To say thank fuck for Nicola Sturgeon

[Chippednailvarnish]

I can't stand her anti English stance, but at least one political leader is doing something for the refugees...

I hope that if you move South of the border (or to Wales or NI since they rarely get mentioned) ClearBlueWater you get much better SEN support since the new EHCP are a bit difficult to obtain and the schools have to find the first £6000 of support themselves. Fortunately for us the primary school we have moved to from the US have plenty of experience with ASD and are putting as much in place as poss. As an aside, ds's speech therapist in America would never have dreamed of suggesting his speech problems are because his parents have (two differing) English accents. Because that is so unprofessional. I am sorry you were treated like that.

And of course continued with the contempt she has for the 55% who rejected independence. We couldn't possibly have come to our own conclusion.

tandjennyp - THANK YOU.

Hamil - I think probably the lib dems would be the best ...they got a kicking in the election because they sold out but they softened a lot of the Tory policies...and because a bit like the SNP (and greens and Ukip to an extent) very easy to say we are going to anything - if you don't actually believe you are going to have to...
I don't actually believe SNP will suffer similar in Westminster because they can blame the rest of Westminster for stopping them...but in Scotland (and don't forget people in Scotland get more government money spent on them per head than the rest of the UK) they can't hide...schools aren't failing because of austerity, parenting isn't get worse because of austerity - making changes to the curriculum that rob teachers in deprived area of the freedom to do the best for their children and freezing council tax so reducing the funds available to the LA to spend on education are completely down to the SNP.

I agree impossible to know who to vote for these days. I think there are now very few conviction politicians - I liked but didn't necessarily agree with Tony Benn ...and Margaret Thatcher ...and actually even Nigel Farage because they have a belief and are prepared to stay true to it.
I don't think NS has any convictions except for an independent scotland no matter what - and I am not even totally against that -if they could make it work - but I don't think they can (based on the SNP's current record I wouldn't trust them to successfully run a school bake sale)

ALass what do you want her to do, admit she was wrong and agree with you? She makes no secrets she wants independece, its her sole purpose. And naturally she thinks those who don't are wrong.

I'm off to hold my breath on those Tories thinking up a new benefit to give all single mums and disabled people... oh wait, thats not what they stand for is it?

I want her to respect the settled will of the Scottish electorate and stop behaving as if we were stupid for disagreeing with her.

Why on earth a year later is she still whinging about BBC bias?

By the way I completely agree with your rather telling remark about it being "the sole purpose". That's really the problem - never mind what irreversible damage occurs we'll have our freedom.

Can you not see how wanting them to "respect the will of the Scottish people" is a bit like having a ref on immigration where 55% of the people say they want to stay in the EU and are happy with current levels of immagration, and then almost every seat in the UK is won by UKIP?

If anything, it screams we need a better system than FPTP (which the SNP actually want, even though they will probably be the losers).

Your comparison makes no sense. 55% of those who voted do not want independence. We are not stupid. She should stop treating us as if we were. She knows the GERMAN result was not a vote for independence

GE results

Of course she does, which she has said many times.

But what you expect the SNP to do is in effect like asking UKIP to run the country but completely forget about the fact they all joined UKIP because they want to leave the EU?

I'd like to see the plans they have for closing the fucking massive budget gap between what Scotland brings in and what it spends whilst simultaneously giving us more than we currently have.....

When I see how that is all going to work then I will consider the emotional and social argument of whether we should be independent or not.

Deficit was around 12bn - that's the same as they have budgeted to spend on the NHS in 15/16 - I'm sure its not only me that thinks that is enormous?

We didn't even get a straight answer to what currency we would be using.

Let's not forget that the price of oil has tumbled by 70% since the referendum.

Strangely enough sturgeon seems very quiet on independence or even FFA.

ds's speech therapist in America would never have dreamed of suggesting his speech problems are because his parents have (two differing) English accents. Because that is so unprofessional. I am sorry you were treated like that As a former SALT I want to second that. It's disgusting.

Even if oil was at the accepted previous average price the deficit would still have been 7-8bn.

They couldn't tell us what currency because they couldn't or didn't want to answer the Euro membership question and were aware that we would probably have been forced into the Euro and that that wasn't a selling point in order to achieve their only stated objective.

Oil is a finite resource in any event. You shouldn't make long term decisions like independence based on a resource that is going to run out, or become impossible to extract, in a matter of decades.

Exactly DrDre!

I don't have children, but own a business. We take on degree students as part of their course each year, where they have to gain experience of our industry. Given that what we do involves mostly numbers, I'm shocked at the decline in the general numeracy and literacy standards (we issue reports to clients, so literacy is important as well) over the last 5 years. This is from degree students, in the third year, so 21-22, and some of them cant string a sentence together, or do mental arithmetic.

The SNPs record on education and health are both shocking, they are remarkably silent on the amounts they have managed to under spend from their budgets since these areas has been devolved to them.

Anyone in the third year of a degree finished school before the curriculum changed, in fact this year's first year undergraduates will be the first that didn't do standard grades, though they'll still have done the 5-14 at primary.

Pupils who have only ever experienced CfE are currently still in the middle of primary school.

ds was the 1st year of CfE in our area.
His year is P7, so coming out of Primary now

It was implemented 5 years ago, so for anyone who has been in school longer than that, they had some time with 5-14 first.

Which I know is nitpicking as yes, anyone under secondary age has had most of their school time under it...but it definitely isn't a factor for 20 yr olds.

If you want to "blame" the government for problems with numeracy and literacy amongst graduates, it's not the current government you should point the finger at. They'd have been c.13 when the 1st (minority) SNP administration as elected.

Interestingly, apparently some of my dad's Tory voting friends voted SNP in 2011 because they'd been impressed by how effective the SNP had been in power, despite being a minority administration - contrary to the impression of some on here.

I am 'blaming the Govt' for the appalling literacy and numeracy 'teaching' at my children's Primary School which has been CfE, devolved for 8+ years, budgets being UNDERSPENT in a wealthy rural area where kids should be thriving.
I hear our High School is little better.
I read The Scotsman.
I pay attention to the concerns of relevant professional bodies and watchdogs.

pretty - that just proves the point ...all things to all men ...smoke and mirrors...from the headlines they appear to be doing a good job - but delve a little deeper into the actual policies, the implications and look at the effectiveness and the story is very very different.