From the Scottish Government’s Public attitudes to cost of living and other topics: tracker – data tables, based on fieldwork on 3rd to 6th October 2024, with a sample of 1 067 weighted to represent the population in terms of gender, age and social grade, we can draw the following conclusions to inform political campaigning for the 2026 Scottish election.

Only two areas really matter, really seem to concern a significant percentage of the population of all categories and so might influence voting patterns significantly – personal finances and the economy (78%) and within that, the cost of living (55%), general heath concerns (56%) and within that the NHS (41%). For the SNP, the message is clear. Campaigning materials should simply repeat the facts of lower rents and council tax, of same or lower income tax for the majority, of free prescriptions, free tuition, bus passes, 95% NHS dentistry and so on.

The threats of climate change and war, though most political parties are keen to flaunt both green and national security credentials, seem to concern only around 20%, 1 in 5, and less than that among male voters. Pragmatically, the SNP should not enter, again, into anything that looks a coalition with the Greens, a party that appeals to less than 10% of the population.

NHS backlogs do concern the over 65s and over 75s at 32% and 38% but for all of the younger groups, the figure is well under that suggesting that for the SNP, this should be less of a concern and, perhaps, indicate that promoting details of the superior staffing levels and target busting in areas such as operations completed, drug and alcohol treatment and IVF may be worth greater prominence in campaigning literature.

Energy/fuel prices concern around 33% of the younger groups and approaching 50% of older voters. The UK Labour government’s sole responsibility for this and discrimination against Scottish consumers, needs to be upfront in campaigning literature.

Notably, the researchers did not ask about transport issues, such as the CalMac ferries or the A9. This suggests, to me, that despite recent MSM feeding frenzies on these two matters, they did not present as common, in the prior exploratory work undertaken to identify those concerns which are great enough to be worthy of inclusion in the survey. The message for the SNP on both is ‘chill’, talk about other things. Less than 2% of the voters live on Scottish islands, less than that in the CalMac range.

Also, but unsurprisingly this time, the researchers did not ask, in this survey, about trust in politicians but it seems clear from the 2024 General Election that the media demonization of the SNP leadership was effective. Hopefully, they have no such material to work with in 2026 as the current leadership puts miles between them and the previous incumbents.

To conclude, I fully support the efforts of the previous two PMs to fight against forms of discrimination and to eradicate child poverty but, pragmatically, recognising that everything flows from independence and that any apparent distraction from the cost-of-living and health, real or otherwise, can and will be sued against the SNP.

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-attitudes-to-cost-of-living-and-other-topics-tracker-data-tables/