[SCOT goes POP!] Professor Robertson is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts

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Professor Robertson is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts

You might have seen yesterday that Professor John Robertson, well known for his long-running blog Global Ferry News, left two comments here in a fairly unsubtle attempt to sabotage the new Scot Goes Pop general fundraiser for 2024.  It seems his bitterness towards this blog is now so severe that he literally wants it to cease to exist, and is taking active steps to attempt to bring that outcome about.  I gave him a piece of my mind, and told him that if he really wanted to open up a conversation about whether each individual pro-independence blog has any worth or value, it was high bloody time that someone explained to him that a blog obsessively seeking out obscure stories about faults with ferries in New Zealand, the Channel Islands and Bulgaria is unlikely to be of any use whatsoever in bringing about Scottish independence.  It doesn't make the Scottish Government's handling of the ferry situation look less bad in a relative sense, it just makes himself look a bit odd.

What you may not have seen, though, is that Professor Robertson also left a couple of comments on an older thread while he was here.  Curiously, he was angry with me for my blogpost about the Survation poll showing the SNP lead extending their lead over Labour from two to five points.  Even though my post was largely positive for the SNP, he was furious that I had added a caveat that Survation had recently been more favourable for the SNP than some other pollsters and there was thus no guarantee that another firm polling at the same time would have shown the SNP ahead.  It seems that "largely positive for the SNP" is not enough to meet the Prof's exacting requirements - he expects nothing less than unadulterated propaganda from us all.

Every single pollster has had the SNP ahead for as long as anyone can remember!, the Prof harrumphed.  Well, at least since November!, he hurriedly added.  I pointed out to him that, in fact, polls from Redfield & Wilton and Norstat have shown the SNP behind Labour since then.  A few hours later he came back to absurdly bellow that ALL Redfield & Wilton polls have shown the SNP ahead!  ALL of them!  He's moving into Comical Ali territory at this stage.  For the avoidance of doubt, the result of the most recent Redfield & Wilton poll, conducted 3rd-4th February, was Labour 34%, SNP 33%, Conservatives 18%, Liberal Democrats 8%.  The Norstat poll conducted in late January showed: Labour 36%, SNP 33%, Conservatives 16%, Liberal Democrats 7%.

Nobody can stop Professor Robertson from making claims that are flatly untrue.  But it's important that people understand the nature of his propaganda - he's going beyond putting the most positive spin on facts, and has started inventing facts of his own.  That's a dangerous, and dare I say Trumpian, game.

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Source: Professor Robertson is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts