Are Scots tiring of devolution?

As Scottish devolution celebrates its 25th anniversary, are voters losing faith in Holyrood? A quarter of the country believes devolution has been bad for Scotland, with almost half of ‘No’ voters in the independence referendum now disillusioned. New polling for the Sunday Times finds that over a fifth of voters didn’t know if devolving powers to Scotland had been positive or negative, while 50 per cent still believe that overall devolution had been good. 

There was a clear split on the devolution question based on how a person voted in the 2014 referendum, while age provided another dividing line: devolution was unpopular with half of those over 75 years old compared to only 14 per cent of 16-24 year olds. Party politics was relevant too: almost two-thirds of Conservative voters believe that the policy has been negative. This is compared to only 8 per cent of SNP voters, which nonetheless indicates there remains a small group within the independence movement which has always had its doubts about devolution.