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?

frankie80

The vote in September was not for SNP.

I will be voting SNP. Was disappointed in Labour at referendum so they are out! Am a socialist at heart and LibDems joining Tories means they are out as, obviously are Tories, ukip etc.

Will I hell be voting SNP. I'm really baffled by the cult like following in Scotland at the moment. They are politicians like any other party and are very fond of half truths to win people over. I thought Scottish people were more savvy than that and don't understand why they can't see through them.

They rely on populist policies while trying to hide what is being cut to fund them, e.g. Free school meals, when it looks like our breakfast club is being cut to fund it and other councils are proposing reducing the school day by half an hour.

I'm considering voting for them...they've performed ok in Scottish government, they're much further left than labour are just now and I think trident should be scrapped.

Mostly though, they're the most viable party to oust my safe seat MP.

I'll be voting SNP, I've always voted Labour in the past but they'll never get my vote again.

Hanging the education system is in transition at the moment in the Higher exam stages and watch out for potential horror stories ahead in basic skills as embedded CfE starts to work through the system. (Maths scores down in a recent report, especially among poorer students whose parents can't insulate them as much from the changes in education.)

To OP, I won't be voting SNP because I value the wider strengths of being part of the UK although I might not agree with the current government (or the Conservative part of it at least.) Likewise I wouldn't want to leave Europe.

However I have voted SNP in the past at a local level due to the competence of the particular councillor. They generally do seem a bit better than Labour candidates perhaps due to the fervour of belief attracting a less self-serving type. That same fervour however means they can be quite cavalier about people's livelihoods ime or anything else that gets in the way of the independence ideal.

My favourite politician of recent times was Margot Macdonald, I just didn't share her belief in the efficacy of an independent Scotland!

YANBU to ask, and yes, I will be voting SNP.

There are interesting times ahead.

I am voting SNP for the first time this May, despite not supporting independence, however I have been pleased with the way they have worked in the Scottish Parliament and I like their more socialist policies. At the moment it seems that LibDem/Tories/Labour are all the same, and I don't agree with the way they are steering the country.

Frankie80 - the polls currently indicate that most of Scotland WILL be voting for them. In the referendum I (and the entire population who voted) didn't vote for ANY political party. I voted, same as everyone else, on whether I wanted Scotland to be an independent country. Stupid, throwaway comments like that just take the thread off topic.

To answer the OP, I, as a lifelong Labour supporter, will be voting for the SNP for the first time in a GE. Their policies on Trident, Education and the NHS are my main drivers.

Unfortunately I don't align to any Political parties policies 100%, but the things which matter most to be are best protected by SNP policy. So, whilst they cannot win the GE, I'd like them to have a presence at Westminster which will get the peoples voices heard more effectively.

Also, as another poster said, they speak in plain English. Say what they're going to do and do it. Least that's what's they've done in the Scottish Parliament (where they have had to make unpopular budget decisions, but at least they appear to have been 'fair).

Any party which gets away from the Oxbridge old boys network is OK in my book. We've been 'managed' exclusively by the upper classes for too long.

Interesting times perhaps.

I'm undecided. I was reading an interesting article yesterday about Pablo Iglesias and while the author drew no comparisons with the SNP, I think they can be drawn if you wish.

Of note is the statement by Iglesias to his students at the beginning of the indignados movement 'That politics has nothing to do with being right, that politics is about succeeding'.

I think that that may be the main motivating force behind current SNP policies and practice.

i'll be voting snp feel like they represent the scottish people rather than the likes of labour who when it comes to it follows the westminister whip

If I lived in Scotland, I'd vote for the Scots Nats.

It seems that there is a majority in the UK who would like to leave the EU and join EFTA and if their is a majority in England to do that (and remember the people living in England make up 84% of the population of the UK) then it is only fair, that those 84% shouldn't deny the 8.5% of the UK population living in Scotland from determining their own futures.

A landslide for the Scots. Nats. will also stop Labour from winning a majority and in fact will almost certainly result in a hung-parliament. It's quite possible this will then lead to a ConUKIP pact, which will see an early referendum on leaving the EU and joining EFTA.

Also, it will mean the break up of the two large banking groups based in Scotland, which means we'll see the return of Lloyds Bank, The Halifax, National Westminster Bank, TSB, Yorkshire Bank and Williams & Glyns bank, back to England, with all the jobs that go with them.

Also, as the Scots. Nats. will drive out the nuclear submarines operations at Faslane and lead to the Royal Navy ship building being moved south, which in turn will mean an additional 40,000+ jobs in England (lost to Scotland obviously) and the current defence spending of £5,200,000,000 that Scotland enjoys being lost to England too.

Go Scots. Nats. I'm really looking forward to you doing well and sending all the banking, defence and aerospace jobs south of the border!

to the voter up thread who thinks the SNP have more money than they know what to do with, this was posted on another thread and explains it well

""why the like for Nicola Sturgeon? She doesn't even (and won't) have a Westminster seat and all she cares about is Scotland - how can they justify free prescriptions for everyone in Scotland? No tuition fees for Scottish students?""

"They" justify free prescriptions because "they" have decided to use part of the health budget for this as the NHS is devolved in Scotland and Westminster have not chosen to do this for the NHS elsewhere. Does that answer your question, honestly sick of the ant-Scottish ill informed rubbish that always creeps in.

""Does she want to replicate that for the rest of us - doubt it!""

Nicola Sturgeon is First Minster of Scotland. She has no control over the NHS budget for England and Wales so this is an irrelevant question.

I'll be voting snp, based on the issues of trident, the nhs, education and independence.

Lots of anti-scottish feeling and hate still obviously around (since before the indie vote) which is clearly misplaced fear and jealousy.

If you are so bothered that our government spends money on the benefit of scotland, rather than directing hate at the scottish people direct it at your own government. Eejits!

Norland - are you confusing the SNP winning seats at the GE with Scotland becoming independent?

Why would the banking groups be broken up and locate all jobs to England upon a change of UK Government?

Why would the UK Government (which you assume will be a Con/UKIP alliance) move Trident from where it wants to keep it?

I'm confused .

At the moment it seems that LibDem/Tories/Labour are all the same, and I don't agree with the way they are steering the country.

I read that as sneering at the country

I will make it my mission to clarify a few points.

Voting SNP in the referendum was not an option. They didn't lose anything. The yes vote did.

There was more than just the SNP behind the YES campaign. They were the reason we had a referendum but they aren't the only party or people in Scotland with a desire for independence.

Not every yes voter supports snp.

Heck, there will be people who voted snp and no.

The SNP have had seats in Westminster for over 40 years.

Any other misconceptions needing clarified?

Agree Wedge that was rather my point.

Ill never vote SNP. I don't agree with independence. They are narrow, insular and encourage the worst kind of "Scottishness". They're as full of bull and spin as any other party and the way many Scots seem to think they are somehow more honest and trustworthy than those of other parties is a mystery to me.

Plus much of their lauded good financial management is based on sneaky policies like the council tax freeze. Presented as a fair, policy which is for the benefit of the citizens but which in reality just leaves the SG smelling of roses while the impact of the freeze is left in the hands of local authorities who are left with a massive funding gap and have to make the hard choices about cuts and closures. It's dishonest and disingenuous and sums up the SNP.

Norland has no idea.

They are the most left-wing option I can vote for that has a chance of getting in, so yes I will definitely vote for them.
They are not perfect but I've yet to discover a party that is.

No. And I live in Scotland.

Frankie80, where I live the majority did vote for independence, and many of those will vote SNP. Our Labour MP has rested on her laurels too long and has only sprung to life in recent weeks. I despair, I really do. Our labour council has presided over a monumental amount of cock ups which have cost my town dearly. I do feel the tide is beginning to turn, if not in the general election then in 2017 for the council elections at least.

I teach children who don't have winter coats and who eat food from food banks. While ten miles over a hill sits a trident nuclear deterrent which costs billions. As the only party prepared to scrap trident I think I'll be voting SNP.