The English have voted in the Tories....again.

[ssd]

great.

If you are upset that people are blaming the Scots, take it up with them. I certainly don't blame anyone group for anything.

I find the SNP idea that all of their support is pro-Europe fascinating, if a fair few SNP supporters amongst my friends who are planning to vote for an EU exit. If Scotland votes for EU exit will the SNP cabal suddenly do a u-turn?

I'm english. I voted labour. If we'd had an SNP candidate I might have voted SNP. Because their policies seemed more old labour and therefore more 'me'. And because I've lived all my life in a Tory safe seat where a block of cheese could have w blue rosette and still win. :( I've tactically voted in the past and nothing has changed, so this year I voted for the candidate I actually wanted. Knowing that it would make no difference.

Fed up.

I don't blame the Scots for voting as their conscience dictated.

I do feel sad that I cannot see an end in sight to Tory government, and sad also that because I'm English people will assume I'm Conservative. It's so divisive.

Pooka

I know, I am tired of people assuming a support snp because I am Scottish, we aren't all brainwashed

The tax varying powers (varying the rate of income tax) had never been used (even though Scotland had to pay an annual fee for the right) and then (in 2010?) HMRC asked for £7million to pay for an upgrade to their systems to allow that facility to continue. As that would've had to come out of the block grant, the ScotGov decided not to pay.

Plus there were proposals for new, different tax varying powers being proposed.

Those have since formed part of the Scotland Act (2012) and are due to be implemented in 2016. Not sure how they fit into the Smith Commission proposals.

I think one of the challenges of using the tax varying powers as voted for in 1997 was that its impact on the Barnett Formula wasn't properly thought through, ie that if ScotGov raised extra income through taxation, the block grant would be reduced by the same amount, with the end result that the Scots would be taxed more heavily yet have no extra public spending to compensate.

It's one of the things that the Smith Commission mentions as needing to be managed appropriately.

So, you campaign for a 'scotsnet' when there is no 'englishNet' then use it to bash the 'English' when actually it's predominantly Scotland's fault there is a Tory government as if you hadn't backed a small political party that had no hope of claiming a majority and continued to vote Lavour as Scotland has done so for years then labour would probably have won or at least there would be a coalition instead of a majority conservative parliament.

But of course it's all the fault of 'The English'.....

ssd FWIW I share your disappointment at having a conservative government.

But I hope snp voters who feel that 'Scotland' doesn't get the gov't it votes for will remember that the snp leadership wanted to be in a coalition with labour;ie a gov't that no-one can vote for. Snp took votes mostly from labour constituencies (lib dem too) with the hope of having a coalition with labour.

I don't blame English voters for being fed up of hearing about the needs of 'Scotland'. It's widely recognised that the Barnett formula is very generous yet still snp stand on a platform of a louder voice for Scotland. The snp who wanted a 'fairer and more just society' - but only for the people of Scotland. They can say what they like about wanting what's fairest for everyone in the UK, but it's understandable if people don't believe that when their reason for being a party is to get independence for Scotland, even if it's to the detriment of rUK.

So half the (vote) in one geographical area(except for the three constiutencies who voted for other parties) was for the snp. IMO that still doesn't entitle that area to have proportionally greater representation than ukip, green or lib-dem voters. There are regional variations in voting all across the UK.

"No englishnet" - that was the whole point, if you post asking a NHS question (for example) then the responses assume you are in England and therefore reply about rules there.
Are you the same kind of person who asks why there is no "men's studies" at uni, or "white history month"?

LittleMiss, let's not rehash all that again. The primary purpose of Scotsnet is so that if we want to discuss schooling, healthcare, house-buying (and other legal stuff) from a Scottish perspective we can do so without well-meaning but unhelpful contributions from an English perspective - because our laws, healthcare, education are devolved issues, controlled from the Scottish Parliament, and different. It's not about English-bashing.

It is not "Scotland's fault" there's a Tory gvt in WM. Even if we had returned 59 Labour MPs, the numbers don't add up to stop the Tories taking power - "the English" voted Tory, so we all get a Tory gvt, that's how the system works as it stands.

I'm sorry you're unhappy about that.

Littlemiss unless you are seriously deficient in Maths skills, you should be able to work out that even if every seat went to Labour in Scotland, the Tories would still have a majority. The reason we have a Tory government is exactly because that's what people below Scotland's border (and obv some within) used their democratic right to vote for. I am no SNP fan and didn't vote for them, but they won the seats and that's that.

The one vote per person and first past the post system is what we have. Someone who is extremely politically aware and weighed up all the options only counts the same as some person who cares not a jot, and simply sticks an X on their ballot sheet because of some other reason.

Having said all that, I don't condone with bashing anyone and that is not what Scotsnet was about.

It was campaigned for and put in place because some things work very differently in Scotland, we have different Laws, house buying systems and education for example. Posting under the normal categories in Mumsnet often elicits the the wrong information and it becomes frustrating for people to have to explain that we have no SENCO for example.

The regional boards aren't busy enough as Scotland has a small population relative to its size, so Scotsnet is really just equivalent to one of the regional boards in England for example.

It was debated at the time whether there was a requirement for Englandnet and it was thought unnecessary, but if you have strong feelings then campaign for it like the Scots did.

The only tax raising powers holyrood was given was to raise basic income tax by 3%. Considering that would hit low income workers hardest it would have been very regressive and I'm glad they've never used it.

What would be better is more control over regressive taxes such as vat which hit the poorest the hardest.

On that we agree Jackie

VAT, tax bands (not the SVR), higher rates......they are the tax varying powers that would actually be useful.

And I say that as a usually higher rate tax payer (not currently as we are trying to set up a business, but fully intend to be again in the near future) (and no, we're not claiming any benefits as our savings are far too high to bother as we wouldn't get anything but hassle )