Scottish nationalists may want to get the champagne at the ready. Word reaches Steerpike that Andrew ‘Calamity’ Cooper – the serial bungler whose last project was the EU Remain campaign – is being sounded out to lend his expertise to Scots trying to save the union.
The SNP want a referendum within two years; Theresa May has said ‘not yet’ but plans are being made by unionists. Unsurprisingly, Cooper has been at a bit of a loose end since the EU campaign. A campaign is currently being set up in preparation of a second independence referendum — with the working title ‘New Direction’. It’s thought that Populus, Cooper’s firm, is the frontrunner to be the official pollster — thanks in part to the firm being used by Conservatives for focus groups on this and other issues.
Cooper has form in Scotland. It was here that he pioneered Project Fear, a relentlessly negative campaign that put off so many Scots that support for independence rose from 30pc at the start of the campaign to 45pc at the end.
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