Scots have ‘critically low’ democratic well-being staying in UK but are ‘twice as likely to have high trust’ in SNP Government even after 18 years – How did BBC Scotland cope with this?

Professor John Robertson OBA

From a large survey by Paris-based Ipsos for Carnegie UK, into wellbeing index for Scotland in 2025, highlighting collective wellbeing scores across various domains and demographic factors, BBC Scotland in their BBC Breakfast insert this morning, ignored the document’s built-in ‘Generative Summary‘, from the AI Assistant in order to extract their own agenda-driven headline points:

Wellbeing has improved slightly in spite of the cost of living crisis.

The Scottish Government continues to be trusted more than UK Government although trust in Westminster did improve while it stayed the same for Holyrood.

Democratic well-being has not improved in line with the improvements seen this year in England.

Compare the above with the actual text in the report:

The democratic wellbeing of people in Scotland has remained incredibly low at 40 out of 100 and democratic wellbeing in Scotland has not increased in line with the improvements seen this year in England. In common with the rest of the UK, fewer people in Scotland say they have low trust in the UK Government than in 2024. High trust, while still low at 5%, is markedly higher than it was in 2023. The Scottish Government continues to be more trusted than the UK Government, with people more than twice as likely to have high trust in the Scottish Government than the UK Government. More than a third (36%) have low trust in the Scottish Government, but this is significantly lower than the 52% who have low trust in the UK Government. However, unlike for the UK government there have been no significant improvements in trust in the devolved government.

Look back up to BBC Scotland’s second point and you can see how much work they’ve had to soften the clearly pro-SNP evidence in the report, hiding the scale of the difference and failing to link the negativity to the obvious cause, the Union.

Asked about relative trust in the Westminster and Holyrood governments, the AI Assistant tells us:

Yes, the Scottish Government is trusted more than the UK Government. In 2025, 36% of people in Scotland reported low trust in the Scottish Government, which is significantly lower than the 52% of people who reported low trust in the UK Government. Additionally, people in Scotland were more than twice as likely to have high trust in the Scottish Government compared to the UK Government.

There are other pieces of evidence which BBC Scotland will no be telling you though they are easily found by asking the document to summarise:

Collective Wellbeing Score in Scotland

Scotland’s collective wellbeing score has shown significant improvement, particularly in economic wellbeing.

  • The overall score increased from 61 in 2023 to 63 in 2025, surpassing the UK average for the first time.
  • Economic wellbeing improved from 69 in 2023 to 72 in 2025.
  • Social wellbeing remains high at 75, while environmental wellbeing is at 66.
  • Democratic wellbeing remains critically low at 40, unchanged since 2023.
What might explain the high social wellbeing - universal benefits, falling crime, better NHS than in rUK and so on?
The critically low democratic wellbeing - living in a colony and watching daily you resources being stolen?

Democratic Wellbeing in Scotland

Democratic wellbeing is critically low at 40, with trust in government institutions showing mixed trends.

  • Trust in the UK Government improved, with 52% reporting low trust, an eight-point increase since 2024.
  • Trust in local councils declined, with 34% expressing low trust, a six-point increase since 2023.
  • Only 5% feel they can influence UK decisions, while 13% feel they can influence decisions in Scotland.
Why do only 5% feeling they can influence UK decisions - because only 5% of the population is deluded?

Footnote – There is tellingly no discrete report for England just one for the UK as a whole

Source: https://carnegieuk.org/publication/life-in-the-uk-2025-scotland/

4 thoughts on “Scots have ‘critically low’ democratic well-being staying in UK but are ‘twice as likely to have high trust’ in SNP Government even after 18 years – How did BBC Scotland cope with this?”

  1. People feel disempowered and, sadly, Holyrood governments of all stripes have been very centralising. Across the UK, local government powers have been reduced significantly compared to the powers which, say, Glasgow Corporation exercised between 1850 and 1950. Although local government had significant economic powers they were largely vested in local business men.

    So, for a very long time, despite the powers of parishes following the Reformation, most Scots have not felt they actually had a great deal of agency.

    This feeling has been reinforced by media and other institutions which continuously drip fed the message, ‘you are not very good and are not very capable of managing things for yourselves.’

    The Scottish Government in the nearly 30 years of devolution has shown that despite the shackles of the Scotland Act, that it has been able to achieve a number of significant redistributive things. However, it could, undoubtedly have been bolder, particularly in land reform and taxation. It has been, probably, too cautious.

    The fallacy of the ‘Sewell Convention’ and then the Single Market Act, which the Tories used to stymie Holyrood legislation. This was supported to a fair extent by the Labour Party, even when it was in opposition.

    In this context it is unsurprising that the ‘democratic’ score is low.

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  2. Its all of a whole.

    An imperial government dealing with a colony, and a colonial broadcaster which “manages and manipulates” the news…….so that news stories in England, somehow pop up in Scotland a few days later, LEADING THE NEWS, exaggerated and vastly hyped to appear worse here than the original story down south–A&E waits and waiting lists in general, water shortages, poverty stats, housing et al–all reported as headline news, without context or perspective–all escalated to Ministerial level (unlike England) and without any other levels of responsibilities being questioned–like headmasters, teachers, regional directors or education, Heads of department in hospitals, Health Board bosses, and all the rest.

    England steals our resources, dumb down “our” media and use State moneys, overwhelmingly, to promote growth in England, yet the BBC and the colonial press see nothing and report nothing–a Nelsonian eye…a feck you, Jocko.

    Sarwar, Findley and Cole-Hamilton nod along, content they will ultimately benefit from our small country being looted by their bosses.

    gavinochiltree

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  3. There is a companion report from Carnegie UK on Wales.

    The metric ‘Democratic Well-Being’ is assessed as 40 out of 100 in Scotland and lower, at just 38 out of a 100 in Wales.

    From the report dedicated to Wales, on Page 23: ‘Although people in Wales are a little more likely to feel they can influence decisions affecting the UK than in 2023, they are no more likely to feel that they can influence decisions affecting Wales. In addition, more than one in three people (36%) have low trust in local councils, significantly higher than the UK overall result of 29%.

    ‘Our research suggests that while views towards UK wide institutions have remained relatively stable, trust in devolved democracy in Wales has declined on multiple levels and is alarmingly low.’ (My emphasis)

    And from Page 22 of the Wales report: ’43% of people have low trust in the Welsh Government, seven percentage points higher than in 2023.’

    From the report dedicated to Scotland, Page 23: ‘The Scottish Government continues to be more trusted than the UK Government, with people more than twice as likely to have high trust in the Scottish Government than the UK Government. More than a third (36%) have low trust in the Scottish Government, but this is significantly lower than the 52% who have low trust in the UK Government. However, unlike for the UK government there have been no significant improvements in trust in the devolved government.’ (It would have been quite an achievement for this newly elected Labour government in Westminster NOT to have gained some improvement in trustworthiness after Tory rule!)

    And from Page 22 of the Scotland report: ’36% have low trust in the Scottish Government. This has not changed over the years.’

    Comparing the findings for Wales and Scotland across all metrics used in the study, the percentage differences are mostly quite small.

    By contrast, on ‘democratic well-being’, the scale of difference in levels of ‘low trust’ in the Welsh and Scottish governments is very marked – 43% ‘low trust’ in the Welsh Government versus just 36% ‘low trust’ in the Scottish Government.

    From a reading of the full report on Scotland, there are numerous statements in the text that could readily be used to create positive headlines in BBC Scotland and other MSM output, IF ONLY they could countenance reporting positives.

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