NEW British least likely in the world to think referendums are a good way of settling political issues https://t.co/9IPhhXzwNS #BrexitDividend pic.twitter.com/JOFMyIJl1E

— Ben Page, Ipsos MORI (@benatipsosmori) August 2, 2021

That we British are the least likely in the world to think referendums are a good way settling political issues has left me shocked in a way only matched by the time Captain Renault discovered gambling was taking place in Rick’s Cafe.

After the rancour following the Brexit plebiscite you can understand why the polling shows what it does.

What I would really like to see and have suggested to Ipsos MORI is that they conduct a full scale Scotland poll asking this question. Scotland in the last decade (well in a five year time frame) had a trilogy of three potentially nation changing plebiscites. The Scottish Independence referendum, the aforementioned Brexit referendum, and primus inter pares, the Alternative Vote referendum.

Some in Scotland would like see a Scotland experience a tetralogy* of plebiscites in the near future so a full scale Scotland poll with this question would be great to see, I suspect there’d be some plebiscite fatigue either way.

TSE

*Tetralogy is further proof of why we should study ancient Greek more rather than Latin with their inelegant words like quadrilogy.