Ipsos MORI on Scottish Independence

There is a new Scottish Ipsos MORI poll in the Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times highlight that only 20% of people support full Scottish independence, though notably this was not a strauight YES/NO question asking voting intention in a referendum on Scottish independence. Rather it was a question asking about people's broader preference on Scotland's constitutional status - 20% supported independence, 32% the status quo and 46% a higher level of devolution such as that suggested by the Calman commission. This is indeed the lowest level of support for independence I've seen in recent polls, but it's not completely out of line with previous polls - YouGov and the Scottish Social Attitudes survey have both in the past had it as low as 23%.

Asked about whether their should be a referendum at all, 75% supported a referendum, but only 25% wanted it as soon as possible, with 50% saying it should be held in a few years time. Looking at previous polling this seems to be the general pattern - when people are asked about the principle of a referendum they support it (as, indeed, they nearly always do when asked about referendums on almost anything), but asked whether it is a priority to hold it now they tend to say no.