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?

Well, never mind Unlucky83, the SNP also like to frequently claim that they want to encourage women back into the workplace after having children and provide more free or subsidised childcare hours, Scandinavian style. In fact, in the run up to the Referendum and in general, they are very big on following the Scandinavian model of higher tax, more social benefits and presumably more working mothers who are divorced from or who never married the father of their children, as is common in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Perhaps we will also see those children taking 10 years to complete their university education at state expense, as is hardly unknown there to. (I'm not knocking Scandinavia; I think it works very well for Scandinavian people with high levels of trust and low levels of corruption).

Well the free hours helped me as a full time working single mum. I noticed the difference in our disposable income when the fees went down when the free hours kicked in. For some parents this is the difference between being able to go to work and not.

15 hours is too short but I'm hoping it is a path to continual increases.

Ahh chandler can you tell that hit a nerve...

(The words 600hrs and good thing is guaranteed to make me rant)
jackie before the 600hrs you got 12.5hrs a week ...the latest increase of 3.28 hrs a week actually makes relatively little difference to parents like you or anyone else but is costing the 'country' proportionally a lot more...
You also would notice a drop in fees when your child reaches 3 without any free preschool education funding - because the ratio of staff to child increases so staffing costs are less (for 3 yos it is 1 member of staff to 8 children for 2-3s it is (irrc) 1:5, under 2s it is 1:3)

You also would notice a drop in fees when your child reaches 3 without any free preschool education funding

I'm fairly sure our nursery fees did not go down at 3 (apart from the free hours deduction).

Jim Murphy was at Uni for 9 years & didn't graduate.

None of the nurseries I know charge less for over 3s. (Apart from the gov funding)

Jeezo, what is with the obsession with NS's glottal stops/accent? She's fae Dreghorn, and she sounds like she's fae Dreghorn - that's that! And I should know - my DH played for Dreghorn under-10s

Come on now, admit it: is a Scottish accent in politics only supportable when it's in the Tony Blair 'never been to Scotland' vein or in Gordon Brown's rouuunded, Anglicised vowels? Because horrible, flat, scabby west of Scotland vowels are for people who don't belong in world politics and are just an embarrassing wee local concern, like Tommy Sheridan.

Same thing's happening with the scrutiny over Leanne Wood's voice. God forbid someone should sound like where they come from,

Thank you for pointing out the childcare situation. It felt wrong to try and find fault with childcare policy so I never delved into it.

Surprisingly disappointed the headline grabbing "we care more" policy is actually just playing catch up with the rest of the UK (OK, a smidgen more) and our children / parents were worse off with SNP.

If you look a lot of nurseries have a 0-2yr rate, a 2-3 yr rate and 3-5 yr rate...a lot depends on size of nursery, age range in an area, if they move them into a new area on the day/week of their birthday on their own or in a group - by terms or academic yearly etc. The ratios get complex but simplified if they have a 2-3 area with 16 children if they are all 2 they need 4 members of staff, once some turn 3 they need 3 staff, if they were all 3 they'd only need 2...
When my DD1 was at FT nursery (from 3 months) the weekly cost went down with age - but the fees kept going up too ..so by the time she reached 3 they were about the same (just slightly less) than I'd always paid. But a 3 yo there when she started paid less than I did for a baby...and babies starting when she was 3 paid more than I paid.

OOOHHH!!! Someone else from Dreggin.

Nicola is actually quite polite for someone from Dreghorn, as anyone who comes from there could tell you.

Nope - still not getting it. The referendum was based on a Yes/No vote per person so a simple adding up of those, surely?

Yes it was. Sorry, I thought the,other person was saying that if the referendum had been carried out in the same way as a WM election then each constituency would have returned yes/no rather than each person and the result would have looked very different.

FFS. Wrong thread. As you were....

I'm Scottish, have never voted SNP in the past (nor even considered it). I will be voting SNP in the upcoming election. I live in a split Tory/SNP constituency, and am a socialist at heart. No party is perfect, and politicians are by their nature a duplicitous and slimy bunch, however I at least agree with many of the SNP's policies and genuinely believe that they are better for my community and my country than the alternatives.

Forgot to mention that a huge aspect of my decision is made regarding the preservation of the NHS. I work within the NHS and am constantly thankful of devolution. I would never choose to work within the NHS in England, with its privatisation, paranoia due to increasingly litigious practices, and short-sighted cuts to reduce costs at the expense of training for the future generations.

AgentCooper Jeezo, what is with the obsession with NS's glottal stops/accent? She's fae Dreghorn, and she sounds like she's fae Dreghorn - that's that! And I should know - my DH played for Dreghorn under-10s grin

Come on now, admit it: is a Scottish accent in politics only supportable when it's in the Tony Blair 'never been to Scotland' vein or in Gordon Brown's rouuunded, Anglicised vowels? Because horrible, flat, scabby west of Scotland vowels are for people who don't belong in world politics and are just an embarrassing wee local concern, like Tommy Sheridan.

Has it never occurred to you that, outwith the west of Scotland, domination by West coast accents seems a little unfamiliar? And that the people of other parts of Scotland might be wondering why that is so, when they simply don't hear those accents on a day to basis? FWIW the north of Scotland (not just the Highlands but north of the central belt) doesn't tend to glottal stop. And the reasons for that are in Scottish history, very little to do with Anglicised vowels, and far more to do with Norwegian influence.

Its nothing to do with snobbery. But of course, in the jump on the class bandwagon, over-sensitive, never miss an opportunity to blame the English world of the SNP, the joy of finding one individual word in a post (never mind a whole phrase) stands in the way of what might be useful or productive discussion.

chiruri Scotland’s most senior GP, ... warned in June that the Scottish NHS was “teetering on the edge of collapse” thanks to SNP mismanagement and compared it to the Titanic.
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland, said there has been "continuing crisis management of the longest car crash in my memory" over the past five years and accused SNP ministers of being obsessed with short-term fixes while “Rome is burning."

The budget has been cut year after year (I know I've posted this before but if you missed it www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7366). My friend tried to change NS's mind in a face to face meeting when she was Health Secretary and get the full amount Westminster had notionally earmarked for his hospital, she was having none of it. She blatantly lies about being starved of money by Westminster.

I'm glad that there was devolution and that it has prevented the massive upheaval in organisation that seems to have affected the rUK so badly but there are far more private contracts in place here than there were before the SNP came to power they just hide the facts better; the 89th page of a 90page report shows almost £500million went to “sub-contractors” last year – almost five per cent of Holyrood’s annual NHS budget.

Eh, sorry, Chandler? I don't understand - to suggest that people from the Highlands and Islands aren't accustomed to WofS accents in Scottish politics is a bit much. Why wouldn't they be?! I'm not the one who keeps bringing up glottal stops, in the style of an early 19th C ethnographer...

And what is 'the English world of the SNP'? A tad oxymoronic there, no?

Who does she think she is anyway? "I'll help you keep Cameron out" - we don't need her kind of help. She is hell bent on splitting up the UK. Can I remind her that the SCOTS SAID NO TO INDEPENDENCE. She is determined to ignore her own people and ride rough shod on a wave of publicity and force the Scots to vote again - after a dreadful campaign from both sides, splitting families against each other and throwing bricks at windows in order to get your way is no way to run politics.

She is effectively saying "I know you said you didn't want independence, but you didn't mean it did you, so I'll give you another chance to change your minds. If you vote to stay in UK again, I'll just run another referendum until you vote the other way" (stamps foot like Violet Bott).

She forgets that you can be anti-nuclear IN UK; you can want to protect the Scottish NHS IN UK; you can have free university education IN UK; etc etc it's called democracy. We may not get the government we want, as an individual, but we get what the majority wants (voting mechanisms not withstanding, but that's another issue!).

Where has she said that about another referendum? I'm obviously not paying any enough attention.

She is effectively saying "I know you said you didn't want independence, but you didn't mean it did you, so I'll give you another chance to change your minds. If you vote to stay in UK again, I'll just run another referendum until you vote the other way

I'm still really confused by this point of view People who feel this obviously won't vote for SNP in the next Scottish elections (or any other pro-indy party). The SNP don't get a clear majority (which is really hard in our parliament)/no pro-indy majority = no referendum = no issue?

PrimalLass Where has she said that about another referendum? I'm obviously not paying any enough attention. According to The Guardian, what NS actually said was:

"If the people of Scotland don’t vote for a party with a commitment in a manifesto to a referendum, there won’t be another referendum, that’s the point I’m making. The people are in charge, not politicians.”

and

"If there is an anti-Tory majority in the House of Commons after the election – even if the Tories are the biggest party – we will work with Labour to keep David Cameron out of Downing Street.”

“I’m offering to help make Ed Miliband prime minister,”

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/07/snp-independence-referendum-wins-scottish-parliamentary-elections-nicola-sturgeon

Now, I am sure I read in other newspaper reports a few weeks earlier that she said there would be a referendum in more positive terms, and I would say she is being very careful in the run up to the General Election not to go on record saying that. Obviously, it is the policy of the SNP, their raison d'etre. But since they won't actually put their future aims and concrete plans in writing, its very difficult to work out what they intend to do. However, I think they would call a referendum at the earliest opportune moment. These things take a while to organise, so maybe in another 8-10 years? That seems to be what happens in Quebec.

However, I think they would call a referendum at the earliest opportune moment. These things take a while to organise, so maybe in another 8-10 years?

They can't call a referendum unless they are in power!

*Itsallgoingtobefine They can't call a referendum unless they are in power!
*Technically, they can't call a referendum unless given authority by the Government of the whole of the UK.

What Alex Salmond said (and I don't think you can minimise his influence on SNP policy; he is also obviously a Westminster candidate in the coming GE) immediately after the Referendum was:

"That is to say that you establish a parliament and you establish successively more powers until you have a situation where you’re independent in all but name, and then presumably you declare yourself to be independent."

"Many countries have proceeded through that route; there is a parliamentary route where people can make their voice heard as well, so a referendum is only one of a number of routes."

"The move was pounced on by fundamentalist nationalists with former party deputy leader Jim Sillars stating that an SNP majority in the 2016 Holyrood election would be a mandate for separation."

"Sillars tweeted: "Let Yes assert new indy rule – no more ref – majority votes and seats at Holyrood 2016 enough."

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-blasted-over-suggestion-4302700, also reported in The Scotsman, 22 September 2014.

Interesting to note that he is the first of all four Scottish First Ministers to voluntarily resign - Donald Dewar died, Henry McLeish was forced to resign after corruption scandals (It emerged that when McLeish was an MP in Westminster he had claimed parliamentary expenses for his Glenrothes constituency office, while renting out the same office space to local companies and charities. The sums involved were relatively small, with the highest figure cited as £40,000. McLeish famously described his predicament as a “muddle not a fiddle”; saying the whole affair was a result of mistakes, not deliberate fraud) and Jack McConnell resigned after losing the Scottish Election after being embroiled in fraud and corruption type scandals. (his successor as party leader, Wendy Alexander, also resigned after serving a one day ban imposed by the Electoral Standards Committee following a scandal relating to sources of donations to the Labour electoral campaign).

itsallgoingtobefine the opposition to the SNP though is split between labour, Tories, libdems et Al. The SNP did not get an actual majority in the last scottish election even though they got a parliamentary one. Actually only 45% of the 50.6 % of people who voted, so we've had to listen to Alex Salmond preach on about having the overwhelming support of the Scottish people when he actually had

TheChandler

If they are voted in on a manifesto that calls for a referendum and independence then that is what the electorate have asked for.