst the poorest would save just £4.50.
Yes - but how long before former Labour voters in Scotland wake up to what the Tartan Tories have been up to?
You really are a bumptious oaf. Your assumption that all Scottish people are thick and vote without knowing what is going on is not just offensive. Methinks you have had too much sun in that tax haven and addled what little brain cells you previously had , or maybe just your hatred of all things Scottish blinding you.
Poor old Yoons, lurching between dangerous Lefty SNP bad or Tory lite SNP..er..still bad. Of course in their wee, Tory-surging hearts they know that a SLab revival is the only possible saviour of the Union, hence an outbreak of tartan Tory bollox. They'll be back to 'Socialist Nicola' by the next lunar cycle, they can't help it.
Your obliviousness to SNP hypocrisy comes as no surprise.....
Well that's exactly what YouGov did, by design. They froze their General Election panel base to those who had completed a mega-survey in January, and surveyed samples of that panel to see who amongst them had changed their vote.
Quite apart from the fact that this fossilised the original erroneous sample, I would also worry that this introduces an observer effect in that people who are frequently polled might be less willing to admit that they had changed their mind (as this is often associated with weakness).
Yes, that was absolutely baffling. Even on its own terms, it made no sense at the time - why assume that the vote-share figures at one particular date were an accurate baseline?
Well, it was a big sample. So they fell into their own "margin of error" trap - in fact the so-called margin of error is a polite fiction; with all the weighting pollsters do they would thrash the pants off the statistical margin of error provided they had random samples and honest respondents.
Rural Morocco was appalling. Several females in my group hid in their tents and asked me to shop for them. They were too intimidated to buy groceries or gifts.
I'd never go back and never recommend it. I'm no pushover and found it really creepy.
Hmm. I've travelled in most of North Africa and whilst there's the image of hospitality/courtesy, if you're female, it's drowned out by overt misogyny and revolting touching up, letching and treating Western women as sex dolls.
Merkel has imported over a million with this sleazy attitude. And we've seen it here in spades a la Rotherham.
I don't like Islam much. At all. On the other hand there are many people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin I work with who I like a lot. They're basically secular though. I do hope we can find a way to make Islam 'go away' in our society - as in less less in my facer, lees problematical, less annoying. Either Islam itself becomes more accommodating of host culture or it doesn't. If it doesn't I suspect that a much more violent, expulsive credo will take root. Will the Europe of the 21st Century have the pogroms and violence and expulsions it did in the 20th - only this time with Muslims instead of Jews? Maybe. The worst thing is I'd much prefer that than see my daughters lose their personal, sexual and visual freedoms. I'm probably not alone in feeling we've just about reached Peak Muslim.
i used to admire Islam. Genuinely. I have travelled very widely in Islamic countries - Morocco to Indonesia, Syria to Palestine, Turkey to Azerbaijan. i lived in Egypt for a few months. What always struck me was the courtliness, the hospitality, the kindness - such that it put us to shame.
It's all gone now. Islam has mutated, horribly. Even in moderate Muslim countries (Malaysia) you can detect a sneering insolence, this manic desire to see themselves superior despite all evidence. Thence springs Islamism.
Desperately sad. But there it is.
I don't doubt it. I took a young, busty blonde girlfriend to Egypt once. All of Luxor ejaculated spontaneously, while simultaneously trying to ignore her as a mere woman, AND get an obvious look up her skirt.
I speak as a man and for women it must have been very different.
But there WAS something about the hospitality and kindness. The like of which I've seen nowhere else. Ironically, and tragically, Syria was the best of all (I've seen other travellers agree). The nicest, friendliest people EVER.
What a tragedy.
PS the least friendly was Morocco. There's something particularly poisonous when you mix modern mutated Islam with the neuroses of French ex-colonies - an added dash of unjustified arrogance.
Notable that most of the Cologne molesters were Maghrebian.
I don't doubt it. I took a young, busty blonde girlfriend to Egypt once. All of Luxor ejaculated spontaneously, while simultaneously trying to ignore her as a mere woman, AND get an obvious look up her skirt.
I speak as a man and for women it must have been very different.
But there WAS something about the hospitality and kindness. The like of which I've seen nowhere else. Ironically, and tragically, Syria was the best of all (I've seen other travellers agree). The nicest, friendliest people EVER.
What a tragedy.
PS the least friendly was Morocco. There's something particularly poisonous when you mix modern mutated Islam with the neuroses of French ex-colonies - an added dash of unjustified arrogance.
Notable that most of the Cologne molesters were Maghrebian.
A friend of mine (non-Muslim) has been to Iran and said the people were the friendliest he had ever encountered, the only issue he had was that he and his girlfriend had to pretend to be married to get hotel reservations with a double bed rather than a twin room.
My girlfriend (part Turkish) is adamant that she will never go back to Turkey because the men there are all sleazy and tried to touch her when she was just 14.
Can we just pause in this generalisation about Islam?
While some adherents do display the reprehensible behaviours exhibited, others do not.
For example, the world's most populous majority Muslim nation - Indonesia - had a female President before the 'world's greatest exporter of democracy' (sic) - and which may not get one yet.
How would Christians feel if they were all characterised by the more dislikeable members of their faith?
They don't seem to have answered the question why Conservatives were under representated in the poll samples.
Outrage and amusement on Twitter when it was suggested that Tory voters might be more likely to be working and Labour voters more likely to be at home not working...
''The PM insisting that Muslim women learn English and play and equal role in society is just the start here.''
Does anybody on this site, anybody, think a single muslim woman will be deported from the UK in the next five years because they don;t speak English. Just one. With our human rights industry.
Cameron's policy is ludicrous, panicky, illogical nonsense.
Depends on how they play it.
If, for example, adequate understanding of the English language was made a rule of the welfare system, just as the benefit cap and the two-child limit takes effect, a significant number of muslims (especially of Somali, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin) are going to find that they can no longer continue in the way that they have in the UK.
Subtle levers that are basically putting the squeeze on the non-integrationist, least productive but most reproductive groups.
I think the flow of a thousand extremists to Syria is almost a sign of reverse migration for those who will find that they have outworn peoples' tolerance. Each additional change basically forces a choice; integrate or emigrate.
It can't have escaped the notice of many that when families go to Syria, it is large families.
Can we just pause in this generalisation about Islam?
While some adherents do display the reprehensible behaviours exhibited, others do not.
For example, the world's most populous majority Muslim nation - Indonesia - had a female President before the 'world's greatest exporter of democracy' (sic) - and which may not get one yet.
How would Christians feel if they were all characterised by the more dislikeable members of their faith?
I think there are universal Muslim values, but many people from Muslim nations are secular enough to ignore the bits they don't like. That applies, obviously, to the majority of Muslims in this country also. The issue is with the large minority of Muslims in this country (and the majority of those entering Europe) who hold true to the traditional Muslim values system which is incompatible with secular western lifestyle.
Well that's exactly what YouGov did, by design. They froze their General Election panel base to those who had completed a mega-survey in January, and surveyed samples of that panel to see who amongst them had changed their vote.
Quite apart from the fact that this fossilised the original erroneous sample, I would also worry that this introduces an observer effect in that people who are frequently polled might be less willing to admit that they had changed their mind (as this is often associated with weakness).
Yes, that was absolutely baffling. Even on its own terms, it made no sense at the time - why assume that the vote-share figures at one particular date were an accurate baseline?
Not only that. I was regularly surveyed by YouGov. After a while you get survey fatigue if you are asked the same questions three times in 5 weeks. I suspect I took less care over doing the second and even less over the third..
''I've no idea how being a Muslim became a protected class. It seemed to creep up on us and took control. ''
Well that's easy. You could lose your career for expressing the sentiments on here today in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or your liberty.
It started happening when some - not all, let's be clear - Muslims used violence when something happened that they didn't like. Rushdie and the fatwa and the book-burning on the streets of Bradford.
And shamefully the reaction of the political class, both Tory and Labour, was to appease rather than face down. Violence worked. As did the threat of it - "It's not us but others less restrained, they're young, you know, and hard to control - might react badly". And the fear of it.
"From Fatwa to Jihad" by Kenan Malik describes the process very well.
YouGov – The idea of tracking a panel over time was presumably to pick up changes. But the panel was self-selected, not random. I would guess that the propensity of such people to change their opinion would be rather less than that of the voting population at large, and that most changes that were observed were nothing more than the result of the random sampling of that panel. So a polling echo chamber with little bearing on voter opinions at large.
p.s. I realise this comment adds little to TissuePrice's 11:18 post.
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
APD makes no difference whatsoever to me , it going will help poorer people afford flights.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics has shown that the SNP’s plan to halve air passenger duty would save the top 20% of earners £73 whilst the poorest would save just £4.50.
Yes - but how long before former Labour voters in Scotland wake up to what the Tartan Tories have been up to?
You really are a bumptious oaf. Your assumption that all Scottish people are thick and vote without knowing what is going on is not just offensive. Methinks you have had too much sun in that tax haven and addled what little brain cells you previously had , or maybe just your hatred of all things Scottish blinding you.
You Tartan Tory You!
Free Prescriptions for the Middle Class! Free University Education for Middle Class Children! Cut Price APD for Middle Class holiday makers!
Paid for by cutbacks on health and education for the poor....
Does the Daily Mail write SNP policy?
Only cuts to education and health are due to the real Tory cuts imposed by Westminster
How long before our friends on the Left in Scotland who vote SNP finally twig that the SNP is all about middle class perks?
Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to match "record with rhetoric" on tax in the first debate between party leaders ahead of the Holyrood elections in May.
The SNP leader and First Minister came under pressure to set out "progressive" policies during the event hosted by Dundee University Students' Association.
SNP plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) were criticised by opposition leaders during the debate at the University of Dundee.
not as callous and uncaring as the rabid right wingers down south
Release your inner Tory Malcolm....you know the APD cut will benefit other middle class folks like you, while it'll be the poor, who cant afford to fly who will pay - as they already are in declining numbers going into tertiary education.....in caring (sic) SNP Scotland.....
You should look at reality on education instead of listening to Labour drivel.
I know, I know, its working class Vocational Course numbers that are down while Middle Class Degree courses are steady (albeit with fewer poor students.....)
PS: Like Labour she can make up any fairy story given they will have ZERO chance of ever having to implement them.
Good morning all. I couldn't care less about Scottish educational policy, but it's a good place to express my general frustration about the death of non-academic F.E. courses.
Our local F.E. used to offer a raft of things like 'spinning and weaving', which while supremely useless in that dreary, Brownian universe where humans are merely economic units-of-measure, were still wonderful places where older people could meet, learn and socialise.
All the college provided was a classroom - people funded the tutor themselves. It's a shame that we can't appreciate the intangibles that things like knitting classes provide.
Use your own house or rent a hall/room yourself. My taxes should not be getting used to provide recreation for rich old codgers looking for friends or something to do. Join a club.
I might know you'd get the wrong end of the stick, you sour, misanthropic wanker.
Comments
Well that's easy. You could lose your career for expressing the sentiments on here today in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or your liberty.
Merkel has imported over a million with this sleazy attitude. And we've seen it here in spades a la Rotherham.
I've never experienced this from Hindus or Sikhs or any other culture.
Free Prescriptions for the Middle Class!
Free University Education for Middle Class Children!
Cut Price APD for Middle Class holiday makers!
Paid for by cutbacks on health and education for the poor....
Does the Daily Mail write SNP policy?
It was difficult to place the FDP, we don't really have a party like that. UKIP pre-2009 might be the closest.
Quite apart from the fact that this fossilised the original erroneous sample, I would also worry that this introduces an observer effect in that people who are frequently polled might be less willing to admit that they had changed their mind (as this is often associated with weakness).
......but is it possible Middle Class People take more flights than poor people?
Hence the difference in the Middle Class APD tax cut benefit?
And why not?
After all the Scottish Middle Class are getting free prescriptions and free university education for their kids!.....
You don;t need to go to Malaysia for that. You can get it in the streets of Poplar.
Although the poorest Scottish students are guaranteed an annual income of £7,625—higher than in England—most of this is in the form of loans. The level of non-repayable support has fallen sharply. Grants offered to poor students in Scotland are now worth little more than half those offered to the English. Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a policy analyst, calculates that the net effect of the SNP’s no-fee, low-grant policy is a £20m-a-year transfer from poor students to their richer classmates
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21670045-scrapping-tuition-fees-has-helped-rich-students-expense-poor-ones-costly-promise
#scottpeedamus
I'd never go back and never recommend it. I'm no pushover and found it really creepy.
@georgeeaton: And some pollsters believe they may still be overstating Labour's share.
My girlfriend (part Turkish) is adamant that she will never go back to Turkey because the men there are all sleazy and tried to touch her when she was just 14.
While some adherents do display the reprehensible behaviours exhibited, others do not.
For example, the world's most populous majority Muslim nation - Indonesia - had a female President before the 'world's greatest exporter of democracy' (sic) - and which may not get one yet.
How would Christians feel if they were all characterised by the more dislikeable members of their faith?
The whole WheeshtForIndy campaign is hilarious.
This adds nothing to human knowledge.
They don't seem to have answered the question why Conservatives were under representated in the poll samples.
'Iranophobia': the fear of being hung from a crane for being gay or of being killed by IRG for being Syrian https://t.co/4PaWkTWoTG
Women offered as sex slaves to the top three winners of a Koran memorisation competition in Mosul, says UN https://t.co/mJ3AoWNwZL
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/the-great-scottish-blog-war/
If, for example, adequate understanding of the English language was made a rule of the welfare system, just as the benefit cap and the two-child limit takes effect, a significant number of muslims (especially of Somali, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin) are going to find that they can no longer continue in the way that they have in the UK.
Subtle levers that are basically putting the squeeze on the non-integrationist, least productive but most reproductive groups.
I think the flow of a thousand extremists to Syria is almost a sign of reverse migration for those who will find that they have outworn peoples' tolerance. Each additional change basically forces a choice; integrate or emigrate.
It can't have escaped the notice of many that when families go to Syria, it is large families.
New Thread New Thread
I suspect I took less care over doing the second and even less over the third..
And shamefully the reaction of the political class, both Tory and Labour, was to appease rather than face down. Violence worked. As did the threat of it - "It's not us but others less restrained, they're young, you know, and hard to control - might react badly". And the fear of it.
"From Fatwa to Jihad" by Kenan Malik describes the process very well.
p.s. I realise this comment adds little to TissuePrice's 11:18 post.