The following article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

There's something very peculiar and troubling going on under the bonnet of Scottish politics.

It appears that most voters know very little about our political leaders and care even less about their policies. A huge gulf has opened up when it comes to the public and politicians.

The gulf isn’t just about the public feeling alienated or disconnected from politics. It’s also a gulf of knowledge: voters just aren’t paying attention to politicians or their policies.

That’s a dangerous situation. Do we want governments elected by uninformed citizens? It feels like the final bond between politicians and people - understanding - has broken.

Here’s what polls currently show. When Scottish voters were asked by YouGov how favourably they felt about a raft of UK and Scottish political leaders, the answers were very strange.

Only 15% of voters said they ‘didn’t know’ how they felt about Andy Burnham. For Nigel Farage it was just 7%. Zack Polanski had a ‘don’t know’ rate of 33%. Kemi Badenoch 23%, and Ed Davey 40%.

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In Scotland, however, the figures surged enormously. John Swinney scores best with only 13% of voters saying they don’t know how they feel about him - putting him on a par with Burnham and Farage in terms of voter response.

Every other Scottish........

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