Blurrt

Twitter activity linked to hidden “Oil fund” files

May 13, 2014 — by

Blurrt is following the Scottish #IndeRef campaigns @YesScotland and @UK_together on Twitter. Twitter activity changed the Blurrt score on Sunday 11th May 2014. Interestingly, the words trending in our wordle on Sunday are McCrone, fund, Smith, Gavin, and Cumbernauld.

Indy Ref wordle Screenshot 2014-05-13 15.20.04

Using the filter to search the term McCrone, Blurrt shows that only 2 tweets were sent (crucially both by @YesScotland) and they consequently got 336 retweets. One tweet linked to an article, dated Tuesday 11th May, from the Sunday Herald newspaper. The article is about files from 1977 in which Professor Gavin McCrone, a former government economist, advocated an Oil fund and how Westminster had kept his recommendations secret.

The graph below shows the average sentiment expressed in each tweet over the last 7 days, with the Yes and No campaigns being fairly evenly matched despite a concerted PR campaign on behalf of the Yes Campaign. Yes Campaign Ave Sentiment Screenshot 2014-05-13 15.54.26