scotlandisdifferent

Gisela Stuart told us last night on BBC Radio Four's "Any Questions?" that more people voted Leave in the EU referendum than have ever voted for a UK government before. An impressive statistic, and absolutely right. Here are some figures from General Elections over the last 70 years, showing the number of votes that the winning side took: 1945 11.9m votes 1950 13.2m votes 1992 14.0m votes 2005 9.5m votes 2015 11.3m votes EU Referendum 17.4m votes Between 1945 and 1992 turnout remained steady but the population grew, increasing the winner's number of votes; but since 1992 turnout has decreased faster than the population has grown, reducing the winner's votes. This means that we're not going to see winning numbers of votes like that of 1992 unless there's a dramatic change in turnout. So the winner's number of votes in the EU referendum was indeed a formidable and startling result. Still, maybe we should just cast our glance a little more widely, and get...

Dazzling bit of footwork from Kezia Dugdale on BBC Radio 4 News today, on whether Sturgeon has a mandate to call for another referendum. Surely she has a mandate, the interviewer suggested, because the relevant SNP manifesto said that a material change in circumstances would justify another referendum, and Brexit is such a change? Well, no, said Kezia, because that was only one line in their manifesto, and the line before said that there would need to be support from public opinion, which isn't there. Quite right, Kezia. The line did say that, and that support isn't there. But surely the change in circumstances is there, so we do have the right to a referendum? On the other hand, the public support *isn't* there, so we *don't* have the right to a referendum! My head's spinning, Kezia, with these contradictions - perhaps you can sort me out. No? It's beyond you too? Let's look at the manifesto itself, then. Here's the text: "We believe that the Scott...