SNP poll ratings are likely to backfire

MUCH is being made of the apparently unassailable lead the SNP seems to be building up in the polls (your report, 
5 March).

Of course, it may be that the majority of Scots who are being polled are unaware of the actual state of affairs in this country since the SNP lost the referendum.

However, if they are, it is unlikely that they can be unaware of the disastrously incorrect predictions about oil prices made by the then First Minister Alex Salmond and now shown to be wildly ­inaccurate.

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Meanwhile, having seen some comments on Facebook by SNP supporters that they are aiming to infiltrate this week’s BBC Question Time programme by pretending to be Labour or Liberal Democrat supporters, I have expressed my concerns to the BBC. 

Some viewers may remember the way that the second TV “debate” before the referendum was similarly commandeered by separatists who appear to have misled the BBC as to their true allegiances and then shouted down former chancellor Alistair Darling in a disgraceful display of mob rule.

I am afraid the pollsters are being similarly misled.

There have been many cases of pollsters being way off-beam in the past. In 1992, there were even some who ­calculated that Labour had won the UK election. 

I have yet to meet anyone who has become a sudden supporter of the SNP and, frankly, I do not believe the polls.

I suspect that, on polling day, the SNP will (as usual) end up with egg on its face. 

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh

WITH the general election only a few weeks away, we are being bombarded with calls for a national television debate and who should and should not be allowed to have their say.

There is limited value in such televised jousts, which are often encouraged to ­descend into a slanging and shouting circus rather than presenting what exactly the parties are offering voters.

While having these live TV debates may have some value, there is little point in having every political party – or seven as proposed – represented as this will serve only to confuse the electorate, with the only dubious benefit being to the TV stations’ ­ratings.

Dennis Forbes Grattan

Mugiemoss Road

Bucksburn, Aberdeen