Can Scottish politics be salvaged?

[SickofHolyrood]

I’m coming increasingly to the conclusion that Scottish politics has descended down a rabbit hole and I’m wondering whether it will ever emerge again to govern properly.

We pay eye-watering taxes compared to the rest of the UK and we get £2k more in spending than raised in taxes for every man woman and child, but seem to get very little to show for it.

Schooling started disappearing down the drain about 10 years ago, and withdrawing ourselves from the PISA etc stats just shows what we all know - standards are in complete free fall. My kids seem to have a succession of supply teachers, and yet there are thousands of teachers unable to secure permanent positions.

My kids aren’t deprived enough to have a reasonable chance of getting into a suitable Scottish university course, despite more than meeting the entry requirements. If they were English it would be a formality.

Despite much higher funding the Scottish NHS is only marginally better than the English NHS. CAMHS waiting lists are criminal.

The drugs death stats are horrifying and getting exponentially worse all the time.

The SNP seem to be openly corrupt - stealing £600k from their own supporters, not spending the COVID 19 recovery money on recovery from covid 19, and now not letting the auditor general know what has happened to Scotland reserves.

The SNP seem to be totally economically illiterate, best illustrated by the decision to spend millions of pound propping up a handful of Scottish jobs building ferry’s that are still not finished, leaving island communities to pick up the pieces.

The SNP spending an inordinate amount of time hankering for an independence referendum that polling shows no one wants and they would lose, after promising to respect the result of the 2014 referendum.

And the whole GRC situation makes me think that we are being run by some sort of weird q-anon cult. What part of trans women are not women don’t they understand? What part of women wanting women only spaces don’t then understand? It’s not bigoted to want
to keep safeguarding protections of penises out of female spaces. I just don’t get it.

Yes, the Tories are horrendous. No question about it, but I am 100% confident that the whole corrupt lot of them will be flushed down the loo at the next general election never to see power again for the next 100 years. But I can see the SNP shambles never ending, due to the constant lies of sunlit uplands to the not very clever gullible types who believe their nonsense. Can anyone see any light in the Holyrood tunnel at all?

If Alba was more sensible a proposition that might have helped; an Independence Party with different politics to challenge the SNP politics. Split the independence vote and require nats to start considering more than just independence - take away their unquestioning support of the SNP and denial of all their failings.

no. the vote to have a scottish parliament with tax raising powers was always a mistake.. it could only lead us down this rabbit hole.

No, I can’t. I really hate the SNP. I actually think Sturgeon is to be feared now, and not in a good way.

What about lowering the drinking age to 16? It’s just a ploy to get young people voting for them. Kids in pubs legally and nothing parents can do about it. As if the drinking culture isn’t bad enough.

Things aren’t good in my view. However, I’m not convinced that the majority of the population feel that way, or share my view ( or care even if they do) that independence won’t work economically and Scotland will be a poor country for quite a while. It may be that those posting are out of step - hard to tell. If we are and the next election shows continuing support for the SNP, then I suspect that we will join those decamping over the border alongside a good number of the (only) 6-8 per cent of current Scottish higher rate taxpayers ..

is that actually for real? they managed to do away with the drinking culture but now want to encourage it?

they already tried to separate kids from their parents with the named person scheme and #educated# kids about politics right before lowering the voting age for certain elections.

more than a few times i have questioned the curriculum in Scotland and the work being set for the kids.

it is total brainwashing in my opinion.

such a shame as we used to have one of the best education systems in the world and now there are kids who can barely read or do simple maths.

they are far behind the kids in the rest of europe (i can compare several systems)

so if they really wanted to rejoin the EU as an independent country it would fail badly anyway -as the current generation wouldn't have a hope in hell of competing with kids from other countries - who can probably read and write English better than Scottish kids.

I think you are wrong but many are scared to speak out.

I know plenty of people were silently planning to and did vote NO. only the YESers were vocal... and in my experience, they were particularly nasty and oftentimes violent.

The yes campaign also targeted kids.

Many people thought about leaving and stayed after the NO vote came through - but many have since left as they saw that the SNP still had control over the education system and local government - and things went from bad to worse.

some people have too much of a tie to scotland to leave - and why should they? it is their homeland.

just because you dont support independence - it doesnt mean you should leave,

and just because you dont vocally - or pubicly voice your distaste - it doesnt mean that you like the current political situation.

Well all my SNP family say they will no longer be voting SNP because of Nicola Sturgeon.

My snp member friend who is heavily involved with the party (attends conference, leaflet drops, mains the stalls etc.) said they are struggling to get candidates to stand from local council upwards.

even though aunt nicola professes that she has enough in the tank she talked about what she wanted to do after being first minister has finished.

well that's good news.. .what is she planning to do next?

Yes they definitely targeted the young. the SNP have played an insidious game grooming our young through soft propaganda in schools and all those freebies which are touted for everyone but aren’t really.

@somoslagente she said she’d write her memoirs and wanted to work with children.
I wouldn’t let them near any of mine, she’s proven to not be a very good judge of character.

First scotland, then the world mwah ha ha

i couldnt even post what i would like to in response...

i would get a chap at my door.

she already did enough damage to a whole generation - even those kids who's parents removed them from the situation are still hindered by her doings.

been doing it for a while. i actually know a young snp member and ive spoken to her about politics before and maybe thinking about the information you have been given.

asking questions about where it has come from - what is that particular person- organisation's agenda

why did they tell you x y z? and what benefit do they get from it.

she actively posts on facebook all the time and i politely ask questions about the post. lol

always politely - i dont hate the girl just her politics.

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not sure what freebies they got at school but i used to go through my DC'S homework with a fine toothcomb.

could barely read or write but was learning about independence and came home with a note about going to a private room with an adult (and me not being present) to talk about her worries

i was like - damned tooting i am not agreeing to that and ticked NO WAY JOSE

i think they asked me if i ticked the wrong box and i said no i havent.

i mean even stepping back from the whole political thing - the idea of letting your kid go to a room with some adult and you not being told that they did (until their talk was taken absolutely the wrong way and social workers contacted you presumably) is all wrong.

dont't we teach kids not to go places with strangers?

it felt so predatory and gave me the total ICK:

i used to hate this pressure of - if youve nothing to hide whats the concern.

so many incidents - so much of the system was broken.

i just wanted my kid to learn to read and write for goodness sake and they could not even arrange that.

I have a friend who supports them because she really believes it will be a way back into Europe. Just another delusion they are peddling to people naive enough to believe it will happen.

absolutely. i didnt agree with leaving the EU despite its faults.. but they constantly quote the number of scots voting to stay in europe as being snp supporters - and in my case (and i am sure in that of many others) that is definitely not true at all.

they have no chance of being able to rejoin europe. it will be vetoed by spain and other countries who have independence parties campaigning for their part of the country to leave x y and z EU country.

i meant the whole university education is free…but places for Scottish students are extremely limited
bus travel for under 22 years old is free… not so if you live rurally and there are no buses.

i understand there are always limits but these examples and similar are trotted out like some jingoistic propaganda parade.

actually i am not being funny - but does your friend know where half the european countries are on the map - as i cant remember my DC doing any geography at school...

it isnt really though.. i paid for uni as it is only under certain circumstances...

even then they cut back the amount of modules you needed to do to pass the year at certain unis as the funding was cut. so basically you arent getting the same level of education any more.

fee bus travel is also a myth. you could be a scottish kid but living elsewhere (lets say in the lovely eu land that they want to rejoin) and come home to visit family for a must be at occasion - but your parents need to pay full price for you as you have no freebie card.

i also heard from friends that these cards were not as easy to come by as some made out.

the buses arent all they are cracked up to be either and the trains dont run. total sh1tshow.

all that happens is that the people who qualify for nothing end up paying more money to subsidise the people who get the freebies - and are outpriced from travel.

but then again.. if they choose to drive as the bus is unreliable and the prices higher than the price of petrol - she will try and tax them for parking at work.

its a sorry place to be - and an even sorrier place to go back and visit.

DHs family is very pro independence. They are under the impression that independence will bring great wealth to them all and everything will be free and brilliant. Isn’t it great they don’t have to pay for uni or prescriptions because there is a magic money tree and once they are free of the English they will shake that tree and more money will fall and more things will be free.
Then they complain about the councils up there and how bad the NHS is, but apparently that’s all the fault of the English.

The throes and Labour were much better off when they had Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale.

The way the two leaders behave now in the chamber is disgraceful.

I don't pay 'eye watering taxes' in fact I'm much better off living in Scotland than I would be in England. We're a pretty middle-average 2 income family. Plus the free prescriptions, tuition fees, kids bus travel, Scottish Child Payment etc all benefit my family.

Anytime I've needed NHS it's been there for me and my family.

There are things that need improved on (education being one) but I'm still much happier and wealthier living in Scotland. Most of the people I know feel the same way.

I think when it comes to the independence debate everyone automatically assumes that NS and the SNP would be the top party. If we were to gain independence then we'd have to elect an entirely new government. Parties would have to redefine themselves and ultimately the SNP would be obsolete, they'd have gotten their main objective so where would that leave them as a party.
I find it very interesting that today NS said the trans rapist would not serve their prison sentence in a female prison, given the GRB they are trying to push through. I suspect she doesn't believe all the shite in that bill but wants to be so far removed from rUK that they want to take it to court and thus adding more fuel to the Indy fire.

who do they actually think pays for everything? i know i could never get a doctors appointment so never had a free prescription - so went to work sick and paid for over the counter medicines when need be - as the system didnt work.

i didnt get a free bus ticket but paid the road tax and petrol tax and every other tax that covers the cost.

my kid couldnt read and write so i went to the school and volunteered despite working full time night shift - didnt work out - i pulled her from school.

i would have paid for tutoring but none was available in my area and for some reason it was discouraged by the teachers.

if i hadnt she would have been left by the wayside or have fallen through the net. no one cared the kids could read and write - they just moved them up each year and ticked the box to say the class had been done - so what if miss or master x in the corner understood - they moved on to the next topic. .. and tried to teach french through maths (despite the teacher having little to know knowledge of one or both of the topics).

it drives me crazy.. everything is so expensive for low wage workers but other people live for free and are considered 'poor' so they get more- others are told 'you have a job so you can pay'