How Scottish newspapers are out of touch with their readers politics

by Murray Ritchie

on http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.com

The notoriously anti-democratic bias of Scotland’s newspapers is exposed by a remarkable set of figures in a recent YouGov opinion poll.

The survey shows that the SNP is clearly the most popular party among readers of Scotland’s indigenous daily newspapers – the Herald, Scotsman, Press and Journal, Courier, and Daily Record.

Yet the Scottish press remains unanimously and implacably opposed to the SNP’s flagship policy of independence. Not one paper in the country reflects the main political aspiration of its own readership. It could only happen in Scotland.

The figures are truly astonishing. So here are the figures, published for the first time.The survey was conducted by YouGov on the back of a recent poll commissioned by the SNP on voting intentions for the Scottish general election.

Pollsters asked 1063 respondents across Scotland from March 27-30 which newspaper they read. They were then asked which party they supported.The results show that even the slavishly pro-Labour Daily Record’s readers prefer the SNP to Labour by 40% to 37% in the constituencies (and 39% to 36% in the regions).

Readers of Scotland on Sunday are the most pro-SNP of any newspaper surveyed. Yet SoS continues to adopt a stridently unsympathetic approach to independence while its readers show a simple majority in favour of the SNP - 52% in the constituencies compared with Labour’s 15%, and 47% in the regions compared with Labour’s 20%. SoS is the only paper with an overall majority of SNP voters.The Scotsman, once the Union’s most passionate supporter in the days of Andrew Neil, has a readership of whom 42% favour the Nationalists over Labour’s 19% in the constituencies. In the regions the Scotsman’s figures are 37% and 22% in the SNP’s favour.

And what of The Herald? The survey suggests 45% of its readers in the constituencies back the SNP (Labour 22%). The Herald’s regional figures are SNP 37% and Labour 21%.Other titles - Aberdeen Press and Journal, Dundee Courier, the “Scottish” Daily Express, Sunday Herald, Sunday Times, News of the World, Sunday Mail, Mail on Sunday, and the Sunday Post - show similar majorities for the SNP over the other parties.

Will our editors now show a little more balance, thus reflecting the sympathies of their readers?

Well, what do you think?