Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Remarkable FOI. The SNP independence paper questions and answers claims that the EU are silent on the need for your own currency to join the EU. So I asked if they had looked at Chapter 17 of the entry requirements… and they hadn’t. You can’t make this up. 120
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 27/10/2025rwbblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-... New blog post on how many people are misreading the self-financing state.rwbblog.blogspot.comThe Self-financing fallacyTaxes Don’t Destroy Money — They Deposit It in a Dead-Zone Drawer Economists love a good magic trick; the trouble is, too many nationalists ... 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 04/10/2025At request from the other place. Darren, I'm checking in with you on Linkedin because I've tried to connect with you as I want to discuss these false and libellous allegations you are making against me. You can see that your connection request is pending and has been for some time. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 02/10/2025My friend Phil has asked me to post this so he can show it to you. I've told you in the past that I don't need the stress of this crap given my condition. Please don't tell terminally ill people to get well soon, it's disrespectful. I'm not @Nat_Rattler and you know I'm not, just cut the crap. 100
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 29/09/2025They’re giving us hope again. I want to believe, I do, I do. But I’m just been hurt so many times in the past. #Jambos #HMFC #Hope 110
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/08/2025Week 31 of the SubPoll series. SNP flattening continues. Reform still nudging Labour into third place and LibDems pushing the Tories into 5th spot. The underlyings are also showing the Tories really on a downward spiral right now and they need a hell of a change shortly to get out of it. 320
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 23/07/2025Week 30 of the #SubPollSeries for Scotland. SNP and Labour stall whilst Reform pops up again to take second place. Translates into a hung Scottish Parliament again with Labour just the opposition but Reform getting very close as well. Liberals looking like the 3rd unionist party on voting terms. 020
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 16/07/2025You wait for one #SubPollSeries and two come along within a couple of days. #Week29 is here (there may be some further tweaks) but nothing more remarkable than before. Indyvoting is going nowhere fast. The split unionist vote is currently gifting the SNP the Parliament. 010
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Well hello there. Looks like it's time for another #SubPollSeries, Week 28. The fall of Reform in Scotland is really quote obvious now, as we've seen from the underlying trends, Labour have cemented their position as the second party of Scotland since their by-election win. 220
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 08/07/2025Bonkers! We are not having enough kids!!! Stop putting up social barriers! 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/07/2025bsky.app/profile/neil... Just bonkers timing from Flynn. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/07/2025It's all a bit Partridge: "needless to say I had the last laugh" but FINALLY we have absolute and definitive proof that the SNP have been lying to and playing vulnerable #WASPI women. Jeane Freeman, Mhairi Black, Blackford and Flynn should be ashamed. rwbblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...rwbblog.blogspot.comThe Great WASPI Cover-Up - Part 4: A Decade On, No More ExcusesI know, it’s been a while. But I’m nothing but patient! Almost a decade since I first exposed the SNP’s dodgy dance around the WASPI issue... 100
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/07/2025www.blogger.com/blog/post/ed... It's all a bit Partridge: "needless to say I had the last laugh" but FINALLY we have absolute and definitive proof that the SNP have been lying to and playing vulnerable #WASPI women. Jeane Freeman, Mhairi Black, Iain Blackford and Stephen Flynn should be ashamed.blogger.comBloggerWeblog publishing tool from Google, for sharing text, photos and video. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Literal ‘Midnight sun’ in Fort William on the 3rd of July. A meteor lights up the sky at 00:50. 010
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Week 27 of the #SubPollSeries Reform continues to fall back in Scotland with the SNP the main beneficiaries. This is in line with the latest Scotland only poll by IPSOS but they, like the media, missed their mid month bump. Labour are number two, just, in Scotland. Tories look finished. 130
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 01/07/2025With the IPSOS poll out today I've updated the long poll database. We're still looking at the "Yes" vote at at or just above 45%, alongside some rather shall we say interesting pro-yes weighting. In effect the Yes vote is flat as a pancake and of little interest to all but a quarter of Scots. 111
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 25/06/2025Week26 on the #SubPollSeries and I think we can confirm that we are looking at the Reform vote in Scotland on the way back down. Labour have taken back 2nd place in Scotland as they and the SNP have benefitted from the collapse of the Tories and fall of Reform. The media are missing this change. 132
Reposted by Neil LovattSam Taylor @staylorish.bsky.social · 24/06/2025The Scottish Government binned a significant pledge to get a grip on the size of the public sector workforce, said it was because of inflation (which makes absolutely no sense at all), and then just let headcount continue to balloon.🧵on this extraordinary incompetence… 123
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 24/06/2025Slashing immigration whilst watching your population decline due to a collapsed fertility rate. This is madness. 010
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 20/06/2025The first post Hamilton by-election #SubPollSeries and there are two simultaneous but separate sub-polls showing Reform collapsing in Scotland. This might be a freak like tossing 4 coins and getting 4 heads but it looks quite significant. Main beneficiary seems to be the SNP... 100
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 15/06/2025Hi @devolvedelections.bsky.social, can I ask about your tactical voting modifier. It says that the voter may switch to a larger party where the result is close, but what does that mean? Is it the larger party in anti/pro union voting, anti Tory voting or something else? 110
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 13/06/2025Well, it's taken a while to get the data for the #SubPollSeries for Week 24 but it's worth it, the first numbers since the Hamilton by-election and Reform are charging ahead. Now well ahead of Labour, the underlying data is showing an even stronger showing for them. 100
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 09/06/2025When you try to argue that the UK imposes spending or tax figures on the Scottish Government in GERS. It ends thus... 010
Reposted by Neil LovattJimmy Reid Foundation @reidfoundation.bsky.social · 05/06/2025UK Pension Schemes Bill will consolidate Local Government Pension Scheme (England) assets in six pools that can invest in local areas infrastructure, housing and clean energy. In Scotland, assets are spread in too many funds, as we highlighted here. reidfoundation.scot/2025/01/pens...reidfoundation.scotPension Fund Investment and the Economy – The Jimmy Reid Foundation 022
Reposted by Neil LovattSam Taylor @staylorish.bsky.social · 08/06/20251/ This is not just a theoretical point. In 2013, leaked cabinet papers revealed John Swinney was contemplating massive cuts to the state pension, benefits, and public sector employment in the event of Scotland voting for independence. He went ahead and campaigned for it anyway… 2105
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 07/06/2025To understand why there is a 10%ish gap between an indyref voting and 'how would you vote. Then the answer is probably here. Half of voters effectively don't want one at all. Only 20% actually want one, the remainder want it in the long grass. 221
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Using the great @devolvedelections.bsky.social model the #SubPollSeries for Week 23 has a bit more colour and info. I've translated the WM voting intention to a Scottish voting intention for constituency and list and come on with view of the Scottish Parliament. Still a work in progress! 021
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2025I’ve been playing with the Devolved Elections tool and taking the implied Scottish Parliament election results from the #SubPollSeries. Fascinating results. SNP minority and pro-indy majority despite a collapse in the vote. Reform official opposition! devolvedelections.co.uk/about/ 010
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2025A 17% drop in SNP support would put the SNP on around 31% today across Scotland…. Oh hello! #SubPollSeries Does anyone else need proof that this works? 030
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 06/06/2025This is in line with the polls… but who the hell saw this coming! 152
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 04/06/2025OK you lucky people #SubPollSeries Week 23 is in now. With More In Common turning up a bit earlier than usual. This tempers off some of the earlier polling. SNP are down and Reform are the main beneficiaries and have taken over Labour as the second party. Pro-Indy voting hasn't really moved. 110
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 04/06/2025OK, just an early update. THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL post for #SubPollSeries Week 23, but thus far it looks like Reform are spiking. The averaging of the series understates this a little but the underlying recent data shows them and the SNP peeling away. Are both sides coalescing????? 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 03/06/2025I can't get my hands on the Norstat tables, but here's something odd from the last tables they published. Unweighted tables show the normal PanelBase enthusiasm bias that they usually get. But they weight it reasonably well on the 2014 vote. But the (last col) "Change" is the issue... 111
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 02/06/2025ScotGov evolving position on the child cap: 1. We can't get rid of the child cap, it's reserved. 2. We can't because we need data from WM which we havent asked for. 3. We can't get rid of it... 'at source' 4. We are going to scrap the cap. You bet I've got FOIs on it and a case at the ICO! 210
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 02/06/2025Wee update to #SubPollSeries for Week 22. including Opinium. This gives the nudge to Reform and puts them just ahead of Labour again. Good news is that this is very much in line with the latest Scotland only polling from Norstat over the weekend. So it's looking robust. 010
Reposted by Neil LovattSam Taylor @staylorish.bsky.social · 30/05/2025“It is incumbent on SNP politicians to explain what changes they would implement [under full fiscal autonomy] to put things on a stable footing. Arm-waving talk about “levers” is not good enough. Which levers? And in which direction?” 241
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 29/05/2025When asked which questions I hadn’t answered… Answer there came back none. 010
Reposted by Neil LovattSam Taylor @staylorish.bsky.social · 29/05/2025This extraordinary performance by Shona Robison (watch all 7 excruciating minutes) should really be leading to calls for her to be sacked. But of course it isn’t. Her job is 100% secure because this kind of incompetence is just expected and tolerated in the Scottish Government. 173
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 29/05/2025"Neil, you don't debate. You lie, conflate, ignore, get obtuse, change the subject, get angry, then you get vitriolic. You're a very toxic person." Well now. And apparently I'm the angry one in this relationship! 020
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 29/05/2025There's a lot of people getting excited about Prof Black's lecture at the Salvo conference. 1. The 'absorption' case is anything but new and the foundation of the UK case in 2014 to say that rUK would be the continuing state. 2. The 'case' is a vague final drop in on 'resources' with no backing. 020
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 28/05/2025What do we want! - The #SubPollSeries for Week 21!!! When do we want it? - NOW!!!! No need to shout because here it is. At first glance this looks like its not that newsworthy and then you see that the Tories and Liberal Democrats are now neck and neck in Scotland. Is this the end for them? 200
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 25/05/2025Oh well. This gets you blocked. How I dare I ask. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 24/05/2025Definitely worth noting that the Greens look like there are on a sustained rise in Scotland. They are still sitting on an average of 7% but that's after sitting at 5% for sone time. 000
Reposted by Neil LovattNeil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 23/05/2025James, I hear that you are back on the BnB ‘revelation’. But it’s no secret. I live in a house where my wife runs a BnB. I’m not involved with the business but I do meet and speak to the guests as well as offering them local advice. This isn’t work or me “running” anything. I’m just being nice. 001
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 23/05/2025Been behind on this due to my work on the #SubPollSeries but here is this #IndyLongPoll - this shows the average decline in the Yes vote through the second quarter of the year. That's in line with what we've been seeing for the pro-indy parties. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 23/05/2025Apparently this needs clarity for "Iain". I don't run a BnB nor am I employed by it, I'm completely useless at any or all aspects of it. I do live here though, but I'm not sure that it should come as a surprise to anyone. 000
Neil Lovatt @neillovatt.bsky.social · 21/05/2025And here we go with Week 21 of the #SubPollSeries. SNP and Greens trading votes (with the Greens picking up the advanatge) but the real story is the continued collapse of the Tories which seems to be benefitting Reform but only a little. Even so Reform are now just in second place in Scotland. 000