Quickly on Scotland

Not much time for proper comment today but I noticed this in Scottish Socialist Voice which may be of interest to some readers.

"New Holyrood poll confirms fighting chance for SSP

"A poll conducted by ICM for The Scotsman at the end of January, finds that 5 per cent of respondents intend to vote for the Scottish Socialist Party in the Holyrood elections in May.

"The SSP polled 3 per cent for the first vote, the constituency seats, and 3 per cent for the second vote, the regional lists.

"But the background reveals that the first 3 per cent is not a duplicate of the second 3 per cent, and something more like 5 per cent intend to vote our way, putting us in line with the Greens who, unlike the SSP, have had only positive media coverage since 2003.

"Given the anger at the government, it is no surprise to see Labour being outpolled by the SNP in both votes, to the tune of 34 to 31 per cent in the first vote, and 33 to 28 per cent in the second.

"Solidarity, the party formed by Tommy Sheridan when he broke from the SSP, polled at 0 per cent."

You can read the actual poll here. I'm surprised that the Greens aren't polling better, particularly at the General Election voter intention, but am delighted to see the SSP are still registering after the terrible year they had last year.