I’M not surprised John Curtice will be given a knighthood in the New Year Honours List (Knighthood for Scots political expert who got it right on election night”, The National, December 30). In the 2016 election he exhorted us all not to give both votes to the SNP because the second vote would be lost, but to vote for an alternative party as our second choice. Obviously thousands of people took his advice, with disastrous consequences for the SNP.
However knowledgeable Prof Curtice is in his field, we should all remember that he was expressing an opinion, albeit a very welcome one to the establishment, so he appeared on just about every media outlet and his views were front-page news in every newspaper in Scotland and rUK, thus drowning out the voice of the SNP not to take his advice.
Every person who has attended any university anywhere, at any time, knows that one learned professor’s view will almost certainly be contested by other equally eminent professors. He is a statistician not a seer.
So, naturally, the establishment has rewarded one of its own. I wonder what he’ll predict next?
Lovina Roe
Perth
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