A PRO-INDEPENDENCE pollster is raising funds to carry out research amid "a lack of interest from the media".
James Kelly of ScotGoesPop is looking to poll the Scottish public on the Union, as well as key issues relating to it, such as interference by the Queen and royal family.
Donations to his website's 2021 fundraiser will go towards general costs and polls on independence.
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Kelly said: "There's been no independence poll for over a month now, and we can expect Scottish polling to slow to a trickle over the remainder of the year given the lack of interest in independence that much of the media is displaying.
“It's important to know where we stand.
“I'd also like to ask questions about other topical issues of interest to independence supporters, for example the apparent interference of the royal family in the indyref debate."
Kelly has stressed that the cash people put towards this poll will not be used for separate research that he is looking to conduct on reform of the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland.
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He added: "People can be assured that the funds earmarked for each poll will be used as intended. Both polls will take place and are separate projects. Going forward I'm fundraising for the independence poll again."
The most recent poll conducted on whether Scotland should be independent was by Panelbase on behalf of The Sunday Times, carried out between June 16 and 24.
That survey showed Yes on 45%, No on 48% and 7% as undecideds – making it all to play for.
On the fundraising page for ScotGoesPop, Kelly says: [ScotGoesPop] is one of the most-read and also one of the oldest pro-independence websites in Scotland.
“It began way back in 2008, but gained in popularity in 2013 when I launched the Scot Goes Pop Poll of Polls for voting intentions in the independence referendum," he said.
“I had become quite cynical about the way anti-independence newspapers repeatedly seized on individual No-friendly polls as 'proof' that the campaign was supposedly over before it had even started. The intention was clearly to sap the morale of Yes campaigners.
“The Poll of Polls was a useful corrective, helping to put unfavourable polls in their proper context by comparing them to the average numbers across all polling firms, and emphasising the high degree of uncertainty about the true state of public opinion.
“More recently, Scot Goes Pop has also commissioned several polls of its own with your help. One of them was the first poll to show that the events of the pandemic had pushed Yes back into the lead, and turned out to be the first in an unprecedented long unbroken sequence of polls reporting a pro-independence majority.”
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