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?

just know that the lower earning workers (who arent silly in the slightest - but in some areas of scotland it just isnt possible to earn more than the minimum wage as there is little to know work) are NOT better off...

many would be better off taking their brains and working bodies elsewhere where they might be better appreciated.

i am glad it is working out for you. some people also struggle to get a doctor so that they can be paid sick leave when they need it - so they are forced to go to work as they cant get the time off otherwise to recover - and so the sickness goes on for longer and they never get to the bottom of it.

many of the above people are fairly well educated and not enamored in the slightest by their current situation in scotland.

so you also beleive that she is pushing this gender bill as a warped way of gaining independence?

i cannot believe the crazy sh1t happening right now.

I agree with a lot of this. I’m not a fan of the Tories. However, I do think they deserve a little credit on education. I know I’ll get screamed at for this, but Michael Gove got some things right. The OECD, which ranks students in 80 different countries, puts British kids 14th in reading (up eight places from 2015), 14th in science (up a place since 2015), and 18th in maths (up nine places since 2015). League tables, rigorous testing, and the return to an old-fashioned model, has paid off. Teachers may not like it, but it works.

Welsh and Scottish children are doing worse than English children because their education is devolved and dominated by left-wing ideology. Wales, for example, has seen a decline, and was even singled out by the OECD for criticism. It’s no coincidence that their education system has been Labour run since 1999. In 2001, for example, they scrapped league tables. And you can see the results. Scotland was top within the U.K. for reading in 2006. It’s now in third place. The introduction of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence has been a disaster. The sad thing is that the English used to envy the Scottish education system. As a kid in Essex, I remember my mother saying that Scottish schools were much better, and that she wished she’d stayed in Edinburgh after graduating (from Edinburgh university).

I don’t like Labour, but in a way I still hope they get in at the next election. If that is what it takes to stop the U.K. disintegrating, it will be worth it. I’d be devastated if the Scottish voted for complete independence. I’m as much British as I am English. It would be like losing my country.

There is no one to vote for. All of them all horrid.

Exactly- Liz Truss anyone? Scottish politics is not the only place with dire politicians.

so you also beleive that she is pushing this gender bill as a warped way of gaining independence?

There might be some truth to this. It was very odd how they tried to rush through the bill before Christmas. What was the reason for that?

I think they genuinely believe that a section 35 will increase support for independence.

In their own little bubble they seem to have not read the room on how voting down the sex offender amendments would be seen. And that's even before the fragrant Isla demonstrated very clearly that those warnings they dismissed were spot on.

Actually the Spanish have said they would not veto Scotlands tee try to the eu. I don’t agree with a lot of SNP policies but I do agree with independence and rejoining the eu.

I don’t think that was it. I think they just were in too much of an echo chamber

Scotland can’t join the EU because we don’t meet the necessary criteria.

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.

So why haven’t most people heard of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill? Why aren’t they shouting about that?

I think Brexit is knocked on the head any workable version of independence. Scotland is so entwined with the economy of the rest of the UK and if we joined the EU, we’d be stuck with whatever trade deal the bloc as a whole negotiated. I don’t think the SNP have the talent to deal with all the issues - piss ups and brewery spring to mind looking at the current shower. I only know of two people over the age of 16 who think the GRR changes are a good idea and they are every cliche under the sun. Even my teenage DCs can see the issues and that the kids they know as trans have a complex set of problems.

Do we get over-40 health checks in Scotland? I heard in the news the other week about the English ones moving to be done in pharmacies rather than GPsand thought “What’s that?”. I’ve asked around and haven’t come across anyone who has had one via the NHS so I assume it’s just an English thing? I supposed with the great health of the nation it’s not really needed in Scotland.

I suppose if Scotland gets independence then joins the EU then they’ll have the EU to blame for everything that doesn’t go well.

i though over 40 checks were a good idea when my sil told me about them. Her friend was showing signs of being pre diabetic and managed to reverse it as a result. I asked my doctor sister, nah we got free prescriptions instead. Hmmm 🤔

You get them here too, they're not English only. Contact your GP if you've not received a letter and in the 40-74 age group.

Interesting, will do. I’m 50 and DH is 48 and neither of us have received a letter. Friends are mostly in the same age group and no one that I asked had had one.

Do we get over-40 health checks in Scotland?

Our GP practice used to do them a number of years ago as I know people who got called. But by time DH and I reached that age they'd stopped. There was a system of being able to get BP only checked but that went with covid

www.healthscotland.com/keep-well.aspx
@Womblyhead it now depends on your postcode. GP practice needs to be in area of deprivation

I think it’s a great loss that Ruth Davidson stepped back - a smart, no-nonsense thinker.

It doesn’t make sense to me to want “Independence”, only to immediately relinquish control to Brussels. Where on earth is the joined up thinking?

In my youth I was all about the lols and independence- but having seen this shit show evolve over the last X years - no thanks. We seem to have lost democracy and the Emperor is naked.

I’m rural though and Holyrood give zero fucks - so at least the feeling is mutual.

Scottish politics is in a very bad place. I do respect Nicola Sturgeon, I think she is a wily politician and head and shoulders above most of the MSPs, but she has to appease the seething nationilist wing, even though independence would plainly be a disaster at the moment. Surely Brexit has taught us how hard it is to break up a union and all the unplanned complexities - Scexit would be Brexit on steroids. Joining the EU won't happen quickly and the poverty and suffering would not be worth the saltire.

I think voting for a UK Labour government is the only hope, if the Tories get into Westminster then again I think Scottish independence will be inevitable (an appalling).

Labour support independence! The Tories do not. I will not vote Green now as they are in bed with the SNP.

@somoslagente oil. They think Scotland will get billions in oil money if independent.
I know on MN before there has been disbelief there is anti English feeling in Scotland, but there is. Lots believe they are being held back (it’s just the same as the anti European rhetoric).

Shouting about the UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child??

Is anyone remembering the utter clucterfuck surrounding the lockdown during covid? What happened in Scotland was fuck all to do with infection control and all about control of freedom.
(and I apologise for all the fucks, but this is what Scottish politics does to me)

If we were to get independence, it’d be interesting to see how fast there is a U-turn on drilling for oil. Right now it’s all COP26 - but were Westminster to turn off the money taps? Drill baby drill!

@Staggie The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) Bill was challenged in the Supreme Court by UK Govt, along with another Bill, the snappily titled European Charter of Local Self Government (Incorporation) Bill.
different mechanism than was used for the GRR Bill was used

Such a shame. Scotland is such a beautiful country. I was there last May and we drove across from west to east - stunningly beautiful countryside. I thought to myself what a lovely place to live, but because of the SNP I would never move there.