To wonder why people keep voting SNP?

[Carla786]

I don't know a lot about Scottish politics and I may be missing important things they've done. However, I used to have a lot of respect for Nicola Sturgeon but her handling of gender critical issues has destroyed that. The SNP do not seem very effective at reducing drugs, poverty, or other serious issues.
My understanding was that quite a few people vote SNP not because they want independence (which most Scots appear to not want) but because they think the SNP are more committed to Scotland sorcifically than Tories and Labour. How accurate is this though..?

Since most Scots appear to not want independence, I thought the SNP was probably high achieving in other areas & Tories & Labour seen as poor by comparison. Or is it more often seen as the best of 3 bad options? Or is SNP much more positive than the impression I've got?

Yes, I remember getting the impression over the years that the Scottish school system was pretty positive, more so than England's. If that's changed due to the SNP, that's terrible...

The first day as a staff nurse in a Scottish Hospital, all the nurses turned their back on me and refused to speak to me. Having never met me before. One kindly told me I was English and therefore they wouldn’t trust me until it was earned. Having come from the top training hospital in London, I soon learnt how backwards they were.
When we got some new neighbours, they told us they didn’t like English Oilies. Charming.
i don’t suppose you have had this South of the border….
i am sorry to say that when my husband was offered a promotion in Kuwait, we jumped at it.
I had some very good Aberdonian friends, but they warned me how narrow minded the locals could be.
Good job we left when we did, Aberdeen is no longer a booming city. Our house is still worth the same as it was many years ago. My friends tell me even John Lewis has shut, due to the economic climate.

That's really shocking. Is this widespread, that kind of attitude? Why?

That’s exactly what the marjority want sweetie.
So all the very best. Following the demise of the corrupt SNP, it’s been a panto of even greater disaster than Westminster.

'Sweetie'.

Do fuck off pal.

Except the UK sovereignty owns the North Sea, not Scotland. And the financial district in London, generates more income than the whole of Scotland, so there’s something to think about.

Thank you, this is very interesting. I get anger at being 'run from afar'.

Re this in particular :' However there is a sick streak which by replacing "English" with any other minority in the country or world reveals the speaker as an out and out racist, bigot and piece of scum. At least two parties thrive on this, draw support from this and do not report it kick out members who speak thus.'

• very disturbing. People outside the UK often think of it as historically (at least post Troubles) fairly free of ethnic/national tribalism, but clearly that's not been the case for some people. I guess I just find it hard to understand when there's not the recent occupation history Ireland has- I suppose it's partly a scapegoating thing where blaming 'the English' removes the need to blame decisions made by Scottish politicians?

For me they are best of a bad bunch.

Labour and Tories as the same just a different colour of tie.
Greens are batshit crazy.
Reform are not for me.
Lib Dems are a pointless vote.

Spoken like a true Scot. I rest my case.

This is bonkers to me though! How can you make a ‘decent society’ in a country which is totally and utterly screwed financially. Where absolutely everything - pensions, benefits, public sector salaries, nhs spending, education spending would have to take a real terms budget cut of 20% minimum. How would some people survive?

I have a suspicion that any animosity you have received from Scottish people is not because you are English....but is because you are a patronising twat.

Sweetie.

You may be Scottish but I am British. I’m living in the UK, as stated on my passport. I am only who would move south immediately on independence. I wouldn’t want to leave my family but there is absolutely no way I want to live in a country of people who thought Indy would be a good idea. People who have zero comprehension whatsoever of the damage Indy would bestow on Scotland. I am so pleased the UK government is fighting for the interests of the likes of me. We are after all British citizens. And my employer would hit foot it south rapidly too, as would my husband’s so that’s also a consideration.

Well you haven’t. Because that’s exactly what they’re doing 🤯.

Yes anti English xenophobia is utterly rife. It’s so shameful in a nation that also pretends to be welcoming. Due to my mixed heritage I was declared to be ‘English’ at primary school despite not an English gene in my dna and was regularly beaten up for it.

Scots have a terrible inferiority complex when it comes to the English - worst in the working classes - when they have nothing to feel inferior about - and this insecurity comes out as hatred. It’s grim.

They hate the fact ‘the English’ can afford large houses without understanding that these people aren’t English but come from all over the world. Practically no one in my kids school in one of the best catchments in Scotland have two UK born parents - and its people who move about that get on in life, and if you don’t want to get on your bike and get a good career, you’re not going to earn sky high salaries.

I vote SNP for various reasons but the main one being that I want independence, as do most people around me. It's not for 'anti-English' reasons but because it makes the most sense to me. If we were to get independence, my vote may change in the future.

Certainly many English can empathically NOT afford large houses... A lot of Gen Z are having a hard time getting any kind of house...

Labour are genocide supporters
Reform are racists
Greens are lunatics

I don't like the SNP either but the others are completely unelectable

Exactly. It’s just grievance for grievance sake. It’s so tiresome. All of these people who say independence makes sense, in what way? It’s baffling.

I think they think that it will be like former soviet countries retaking their independence, while forgetting that these countries were walking from nothing, with nothing. They didn’t walk away with billions of pounds of debt, as Scotland would be doing. They didn’t walk away from billions of pounds worth of funding, as Scotland would be doing.

I think they think they’d walk into the EU not realising that the EU has strict financial entry criteria that Scotland hasn’t a hope of meeting for decades if ever.

Poland is growing massively economically now, quite a few decades post soviet times but that’s due to the get up and go of their populace. There isn’t the same attitude to hard work in Scotland.

So many people think that we’d be rich due to land mass and coastline and water etc without giving means to monetise these things. It’s daft.

Not sure how that works when they hadn’t even met me. Can you imagine working with yourself and your revolting language. I actually became a senior ward sister, so boo hoooo.

I am Scottish and I have voted SNP in the past. Mainly because I feel that the Scottish Labour Party are viewed as an office of the Labour Party. They have, in my opinion, not always stuck up for the best interests of Scots and have instead toed the party line.
I am not a rigid SNP voter, and in fact at the last election I did vote Labour. I have also previously voted Lib Dem.
I am on the fence with regards to independence, and indeed I voted SNP when I was against independence, because Labour was not strong enough against the Tories.
Its too simplistic and offensive to say people vote SNP because they do not like the English, or because they want independence. I think a lot of the times, Scottish people feel overlooked by Westminster.

I am left of centre and support Scottish independence (the Union just does not work anymore, particularly since Brexit) but I don't vote SNP due to their centralizing tendencies. They concentrate power and control to Edinburgh and don't value local government, so even though I am politically completely aligned with them, I can't vote for them.

You’re daft.

No one I know who supports independence thinks we’re going to be “rich”. We want to choose our own government and make our own decisions, it’s really as simple as that. As I posted earlier, do people like you never wonder why the unionists are so into the union and begged, bribed and lied to us in the lead up to the referendum to keep us in the union?

You do realise we do have control of devolved issues that matter the most and they are royally fucking them up? How will independence change that?

I'm of Polish descent and I'm happy there is improvement at last after decades of various kinds of turmoil...(fingers crossed Putin doesn't invade)

Good point re debt.

Re this point : There isn’t the same attitude to hard work in Scotland. - why is this? Depression? Feeling of apathy due to being let down by government (UK & Scottish)?

Devolution isn’t enough. And despite that, I don’t think Scotland are performing any worse than the rest of the UK in any measure, in fact, we’re usually better, contrary to what the unionist media would have you believe.

Do you realise that if we had independence we’d have the opportunity to elect other parties into government? So really whether you think the current Scottish government are shit or not is quite irrelevant to the independence debate.