Scottish General Election

Continuing to support a Union that treats Scotland as a subordinate region rather than an equal partner isn't loyalty—it's settling for a future where decisions about your life are made by people who don't live here.

@InconsequentialFerret

I agree that it's time the SNP had a stint in opposition. But when the main opposition parties are only NO parties and the SNP is the only big YES party, it'll be a long time coming

Yup, this is about the jist of it.

The SNP desperately needs a period in opposition to refresh itself and move some of the auld faces and ideas on, but unfortunately that necessitates a replacement SG in the meantime, and none of the alternatives are remotely electable, so the SNP will limp on as the default incumbent regardless.

If the SG doesn't have the funding to deliver on it's commitments, then that will play out over time and they'll have to answer for it at the ballot box. At least the Scots electorate can hold the Scots Government to account. Tell me how I can avoid the next Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, HS2 fiasco, Ajax AFV, white elephant Aircraft Carriers etc, because Scotland didn't vote for the governments that gave us all of these, yet we still end up paying for them, all while being told that we're really the ones who are the biggest drain on the UK coffers.

Literally every single Scottish GE campaign by the main unionist parties since 2011 has consisted of nothing but "NO" to something, most often a 2nd Indi Ref, and if not that, simply "NO to the SNP".

This is what I find really tiresome.

Before the SNP there was Labour sending back part of the grant because they couldn't think what to spend it on.

Since SNP they and the Conservatives still lack ideas about what to do.

I agree that it's time the SNP had a stint in opposition. But when the main opposition parties are only NO parties and the SNP is the only big YES party, it'll be a long time coming.

Labour need to change the record if they want to be contenders again. And start having some decent ideas that go beyond just saying no to another party.

You mean as transparent as the Scottish government/SNP is about the 5 Billion gap (every year) between promised expenditure and projected income by the end of the next Scottish parliament?

Of course.

Normally transactions involve some sort of breakdown of services rendered and an appropriate invoice. The UK is seemingly incapable of providing this for Devolved nations, instead using a garbage-in garbage out piece of gerrymandery that simply takes a portion of the UK government's mismanagement of UK resources, and attributes the blame for that portion to the inhabitants of those nations.

I would have less of an issue with paying for "UK services" if the UK was in any way honest and transparent about what those services were and what they cost, but they are not.

Don't you think Scotland needs to pay its share of all the non-devolved expenses? Defense, security services, diplomatic provisions, state pensions, don't come cheap and even mundane stuff like passport offices and driving licenses cost money to administer.

Are you expecting an accurate answer from someone who believes 48% of Scots voted "leave" in the Brexit referendum?

Are you really surprised?

Literally every single Scottish GE campaign by the main unionist parties since 2011 has consisted of nothing but "NO" to something, most often a 2nd Indi Ref, and if not that, simply "NO to the SNP".

For a UK that is supposedly the superior option, they do absolutely nothing to sell it and are also remarkably reticent to get into the specifics of what, precisely, is supposedly superior about it. I was looking forward to receiving this year's edition of the Scots Tory election bumph to see if you still had to go over it with a microscope to try and find the part where it actually mentioned Scottish Conservatives, but I haven't actually received anything from them, the only party who haven't mailed me, so it appears they've finally just run out of things to say "NO" to.

The constant wittering about independence whilst the country is in a state of such decline causes this

Here we have half of the infamous "Schrodingers SNP" the Unionists apparently believe in.

"get on with the day job/stop wasting money on Indi/single issue obsessives (as if entire campaigns consisting solely of "no to indi" aren't single-issue obsessiveness)"

Also unionists - "the SNP aren't interested in Indi/too comfy with their cushy Holyrood jobs/gravytrain/know it would be a disaster" and so on.

You can only laugh at the ridiculousness of people who are still terrified of the perfectly normal and mundane notion of a nation governing itself.

You believe what you want.
Having all lived there and experienced the abuse against the English, I think you are not in a position to even mention that word.

With your attitude, you better prepare yourself for a huge shock if you choose Independance.

Everyone had just come out of Covid three years ago and also it has been a downward trend since 2006.

I really dont think figures from 4 years ago, just after the pandemic, will reflect the state of education just now accurately.

The second of my three children has been accepted to university, all three would like to go. If we lived in England it would cost us £88k just in tuition fees to make sure they didn't start their young lives drowning in debt.

It's the same for every young person resident in Scotland, regardless of circumstances.

I think that is something to be proud of, and to vote to keep.

Hmm, scary how you think that we have gone from significantly ahead of England in 2006 in both Maths and Reading and slightly behind in science to being behind in everything is a great success. Says it all about the ambitions under SNP.

@Differentforgirls that study includes the whole of the current working age population, taking into account our education levels and not those currently in education.

In 2022, the last time we reported in PISA we were behind England in all three key markers for those currently in the education system.

Hahahahaha

RUK is not worse than us on education. Our education used to be the envy of the world, now it’s a joke with no signs of getting better.