SNP shenanigans continued…

[TheBelmont]

A follow on to…
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/scotsnet/4778465-sturgeons-husband-arrested

Thought I’d get a new thread going as we are perilously close to filling the last and I for one am enjoying watching events unfold in your good company!

buckle up…it’s gonna be a bumpy ride….😁

Better money in my pocket than in the retailer's or perhaps it would have been money better spent in a more meaningful way (although more boring to the electorate way) to help society?

The baby box idea was nicked from Finland. But Finland has many other aspects to its social support system, with much higher taxes to pay for it.

Taking one element from another country's system without the other elements and the underlying structure is just a performative piece of PR.

Government issued clothing looks and feels different when no one is going to start judging you about whether you can afford to clothe your baby properly.

It’s all standard MC-friendly cherry picking the easily packaged up and marketed bits of Nordic welfare state and ignoring the big cultural and structural differences. Then responding with horror to anyone questioning whether this is actually a useful policy for Scotland.

It’s also really easy for MC people to sneer at people who fear the perception of poverty by, for example, clothing your baby in the state baby box clothing or in charity shop clothes and so. And particularly the consequences of any perception that you ‘can’t look after your weans properly’.

And that’s without even considering that various aspects of the pram you choose may be much more important when you’re reliant on public transport than when you rarely use the pram for anything other than pottering around the shops or going for a nice walk.

Yes the baby box idea was nicked from Finland but they introduced them in the 60s or something when many babies died because of unsafe co-sleeping.

Back then many families in the UK used a drawer for their babies too sleep in.
In 2023 there is plenty second hand baby stuff available in Scotland. The baby bank quite often stops taking stuff as they have too much.

@BigBoysDontCry @thebelmont

I suggest you both go and have a look at the Best Start Grant (in place to help poorer families and it's more than £500).

So you both agree with this initiative that's been implemented by the SG?

Neither of us was saying it would be a cash hand out. We both said that the money wasted on people who can afford to buy their own baby clothes could have been spend on support for disadvantaged children. It doesn't matter what other support is already available, pissing good money up the wall when it could have been targeted better is a waste of an opportunity to actually have a progressive policy that they are always bleating on about.

It's amazing that the auditors resigned last September and they never bothered to replace them straightaway. What did they think was going to happen? That seems like a huge, lazy failure. I'm really struggling to understand how this party functioned day to day. How did the treasurer not have a heart attack with the worry of it?

Of course they don’t, but I’m a bit surprised that the SNP wouldn’t have chosen a Scottish firm.

I think it was the case that they couldn’t replace them - no-one wanted to touch it

I know you didn’t mean it that way - just how I read it tickled me!

But do you think that is better than, say, having early childhood centres offering direct support, baby groups, health monitoring etc? Which is how the money the Scottish government received for this was spent in England?

@Shelefttheweb WTF? Are you being seriously we prioritised baby boxes over baby clinics?

My youngest just missed out on a box.
By the time he was a few months old the Baby clinic was closed you couldn't get your baby weighted.
There wasn't any scales available at Breast Feeding group which there was for my first baby born in a different area.
Ans now it all makes sense - WTF.

I don’t see what one wasteful scheme has to do with a completely different scheme? The first is still wasteful. If you think the Best Start Grant is positive then just think how much more could have been spent on that if they had not tried to buy votes with baby boxes.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/humza-yousaf-signals-free-school-29872532.amp

Looks like Humza is moving away from the previous SNP policy of free stuff for everyone. Maybe the baby boxes will be next to go.

Wow, finally something I agree with him on. Had to happen eventually...

Absolutely, @TheBelmont. I am not a fan of these universal schemes and would much prefer to see funds directed to those who need it the most.

Like the free schools meals - when it was introduced 9 or 10 years ago the local paper did some digging and found there were less than 5 kids in the primary school eligible for free school meals - less than 5, and the Scot Gov wouldn't tell you the exact number so as not to identify them.

So them dishing out free lunches for 95+ kids every day of the week, kids from homes where money wasn't an issue and they weren't relying on school lunch as their main meal of the day. That money could have been spent instead on summer holiday food schemes for people who really needed it. Same as baby box, a headline grabbing load of nonsense.

I am mixed about universal stuff. Sometimes universal is cheaper than identifying specific individuals. Often qualifying criteria are too crude and do not correctly identify target groups eg Scottish Government favourite - SIMD lowest 20% - which excludes the majority of people with deprivation. Sometimes targeting can lead to disproportionate impact eg some schools getting capped class sizes, money for deprivation, PEF funding etc which they actually struggle to spend. And because there can be ‘hidden’ deprivation even in apparently wealthy families eg as a result of neglect, domestic abuse or redundancy.

I thought the argument for universal free school meals was related to getting all kids eating a better diet, kids are more likely to eat veg of their friends are too and help get them into good habits in the obesity fight.
Poor kids had inadequate packed lunches while the rich kids were full of sugar.

Mhairi Black on Peston apparently saying "difficult conversations" will need to be had about free prescriptions.

Watch the nats pivot to claim this is a good thing.

I’d like a 40+ health check like they do in England. Seems a no brainer for Scotland.

Wonder when they will look at free university tuition? That should be targeted to poor families (not families in poor areas) and everyone else should pay so they are not disadvantaged compared to rUK students.

The prospect of free uni is probably what holds a lot of middle income families in Scotland.

After what happened to the lib dems I don't think they will touch this.

Also Alex Salmond's rock hasn't melted yet. 😂

The Labour party in England has rowed back on abolishing fees.

So it may depend on what Scottish Labour does. Then whether the SNP want to keep clear water between themselves and Labour - and whether they can afford to.