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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you are voting SNP?

562 replies

SpiceAddict · 03/04/2015 11:10

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?

OP posts:
SirChenjin · 03/04/2015 21:25

Fine - the OBR disagrees. Furthermore, the IFS is working on the SNP's assumptions and working with the figures they've been presented with - as opposed to testing them.

SirChenjin · 03/04/2015 21:34

Most people polled wanted to pay more council tax

Precisely. The SNP could renounce the council tax freeze and allow Councils to start investing in services for the most vulnerable in society.

ScotsWhaHae · 03/04/2015 21:36

My Labour led council got round the freeze by bumping everyone up a band!

SirChenjin · 03/04/2015 21:40

There's a freeze on - no-one is paying Council tax in Scotland, 2015 is the 8th year in a row.

dementedma · 03/04/2015 21:47

I'm in Scotland and would never vote SNP. Obsessed with independence despite the majority having voted against it!

ssd · 03/04/2015 21:48

what do you mean no one is paying council tax in Scotland?

ScotsWhaHae · 03/04/2015 21:53

GrinGrin

No one is paying council tax? You sure?

Grin
cashewnutty · 03/04/2015 21:53

I am paying council tax in Scotland. Lots and lots of bloody council tax.

ssd · 03/04/2015 21:54

snap, have never not paid it.

and everyone I know is the same.

PrimalLass · 03/04/2015 21:56

Councils also need to stop reckless overspending. I was involved with a small project - funded by grant applications but project managed by the council - some of the costs the suppliers submitted and which were signed off were mind boggling.

Taz1212 · 03/04/2015 21:56

What, is it optional? Wish someone had told me earlier! Grin

OftheTwilighttheDarkness · 03/04/2015 21:58

Yes I will, they are doing a god job in Scotland, and I much prefer Nicola Sturgeon to smuggy mc smug Alec Salmond.
Up to and including the last election I always voted Liberal. Never again!

TheChandler · 03/04/2015 22:02

Here's a good description of the fairer society, ruled by the SNP for a good few years now, flourishing with its own brand of corruption. I simply cannot take the SNP seriously when they do not sort out this fraudulent mess in the capital city itself:

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

GrannyWeatherwax2015 · 03/04/2015 22:04

I live in Scotland and do pay Council Tax Confused.

I will also be voting SNP.

SirChenjin · 03/04/2015 22:08
Grin Sorry, thst should have been no-one is paying an increase in council tax, eighth year in a row. Trying to play board game with DS and type at same time and not doing well.
SirChenjin · 03/04/2015 22:10

Increased banding excepted. FFS - my multitasking is rubbish. Will stop now and focus on game.

cazzyg · 03/04/2015 22:23

I've been campaigning against my local council recently and its brought me into contact with local politicians across the political spectrum. Buddy2go, you might be in the same area as me Wink

It's taught me a lot about local politics and all I can say is, it doesn't matter which party - they are all playing games. This time it happened to be over education which is beneath contempt in my view. By far the worst were the labour stooges. Saying one thing in private then another in public, making announcements that hadn't bern approved and sending emails to the local paper instead of proper press releases. SNP have on the whole been more credible as individuals.

I have no idea who to vote for. Completely conflicted. I don't agree with a number of SNP policies I see as vote winning populist moves such as council tax freeze, free school meals, free prescriptions etc. I'm also anti independence but having seen the mess Labour politicians have made locally, I'm loathe to vote for them. I suspect the result is a foregone conclusion here anyway.

Ghirly · 03/04/2015 22:34

I will be voting snp.

If it wasn't for us Scottish people not having to pay university tuition fees I would not be a mature student at the age of 40. (thus helping me escape from the trap of having to claim tax credits and housing benefit whilst working in a low paid job) Also, I am not the offspring of a banker yet I am attending an RG university.

A couple of people mentioned the "named person" policy of every child having a neutral person (usually the school head teacher) and are assuming they have legal control of their children. They don't. This only kicks in if a child has any 'issues' that are being dealt with by the ss and it simply means that the named person is the one who has to have every piece of information on these issues. The named person is the one who all the correspondence has to be sent to in order to ensure it is in one place and is up to date. It does not mean that the named person can make decisions willy nilly for any child.

stargirl1701 · 03/04/2015 22:39

And if the parents disagree with the named person...who wins? Slippery slope, IMO.

Judydreamsofhorses · 03/04/2015 22:39

Yes, and I voted yes in the referendum.

Judydreamsofhorses · 03/04/2015 22:41

And I pay a bloody fortune in Council Tax. The freeze just means it hasn't risen year on year.

bogwobbit · 03/04/2015 22:44

Hell, no! The SNP are in the fortunate position of being able to blame everything that goes wrong in Scotland on Westminster (or is it 'Westmonster' Hmm ) government and to take credit for anything that goes well themselves, regardless of whether it had anything to do with them or not. Sadly, many people who are, probably rightly, disillusioned with politics will think they offer an alternatie and are jumping on the SNP bandwagon. The phrase 'emperor's new clothes' jumps to mind. All a vote for the SNP will do is allow Tory austerity to continue for another five years.

unlucky83 · 03/04/2015 22:48

Scots the whole thing about the back door is that it is the sneaky way in...
Would the SNP advertise that? Of course not. Surprised you would expect them to. (especially the SNP who are particularly manipulative)

Basically it is using your power (from forming a coalition) to make sure that policies that suit a goal of independence get put forward.
These may be straightforward things - like so much devolved power it seems there is practically no difference.
Coupled with the groundwork to sorting out the major stumbling blocks to independence - eg the lack of a viable currency option

And they are not more than a one issue party - their behaviour immediately following the referendum results proved that. They should have said ok - that's what the people want - lets get on with working with what we have to make things better - they didn't.
Just think of how much better off Scotland (and indeed the whole of the UK) would be if all that energy and money hadn't been wasted on not only the obvious campaigning but also the background stuff - the preparation of headline policies -diverting cash from where it is needed to meet their higher goal.

They talk a good talk but nothing is improving for the poorest and it isn't just due to Westminster.
Think about it - is it in the SNPs interest to make people's life better? If people were contented with their lot they wouldn't vote for massive change - for independence - the SNP's raison d'être.
(I'll leave it there - I really really don't like the party - really believe they are the fakest, blackest hearted politicians around - hate them almost as much - or even as much - as that war criminal BLiar. In fact I suspect that in time people who vote for them will come to feel the same way about them as many of those that voted for Blair 1997 do about that now)

TheChandler · 03/04/2015 23:37

Ghirly A couple of people mentioned the "named person" policy of every child having a neutral person (usually the school head teacher) and are assuming they have legal control of their children. They don't. This only kicks in if a child has any 'issues' that are being dealt with by the ss and it simply means that the named person is the one who has to have every piece of information on these issues. The named person is the one who all the correspondence has to be sent to in order to ensure it is in one place and is up to date. It does not mean that the named person can make decisions willy nilly for any child.

In the country in which children were removed from their families in Orkney due to fake claims of devil worship mixed in with child abuse recently, why on earth would this be considered a good idea?

Where on earth did it come from, why was there not a public debate as to whether it was necessary or not and what other country in the world has actually found it necessary?

Like the centralisation of the police force and the closure of local courts, which were done equally stealthily, a lot of what the SNP does is aimed at saving money and centralising and concentrating their control over people's daily lives.

Mind you, there would hardly be any point in de-centralising control to the majority of Scottish local authorities, considering how generally inept and often corrupt they are.

KidLorneRoll · 04/04/2015 00:15

Wow, that's an impressive load of paranoid codswallop there unluckly. And a Bliar to boot! How witty and not at all tiresome that is.