Stop Falling for Loaded Questions!
AFFG Director Alistair McConnachie has some advice for our politicians. Learn to spot when the SNP and the media use Loaded Questions – such as "Do the Scottish people have the right to decide their own future – in order to try to get us to agree with their hidden premises, assumptions and implications, to promote policies we do not want!
The new leader of Scottish Labour, Michael Marra, was interviewed by STV (21-9-26) and was asked the loaded question: "Do you think the people of Scotland have the right to decide their country's future?" (1)
He answered, "Yes, I believe that the people of Scotland have the right to decide their future, and they did so in 2014."
John Swinney leapt on this response by melodramatically claiming in a post on X: "This is a hugely significant moment. For the first time since 2014, Scottish Labour accept Scotland's right to decide our own future, just as the Prime Minister has." (2)
Let's look at why, and how, Mr Marra's response to this loaded question could be improved, and why Mr Swinney, the SNP and the Scottish media are just playing word games that we should be able to see through!
WHAT IS A LOADED QUESTION?
When the SNP or the Scottish media ask a politician, "Do you believe the Scots should decide their own future", they are asking what's called a Loaded Question.
What is a Loaded Question?
Google AI tells us that: "a loaded question traps you by embedding an unproven or unagreed-to assumption that you are forced to accept in order to reply."
It tells us…
What it does: It sneaks a hidden premise or hard assumption into the question itself.
The mechanism: It functions as a logical trap; no matter how you answer, you accidentally agree with a statement you might not believe.
How it feels: The respondent feels trapped.
To summarise, we can say that a Loaded Question sneaks a hidden premise and/or assumption, and often an implication, into the question which makes you accidentally agree with another statement or policy that you might not believe or support.
In this case, the hidden premise of the question is that Scots do not already decide their own future. The question deliberately avoids the entire structure of Scottish and British democracy, from local Council elections to Holyrood elections to Westminster elections, as if it doesn't even exist.
It is perfectly correct to answer this question by pointing out that we already do control our own future through these democratic mechanisms. In that regard, people are free to vote for parties which want to leave the UK or stay part of the UK.
The hidden assumption in the question is that it is only through a second referendum that Scots can control their own future.
Again, this ignores the entire structure of democracy which already exists. It is perfectly correct to answer this question by drawing attention to our normal democratic practices and to the fact that we even have a devolved level of government which doesn't exist in England.
In this regard, it is an error for us to suggest, or affirm (as Mr Marra did in his response above) that the last time we "controlled our own future" was in the referendums of 2014 and 1997. The fact is, we do it every time we go to the ballot box at any level; Local, Scottish or British.
The hidden implication of the question is that if you agree with the principle that Scots should decide their own future, then you must also believe that we should have a second referendum, even though the latter is a policy which we definitely do not want to encourage!
A BAD FAITH QUESTION
This is why the SNP politicians and the media do it. It is an obvious attempt to trick us into agreeing with something we would not want to agree to.
It is not a question being asked in good faith.
Asking "Do you believe the Scottish people should decide their own future" is absolutely not the same as asking whether you agree there should be another referendum on the vexed question of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, with all the issues that would entail. The first is a principle, the second is a policy.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Learn to spot "Loaded Questions" – questions which sneak in hidden premises and assumptions and implications – in order to entrap us into agreeing with related but different matters which serve the purposes of the interviewer or political opponent.
It seems many of our politicians have yet to understand these word games!
MR MARRA'S RESPONSE, EXAMINED
Therefore, to go back to Mr Marra's response...
He did not call out the question or push back.
Instead, he immediately adopted the SNP (and STV's) question framing with its hidden premise that we don't already decide our future. He immediately adopted its assumption that it is only through a referendum that we can control our future. He even adopted its implication that because we believe all these incorrect things then we should have a second referendum if sufficient people want one.
We know that Mr Marra has internalised all of these things, including the implication of another referendum as a consequence of these incorrect beliefs, because he even went on to say – incredibly – that it was for the SNP to do the "hard yards" in order to build the "settled will" for such a referendum.
That seemed a crazy, self-defeating response, but testament to the extent to which politicians have swallowed the SNP frame in its entirety.
Surely it is his job to ensure that Scottish Labour do the "hard yards" to ensure we do not ever have a situation where a majority of people in Scotland want another referendum. His job is not to encourage the SNP to create a "settled will" for another!
BETTER TO SAY THIS...
Instead he should have taken his own side and pushed back heavily. In future, pro-UK politicians should say something like this:
"You're asking me if I believe in the principle that Scots should decide their own future, when I know the actual question you are trying to get out of me is "Do I support the policy of a second referendum". Let me answer both.
"But first let me answer your obviously loaded question!
"The hidden premise of your loaded question is that we don't already control our future through our democratic system.
"Well we most certainly do control our future already! The fact is that people in Scotland decide our future every time we vote, whether at Local, Devolved or British General Elections. That's what voting is all about! In that regard, most people vote consistently for parties which support the United Kingdom.
"The hidden assumption in your loaded question is that only through a referendum do we control our future. Again, that is simply not so. We control our future every time we vote. And we have plenty of opportunities to vote here in Scotland, more so even than in England, because we have devolution here.
"And the hidden implication of your loaded question is that I should be supportive of a second referendum as a consequence of believing that Scots should decide their own future!
"So stop playing word games with me.
"Stop trying to entrap me into agreeing that because I support the right of people in Scotland to decide their own future through the democratic process, that I also think we should have a second referendum. These are two different things. One is a general principle, the other is a specific policy.
"And what all that is saying is that your question is not being asked in good faith.
"Now, do I support a second referendum?
"What I will say is that, unlike the SNP, my party wants to concentrate on making Scotland within the United Kingdom a great success so that the SNP's constant obsession with breaking up the country via referendums – which is only held by politicians without the imagination or ability to see what Scotland can be right now, within our Union – is put to bed for good.
"Our party will do the hard yards, both holding the SNP to account in Holyrood, and governing all of Britain at Westminster, to ensure we can make the most of our fantastic Union to work together for the good of all – which is the entire purpose of a 'union', whether a constitutional union or a Trade Union – and to make Scotland prosperous and successful within it.
"And with that success, we will confine all talk of a second referendum to the bin. That is, we aim to render the very question largely irrelevant, because there will be very little demand for one."
Or something to that effect!
References
1. x.com/STVNews/status/2102074034707963904
Full interview at news.stv.tv/politics/michael-marra-scotland-has-the-right-to-decide-its-own-future-says-scottish-labour-leader
2. x.com/JohnSwinney/status/2102092406652903637
See also: Alistair McConnachie, Westminster's 3 Unity Mandates (19-9-26).
We asked Google AI, why SNP politicians and the Scottish media ask the Loaded Question "Should Scots decide their own future", instead of asking "Should we have a second referendum". It gave us this answer:
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