Professor’s verdict on Yes voters – you’re less bright

A LEADING academic has sparked uproar after claiming that supporters of independence are ‘less well-educated’.

Jill Stephenson, emeritus professor at Edinburgh University, originally wrote on Twitter that Yes voters are ‘less bright’, but later apologised for the phrase.

However, she insisted: ‘The point about a t endency t o be “l ess well- educated” remains.’

Professor Stephenson, who specialises in modern German history, is a member of t he pro - Union group Academics Together.

She pointed to a recent study by Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, Scotland’s leading elections expert, who wrote: ‘Those in middle class occupations are somewhat less likely to be supportive of independence than those in more working class ones.’

Professor Stephenson’s original tweet stated: ‘As John Curtice says, i t’s the less well- educated and less bright who are voting Yes. That’s obvious f rom their output.’

She later wrote: ‘I apologise unreservedly for using the term ‘less bright’ about Yes voters. The point about a tendency to be “less well-educated” remains.’

The retired professor added yesterday: ‘I shouldn’t have said that Yes backers are less welleducated. Rather, the less well-educated are more likely to vote Yes than the better educated.’

But a spokesman for Yes Scotland said: ‘This is an incredibly snobby thing to say. Working class Scots who may not have gone to university are intelligent, well- educated people, and certainly have a lot more common sense than Professor Stephenson seems to.’

An Edinburgh University spokesman said: ‘Professor Stephenson’s views are her own.’