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?

Peggy didn't refer the university education.

I don't believe the parents of 5 yo should be paying for their education. Or of 15yo for that matter.

If we think society is split now, all education being paid for would create a shock.

You are far more likely to go to university if one of your parents did.

We also have to question the university... the Scottish RGs and St Andrews are full of middle class students who always have gone to university and always will. They can easily afford to pay for their higher education.

Now, in an ideal world, yes, it would be free for everyone. But why should the daughter of a banker get her fees paid? Would it not be fairer to put those fees towards building more nurseries in deprived areas, finally cutting those class sizes, providing appropriate support for children with extra needs or improving those disgusting free dinners?

Bakewell but non graduates benefit from education just as everyone else, we all be fit from doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists, teachers etc surely?

Doubtful if charging for further education will actually create revenue or just cost loads in admin and write offs whilst pushing up costs coming from universities.
Not sure free prescriptions cost that much either for similar reasons.

Yes, because all kids at the Scottish RGs have parents who are rich bankers...
Must have missed that memo.

"...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.)" Do you have a link, Bakewellslice?

Not all higher ed is as beneficial to the community as to the individual. It's not so clear cut as SNP would have us believe.

Free prescriptions cost less than the administration of the previous system. They spent so much monitoring and chasing people who fraudulently claimed free prescriptions it was apparent that it would be cheaper to make everyone eligible.

In 2012, less than a quarter of Glasgow Uni's students came from Scotland's most deprived areas.

That's wrong.

And actually, that was the highest of the four ancients. Shocking.

That's pretty good going don't you think?

What were the 2002 figures? Or the 2007? It's hard to reach a consensus with a snapshot stat like that.

I know overall around a quarter of Scottish students at Scottish universities are from the most deprived areas of Scotland.

I've just put our postcode in the SIMD database and have discovered I live in a most deprived area. So DS will count in this years stats.
Both DH and I have degrees, mine is from another RG. We are most definitely not poor or otherwise deprived.
So the figure is probably far lower IMO.

The SNP are not responsible for whether english universities charge tuition or not. They have done the right thing as far as they can, if a two-tier system exists it is not their doing.

I will be voting SNP all the way to the bank. I think Scotland is a much better country because of them, plain and simple.

In Scotland, would vote SNP when hell freezes over.

In Scotland - will not be voting for SNP or any other party that supported independence.
If they do well it will be a mandate for another a referendum. I do not want to go through that again. It was hellish, divisive. Split families and neighbours and communities - and some of the rifts are only just healing.

Furthermore I can't believe that anyone thinks the SNP has done a good job at governing Scotland...
The 'bad' things are blamed at Westminister - we have food banks here too.
The 'good' things are down to the Scottish government...and for one I don't know how sustainable it is in the long run and they headline things that were to get support for independence...and now for them to get votes this May.
We do get more spent on us per head than in the rest of the UK.
Free prescriptions - fantastic. But if you can afford to pay why shouldn't you? Now I'm on regular medication that I can't get otc it would cost me a lot - so maybe lower prescription charges ...but free for all?
I used to take a 75mg aspirin a day - it cost me £2 per month, cheaper than paying prescription. When free prescriptions came in I was told to get it on prescription - I shouldn't be paying for it ...I can afford £2 a month -I'm sure most people can - I don't object to paying for it.
Free eye tests - also good - I get one every 2 yrs (we go to the optician regularly with my short sighted DC) - could I afford to pay £10 -£20 for one - yes. Would I pay - yes.
(I appreciate that is a lot for some people - so better exemptions but also it is less than £1 a month.)
Dentist - free check ups etc - I needed an xray - it cost me less than £5. £45 in England I think is too much but £10-20 fine for most people.
And the money for these things is still coming out of the NHS budget for Scotland...and I believe the rest of the services are suffering.
I have had health problems for a long time - I can't speak for the rest of the UK now but I know I never experienced such delays etc before.
Twice now I have needed a scan that has been delayed for so long the results are pointless/inconclusive
First time it was a CAT scan. It took over 6 months to eventually get it done - by the time it was done I was symptomless. (At its height I had been hospitalised for 5 days). The consultant said I doubt we will see anything now but to be sure it should be done .
Second time with the Acute emergency unit in the hospital - where I really saw the NHS at 'breaking point'. (eg. someone they thought was on the verge of cardiac arrest and they couldn't find a bed for them - not even a trolley)

The doctors had a limit of 2 ultrasounds a day, I had to wait for 3 days - result was inconclusive. I had asked for them to speak to a certain department about me. My third visit and it hadn't been arranged and they were under so much pressure that I didn't want to fuss. Took 6 months to get a consultant appt with the right department. Who basically said that scan was pointless - should have been done by them - it has taken 9 months to arrange the specialist scan. The results may well be inconclusive... which in turn means I may well be on lifelong medication unnecessarily and need regular consultant appts.
And that is without me even starting on education - the sheer expense and upheaval caused by Curriculum for Excellence.

The Child at the Centre - most of which is complete rubbish - children are suffering...
Like less than 2 yrs before they were due to sit the new Nat 5s (almost equivalent to GCSEs) the teachers hadn't been told what was on the curriculum or how they were assessed.
That schools have to do so many subjects and minimum hours that the teachers can't fit them in the timetable.

The 600hrs free Preschool education...fantastic headline ...reality is a mess. Even the basic sums don't make sense ... 15.780 hrs per school week or 3.157 hrs a day - so 3hrs 9.47min a day.
School nurseries with two sessions can't fit that in the day without starting and finishing before school...allow the staff to have a lunch break and that's 30+ mins earlier or later. So with DCs at school you either drop them off early or hang around for 40 mins after to pick from Nursery - or just get them early/late and not use you full amount.
And you still need to arrange/pay for wraparound care if you want to work -how many people can get a job (without commuting time) 3 hrs 9 mins a day - or a cm who keep a space open for you (because of their ratios) and only charge for picking up and 30 mins before the session finishes?

Even council tax freeze - just means the business rates have shot up, the councils are making cuts to essential services (talking about closing schools at lunchtime on Fridays) and council tax discounts etc for some properties have been abolished.
(I have a property that I am renovating - my fault (health not helping) but it is taking a long time -currently uninhabitable I pay 200% council tax on it because it has been empty for more than a year. If it was a holiday home and I could live there for a few days a year (so habitable) I would get a discount...)

No, not voting SNP, and I'm not taken in by them. I'm also mightily sick of being demonised when I comment on here by their foot soldiers, who inevitably try to take over any thread and demonise anyone who dares to disagree with them.

Edinburgh is absolutely mired in corruption involving its local authority and many of the PPI contracts. Particularly the statutory notices scandal, where a law is in place that allows it to compel repairs on flatted buildings. This has been used by the Council to overcharge, do unnecessary work and award work to their favoured contractors. Single householders have faced bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds for unnecessary and badly done work. Charges were brought against a few ex employees, but the scandal is massive, widespread and still going on.

I simply cannot take their protestations of a fairer society seriously when they turn a blind eye to this and do not even debate it in the Scottish Parliament. Audit Scotland has commented recently, to the effect that because City of Edinburgh Council has promised to sort it out, everything is ok. The various ombudsmen services are the same - lip service only, sounds good on paper, in reality, useless.

There are so many taxes for things that aren't taxed in England now, and income tax is bound to go up. We still have home reports, so basically it costs either a fortune to put your property on the market, either to sell or rent out (you need goodness knows how many licenses and inspections).

The public sector provides far too high a proportion of jobs in Scotland, and so many licenses, tests, inspections, etc are required for things that aren't required elsewhere that its obvious a nice little industry is established for the jobs for the boys lot.

The planning system is an utter disaster - central Scotland is covered in new build housing estates, with many more being built, many of them consisting of 4 or 5 bed new builds at extortionate prices, and out of town retail parks and supermarkets. It seems really badly planned, because new roads, footpaths, railways, etc aren't built to service them. So you spend your life stuck in traffic jams, driving everywhere. That to me is the reality of living in Scotland.

unlucky83 Free prescriptions - fantastic. But if you can afford to pay why shouldn't you? Now I'm on regular medication that I can't get otc it would cost me a lot

I have had health problems for a long time - I can't speak for the rest of the UK now but I know I never experienced such delays etc before.
Twice now I have needed a scan that has been delayed for so long the results are pointless/inconclusive First time it was a CAT scan. It took over 6 months to eventually get it done - by the time it was done I was symptomless

Exactly my experiences. I have various conditions, and before free prescriptions were introduced in Scotland, simply used to buy a six month prescription for, if I remember correctly, £12, that covered all medication I required that the doctor put on it.

I had a muscular-skeletal problem and was initially told by the NHS physio that I wouldn't get an MRI scan. I was in agony, and clearly needed an MRI scan, which I had to threaten with legal action to get carried out. Then another lengthy delay to see a consultant and another one for an operation. It was an awful random, underfunded health service. It is well known that many parts of the NHS in Scotland have serious recruitment problems, as well as lack of equipment and over-administration.

Goodness knows what sort of society they want to create with their childcare policies - Scotland is hardly Scandinavia, and in Scandinavia many women with children are unmarried and single mothers, and working full time, because the state takes over the role of the father. Combine that with the traditional problems that Scottish men tend to suffer from (alcoholism, higher rate of wife beating, middle age onset lifestyle diseases) and I have a vision of a predominately female workforce of harassed mothers with children, and a few men in overpaid, easy jobs in protected industries assured by the state.

Yes, I'll be voting SNP in the hope that they win my 'safe' Labour seat, and many other seats across the country.

Thechandler I agree re the SNP footsoilders.

I regulary read the many pro-independence facebook pages.

Anyone who dares to question the SNP in anyway is shot down.

We are called nawbags, anti Scottish, pedophile lovers etc. Westminster is called westmonster, very mature.

I do not wish to live in a country where I am not allowed to question or disagree with the party in power

nawbags

Question and dusagree all you want but why go on a pro Indy page and be surprised at anti unionist sentiment?

Similarly on unionist threads and pages yes voters are called all sorts. I'm amused you think it's worth mentioning.

I am English, live in Scotland, and work as a doctor in the NHS.

I will be voting SNP.
Having worked in both NHS England and NHS Scotland at consultant level, it is plain to me that the SG have managed the NHS far better than Westminster.

It isn't perfect, but the NHS in Scotland is in a far safer placer than in England.

Because I am open to hearing other point of views and originally went on to try and get a balanced view from both sides. I may be no but wanted to check out both sides and I don't see what is wrong with that.

I am aware the same could be said of the pro union pages but they at least don't put labour and the conservative mps on a pedestal.

Nicola Sturgeon came across as the most popular in one of the polls from last night and it's no wonder. She talks sense, and she's sharp tongued and put DC in his place a few times, and a few of the other politicians.

I'll be voting SNP next month. No doubt.