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More findings from our @IpsosMORIScot polling for @BBCScotland – this time evaluations of leaders and government performance, plus whether an indep Scotland would have handled better or worse. A short thread here, and more findings/tables here – https://bit.ly/38Rws2I .
Boris Johnson’s ratings are pretty dreadful. Just 19% of people in Scotland think he’s handled the pandemic well, 62% say badly. (Note: fieldwork was BEFORE the Prime Minister (allegedly) described devolution as ‘a disaster’).
But Nicola Sturgeon continues to attract plaudits from the Scottish public for her handling of the COVID crisis – 74% say she’s handled the pandemic well, 13% badly. So net score of +61 vs Johnson on -43.
Both are a little down on when we asked the question previously (May 2020), but the gap in ratings of the two remains wide. Similar findings are apparent for views of the UKG and SG's handling.
However, the public is not wholly uncritical of how the SG has approached things - half (49%) feel that the tightening of restrictions in Scotland from late September happened too late (5% said too early, 42% felt it was at about the right time)
We also asked whether an independent Scotland would have handled the coronavirus crisis better, worse or would it have made no difference. Overall, 39% say better, 19% worse, and 38% that it would make no difference.
But the interesting bit is that 15% of people who voted No in 2014 say Scotland would have handled it better if it was independent, compared with just 6% of Yes voters think an independent Scotland would have handled it worse. More at https://bit.ly/38Rws2I .
