Friday, January 8, 2010

"There was this economist in my taxi the other day and he said..."

Roger Nightingale, apparently an economist and strategist at Pointon York:
"The English would vote 80 percent in favor of Scottish devolution," Nightingale said. "They'd say 'go and shut the door behind you.'"

Can anyone spot the rather obvious mistake?
And where did that 80% come from?

Do read the rest of the article...from CNBC too, tut, tut…

4 comments:

Craig McGill said...

Oh FFS! And that's an educated guy?

O'Neill said...

Even intelligent guys come up with nonsense sometimes about subjects which they obviously have no clue about- it's more CNBC's fault for regarding it worthy of publication.

Unknown said...

80% of such statistics are completely made up and just a reflection of the writer's prejudices.

However, genuine independent professional polls have shown that after Devolution around two-thirds of the English Electorate now want an English Parliament.

So at least his dubious "80%" statistic has some basis in factual grievances.

And as for:

The English should be given the choice of whether to separate from Scotland via a vote, instead of just Scotland choosing whether to break away from England, he added.

"I think this is outrageous. You ought to ask the Scots and the English… why should you just ask one side?" he said.

"When people are getting divorced you don't just go and ask one of them whether he or she wants to be separate, you ask them both. At least you do if you want it to be an amicable separation,"


...I couldn't agree more - with the Northern Irish and Welsh also getting their say. The Union should be based on the consent of all parties. Constantly pandering to one member whilst ignoring all the others is just unacceptable.

O'Neill said...

It was a shoddy piece that read as if it been written in a pub, not the kind of economic analysis you'd expect from a respected business site. It's a relevant topic but if they're going to cover it in a polemic style they should at least get someone in who know what he's talking about...like yourself for example!