To ask if you are voting SNP?

[SpiceAddict]

How do you think they are going to 'end austerity'? How will this be financed? You can't just suddenly invest more in infrastructure etc to create more jobs if there is no.money.

If it is going to be financed by stopping trident, then we will lose US support - not really a good idea....

Labour are going to increase tax for higher payers, mansion tax etc in order to fund their investments.

I live in Yorkshire and we really don't get the support for SNP. They don't make sense to me, but as they seem to be so popular, please can someone actually why?

I don't think the SNP is any more likely to stand up to the bully boy corporations and billionaires than any of the establishment parties - look at them overturning Aberdeen(shire?) council's decision not to let Donald Trump bulldoze his way across the coastline for a not-even-very-successful golf 'resort'.

I reckon they'd try to get Scottish independence at any cost.

And in the process give up on the rest of the people in the UK. If they really wanted a fairer and more just society you'd think they'd want it for everyone - not just 5 million Scottish people.

I agree that they're parochial too - NS saying Irn Bru is her favourite soft drink. It's embarrassing (she was asked admittedly). They seem to think the central belt of Scotland is Scotland. Where did NS go to uni? I don't think she's seen much of Scotland let alone the rest of Britain. happy to be corrected.

" a more confident nation" - NS on the effects of a majority yes vote in the inde referendum. What does that even mean?

chocoluvva I don't think the SNP is any more likely to stand up to the bully boy corporations and billionaires than any of the establishment parties - look at them overturning Aberdeen(shire?) council's decision not to let Donald Trump bulldoze his way across the coastline for a not-even-very-successful golf 'resort'.

And yet more new build housing estate by the same Donald Trump next to it now. I think the SNP are just likely to give favours to their own cronies.

I think NS went to Strathclyde University and did a law degree, but did not qualify as a solicitor and did not do a traineeship, and went into politics very soon after graduating. I also find the way she and AS talk a bit affected, as in the adopt this very casual, slang, central Scotland way of speaking which I'm sure isn't typical of a former law student or Edinburgh economist from Linlithgow. Nothing wrong with that accent (I like it very much) but its strange how similar they now sound.

I also get that impression. Of being parochial. Clarabumps I actually hate these threads, the amount of ignorant anti-Scots vitriol that comes out on them is depressing are you seriously suggesting that people living in Scotland cannot criticise their own country? Do you think people in other country are never allowed to say anything negative about them?

Where did NS go to uni

Glasgow (law).

I find it very short sighted to focus on the cost of Trident. The cost of removing it would also be astronomical.

One of my pet peeves in the indyref was their so-called commitment to removing nuclear weapons. If you read the entire White Paper, they were happy to join NATO and to let ships containing nuclear weapons from other countries into Scotland.

282. Will NATO members with nuclear-armed vessels be allowed to enter Scottish waters or dock at Scottish ports?

It is our firm position that an independent Scotland should not host nuclear weapons and we would only join NATO on that basis.

While the presence of nuclear weapons on a particular vessel is never confirmed by any country, we would expect any visiting vessel to respect the rules that are laid down by the government of an independent Scotland.

While they are both strong advocates for nuclear disarmament, both Norway and Denmark allow NATO vessels to visit their ports without confirming or denying whether they carry nuclear weapons. We intend that Scotland will adopt a similar approach as Denmark and Norway in this respect.

Can any of the SNP supporters give me a reasonable explanation of why the SNP government will not sort out the Edinburgh statutory notices scandal? I simply cannot take seriously a party which has that going on on its doorstep, and which blithely ignores the widespread fraud, malpractice and corruption that is still going on. Its not even been debated in parliament.

Why won't they simply repeal the legislation that permits it? Is it because there are too many snouts in the trough in central Scotland, including in their own party, profiteering from it to risk upsetting them?

Have you tried asking them TheChandler? Start a petition to have it debated.

What party was in power in Edinburgh Council at the time?

PrimalLass Have you tried asking them TheChandler? Start a petition to have it debated.

Good idea, but theres been a petition going about for quite a while now: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/petition-for-a-public-inquiry-into-the-running-of-city-of-edinburgh-council

I actually think its ridiculous that there should have to be a petition to get the parliament of a country to debate something so serious that is happening in its capital city. Its their job to debate things like this and to make laws to prevent such abuses.

Various people affected are sueing Edinburgh Council (and I think have been 100% successful in doing so thus far), submitting FOI requests (often unanswered for reasons of fobbing off), and requesting their councillors simply do something about it. But in this supposedly scandal-free, fairer and more just Scotland, our many elected politicians simply turn a blind eye.

Heres a pretty well written short article which sums it up for those who are unclear:

www.scot-buzz.co.uk/edinburghs-corruption-cover-up/

What party was in power in Edinburgh Council at the time? Not sure, its usually Labour, isn't it? Its still going on, as they have elected to resurrect it, so the party now in power has to carry the can.

How strange that there are so few signatures. These things normally spread quickly. I'm across the Forth now but did live in an Edinburgh tenement at one point. Thankfully we only ever had to repair a smashed window.

I'm on the fence still, although have ruled out both SNP and UKIP, both too extreme for me, obviously in very different ways.

If NS gets her way and there is another and another and another referendum until the SNP get the independence they want, will they come out of NATO? In fact, they may have to given that it is the UK which is part of NATO, not an Indy Scotland. And who will defend this small, green land when the big boys come calling? The Scottish Army/Navy?

The whole thing is strange PrimalLass. I certainly wouldn't buy a tenement property in Edinburgh (and bear in mind some flats sell for over a million there) - the risk of having someone from the Council come round and look at it from the outside, churn out a random statutory notice of vague things that would be nice to get done, and boom! 1 year later you're presented with a bill for £45,000 per flat (or more if you're really unlucky) with 28 days to pay and the most overpriced chimney pots and guttering on the planet.

Theres clearly a lot of rather incompetent roofing, building, maintenance, etc. companies making a lot of money out of it. The allegations of corruption of course relate to overcharging, carrying out unnecessary work to an incompetent standard, and Council employees taking backhanders.

That's one of the reasons I don't really believe all this fairer and more just society stuff, and how much better Holyrood is than Westminster. Its just easier to cover up in a small country. Its fairly well known in certain professional circles that there is also a scandal involving some big name Scottish political and professional figures from the past which took place in Edinburgh, some still around, involving allegations of child abuse, etc., and that the police lost a dossier of evidence and have since refused to investigate it.

Westminster might also have these problems, but at least some of them are being revealed now. Its a huge can of worms, and I can't see how the SNP is anything other than complicit in keeping a lid on them.

So according to wikipedia NS did practice as a solicitor and she has only been an MSP since 1999 and she is 44 (not quite the wee lassie the media portray) so unfair to label her as never having had a real job. Also her accent is similar to mine and we come from very similar backgrounds. None of this means I will be voting for her and I think the fact that neither she nor AS have DCs is relevant.

Nicola Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in a law centre in a deprived peripheral estate in Glasgow in the early 90s.

She would have seen a lot of 'real life' in that job and it is probably why she is so committed to social justice.

clarabumps

My feelings exactly.

There's such vitriol. It feels do much more hate-filled than the usual politics chat.

The early 90s is nearly 20 years ago now! She graduated in 92 according to Wiki and got her diploma the year after. She was a MSP in 1999 if my memory serves me right, so that's 6 years, 20 years ago.

Not exactly in touch, is it?

I'm not denying it would have been a hard slog, but how long can you stretch out for?

jackieharris Nicola Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in a law centre in a deprived peripheral estate in Glasgow in the early 90s.

That's what I have found trying to google her too. (my apologies for saying she went to Strathclyde when clearly it was Glasgow). But where did she do her traineeship? All the internet entries seem to say something like "her first job was as a solicitor at Drumchapel and Money Advice Centre", but surely if she was a qualified solicitor, her first job would have been in her traineeship, and I didn't know that law centres could offer them. Can someone clarify? I was under the impression that this was the sort of organisation where law graduates would do an internship, probably unpaid, prior to getting a traineeship, as its good experience (e.g. I did voluntary work for my local CAB, as did a lot of my year).

She would have seen a lot of 'real life' in that job and it is probably why she is so committed to social justice.

I can assure you that solicitors working for firms in private practice also have plenty of "real life experience", most of it for many years longer. Real life also happens on the streets of other towns and cities in Scotland too!

Chelsy

She qualified and worked!

And you go on about Edinburgh council relentlessly... And you don't even know who is in charge?!

But where did she do her traineeship?

Bell & Craig is mentioned in Wikipedia.

clara and jackie show where the vitriol is exactly? Or is somehow disagreeing with your opinion not allowed?

It's called freedom of speech. But don't decry a good discussion - with good points made by both snp and non snp voters - as vitriol simply because you aren't able to argue you cases strongly enough.

Wiki is your friend.

Sturgeon graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 1992 and a Diploma in Legal Practice the following year.[4] On qualifying as a solicitor she worked for Bell & Craig, a firm of solicitors in Stirling, and later at the Drumchapel Law Centre in Glasgow

Which is a long way from:

I think NS went to Strathclyde University and did a law degree, but did not qualify as a solicitor and did not do a traineeship, and went into politics very soon after graduating

Seriously, we're on the internet. It's full of information. Look some use of it now and again.

I avoid Wikipeadia ScotsWhahae, and I'm not in Scotland. It can be quite hard to find out some information. Wikipeadia can be wrong.

Thank you for answering my question SantanaLopez.

So as a qualified and once practising solicitor, even if not for many years post-qualifying, NS has no excuse for tolerating the statutory notices scandal. This is one of the reasons we have a Scottish Parliament, surely?

I'm sure google works outside of Scotland.

As for the Edinburgh council issue it's a, let's hazard a guess here, council issue surely?

I lost interest in the whole thing when I moved out of the city, but did Edinburgh MSPs take it to parliament? If their constituents were on them I'm sure they would.

The government can't wade in on every council issue. They've got a whole country to run.

Well no, as I live in SE England. And I won't be voting Labour if there is the slightest chance they will cosy up to the SNP.

And to keep some perspective, statutory notices only applies to houses within Edinburgh that were part of the world heritage site if homeowners weren't taking care of their property.

We had a house in the new town. The hassles (no bins, drafty windows, certain coloured doors)that came with being in a heritage site was plentiful but part of the deal.

We lived their for 12 years without any problems. Don't make out it is a huge issue. And they were wiped out 2 years ago...