Scot Goes Pop Fundraiser 2025

Hi, my name is James Kelly and for seventeen years I've been writing the pro-independence blog Scot Goes Pop, which according to SimilarWeb's estimates is one of the five most-read political blogs in Scotland. With its distinct focus on opinion polls (although not to the exclusion of other subjects), it has been able to challenge the conventional narratives about polls that are mostly set by the unionist media.

During the 2014 referendum campaign, I was able to demonstrate that the position was nowhere near as hopeless for the Yes side as was often portrayed by the media, and just after the referendum was over, I was faster than anyone in the mainstream media (I think literally) to spot and point out the extraordinary swing that was occurring from Labour to the SNP.

With your help, Scot Goes Pop has also commissioned several opinion polls of its own from reputable polling firms affiliated to the British Polling Council. Some of these were genuinely landmark polls, for example our poll in June 2020 was the first in the famous long unbroken sequence of Yes-majority polls that lasted for around a year, while the 56% for Yes in our November 2020 poll was the highest ever Yes vote in a Panelbase poll, and one of the highest ever in any type of poll.

In 2021, I also started a 'Scot Goes Popcast' to accompany the blog, in which (among other things) I interviewed a number of fascinating guests including the former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond. There have been numerous spin-offs from the blog - I've been a monthly columnist for iScot magazine since 2017 and I've written extensive poll analysis for The National newspaper since 2015. I've been interviewed for TV and radio, including for BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio Five Live, Al Jazeera, the Bauer radio network and CTV News (Canada).

2025 could be a pivotal year in polling at both Scottish and Britain-wide level. In Scotland, the year begins with expectations having been turned on their head, with most recent polls showing pro-independence parties either on course to retain their Holyrood majority next year, or to come very close to retaining it. If that trend continues, much of the negativity surrounding the independence movement may melt away and we could very soon find ourselves firmly back on the front foot. And across the UK, there's a danger that this could be the year that Reform UK builds up a significant poll lead, making the case for Scottish independence more powerfully than ever before.

With your help, I hope to provide Scot Goes Pop's usual standard of detailed analysis in covering these stories, if they do indeed unfold. The funds raised will help give me the flexibility to drop everything (circumstances permitting!) and post analysis whenever a new poll comes out. It will also help cover various miscellaneous "running costs", such as the small monthly fee for podcast hosting. And if the full target is reached, I will put some of the funds towards commissioning a new poll. Any donations, whether large or small, will be tremendously helpful.

You can learn a bit more about Scot Goes Pop from the promotional video below.