I loathe the Scottish Government

[Dineasair]

I loathe the Scottish Government. I want to see the SNP/Green Party coalition roast in hell! They can take any MSP who voted for the Gender Reform Bill or the Hate Crime Laws with them. Is it now a hate crime for a Scottish Woman to say that?

The Times was the best at reporting SNP incompetence. It's why I have a subscription.

So do we think the SNP knew all along that they were going to run out of cash, or they had their head in the sand, ignoring what the rest of the populace was saying and the penny has only just dropped?

They won't own up to it, that's for sure. They will continue to blame Westminster but I don't think the Scottish electorate are as tolerant of that excuse as they once were.

Yep. I think they thought they could rob Peter to pay Paul and they'd get Indy before they had to own up to it.

The one thing I don't understand is they state that one of the things that has to be paid for is the council tax freeze. Why?! Why not just cancel it? No one wants it. It's not a progressive measure, it benefits the wealthiest and just stores up funding issues later on while services suffer.

They take no responsibility despite having been in Government for 17 years
Guy on BBC Scotland this morning (missed who it was but might have been Ivan Mackee ) talked over the presenter the whole time and blamed Westminster entirely
Mind you they can’t even look after their own money ,so can hardly be expected to look after our money

I think they thought they could rob Peter to pay Paul and they'd get Indy before they had to own up to it

Absolutely agree - but unfortunately for them (though fortunately for us) that didn't happen and doesn't look like it'll happen anytime soon. The student politics of the SNP are now catching up with them and they're being forced into accountability - and they don't like it.

Where do the costs associated with that shitty bottle scheme and the crazy ferry spending sit in all this?

The party money business feels like just the usual pattern of SNP spending - collected for one specific thing but they were so used to being cavalier with money and not being accountable they didn’t think anyone would actually complain if the definition of that thing was then broadened.

I agree with all the posts. I think it was a combination of all these things. A mixture of incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, ability to blame others, wheesht for indy etc etc etc.

You can't keep spending and wasting money and still expect to balance the books.

Auntie sturgeon knew when the game was up that's for sure.
The party of fuck ups and cover ups.

I agree with all the posts. I think it was a combination of all these things. A mixture of incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, ability to blame others, wheesht for indy etc etc etc

This feels accurate to me too!

OMG 😲
I didnae realise there were soooo many of us!!!!
It warms my heart to hear uz
The SNP and their snombies would have us believe that we all want them 😂
Thanks scotsmumsnetters 👏

So Scotland spends 20% more than it gets in taxes. I would LOVE to know how our spend compares to England and how scrapping the freebies could open up other options. Also how the number of people on benefits in Scotland compares to England.

Googling brings up a Daily Express article (not a reliable source!) saying free prescriptions cost Scotland £1.5bn a year. Baby box £8m. Scottish child payment £470m a year. Free tuition fees £900m. It would be good to know how much these things cost relative to Scotland’s budget in certain areas so we could decide if we agree with a party’s policies. Another google. The total Scottish budget is £60bn. Makes these freebies look expensive.

Latest polling (I know we're still quite some time away from the next election) shows it won't translate into a decisive defeat of the SNP, according to this the SNP would still win the most seat but Labour could form a coalition government:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/d830011b-cd00-4d4c-b17c-ec3cd9899134?shareToken=f6e0e39c8921e10c5f792832c2dad86f

And here is Kenny Farquharson burbling on how a coalition government wouldn't be "legitimate" in his eyes, despite the SNP forming a government with the Greens who had like 2%, or thereabouts, of the vote:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/5b3cf4fc-48bf-4523-b9e2-66a9dcc78d82?shareToken=c23ba3136de8b9575d7000f11f4b2db1

They get free elderly care as well, regardless of income or assets. https://www.gov.scot/publications/free-personal-nursing-care-qa/

£160m a year for free elderly care. It’s not that I disagree with these policies necessarily but if a politician said yes you’ll get free tuition fees but it will take up 20% (say) of the education budget, is that still fair? Would that money not be better sorting out schools? How much is wasted on the constitution department, the pretends embassies?

Reading Starlightshine reminded me of this.
In Scotland, well at the Uni I attend, students who are on 'The Inclusion List' - which includes those who are dyslexic - are given extra support - quite rightly. Part of that support is being given a new Mac laptop.

Two of my friends got assessed so they could get a new laptop. Both were diagnosed as dyslexic though they had never any issues before. Eventually 14 out of the class of 30 had new laptops. The Mac laptops were literally just being handed out and they didn't need to be returned.

So that's 47% of the class, which to me seems quite a bit higher than the general population.

Ahh but it's more 'progressive'. Which is the main thing.

I was questioning the whole concept if ‘progressive’ recently following the Tickle v Giggle trans rights case in Australia. Australia probably thinks that it is so much more ‘progressive’ than us as it has given full womens rights to trans identifying females. But I don’t see this as progress at all. Men in Australia have ensured that they can take any rights that women ever had, just by saying they are women. They can (And do) barge into women’s sports. Women are gradually being obliterated there. It’s pure misogyny. Nowhere near as bad as Afghanistan clearly, but Australia is taking their first foot on the pathway there. Under the SNP Scotland was in danger of going the same way. I hope to god all of the nonsense has been binned now.

Really? I have a son who is at uni in Scotland, he has a (proper, medical) diagnosis of dyspraxia and ADD. He had to get a needs assessment done by University to say what technology he would need or which would benefit him, the Uni costed it out (was recommended a microphone/recorder to record lectures and subscription to special software), and he was awarded a DSA grant to that value and that value only.

Much as I love to give the SNP a good kicking and i'm usually first in line to do so, nobody's chucking out free Mac Books from what we've seen, at his uni at least. But there is definitely a lot of money wasting going on.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100211128/#page-top

FOI request about the cost of baby boxes shows that express figure is correct.

The thing is, giving away loads of free stuff to wealthy people is the opposite of progressive.

The only one I am in favour of is free school meals because I think it reduces the stigma associated with free school meals being means tested. Also, children from a variety of backgrounds can benefit from a hot school meal that thier parents might not otherwise have ordered for them. It creates a positive and inclusive experience at school.

The rest of it, nope.

But even the school meal thing is flawed. As I understand it, the amount allowed per meal is now very small due to stretched budgets and the infrastructure to provide the hot meals on site doesn't exist so meals are made centrally and shipped out and whilst on paper they are "healthy" they are often barely edible by the time they are served and they still give the same portion to a 11/12 year old as they do to 4/5 year olds. Choice is very limited and repetitive as they are trying to cater to many different diets with as few different meal options as possible.

Once again, targeted support would be much more valuable rather than blanket policies when you don't fund that policy to work properly in practice.

Even when i was at school in the 70s, primary school meals were served "family style" at tables of about 10-12. Each table has a mix of pupils from P1-P7 and the two senior pupils would collect the food for the table in large trays and portion it out. Once everyone had a portion, the 2 senior pupils could serve themselves and any older children with larger appetites could have the extra. All meals were cooked in the school and served fresh and hot and the younger pupils were supported by the older ones and staff "floor walked" to ensure that every thing was fair. You did feel part of a "family" and I think we all ate better. There were no packed lunches, you either went home or had school dinner.

I see this and I think WTF!!! The people who blindly support SNP are sleepwalking us into.......bankruptcy, solely on the notion of independence. Under this utterly inept SNP.
We all know the Westminster government have raped (sorry, thats a vile word) Scotlands natural resources but we are still better as good/friendly neighbours and hopefully will continue to depend on each other.
We are a wee island really, in the grand scheme of things!!

Well the Scottish luvvies are now getting a dose of reality.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13789653/Swinney-no-Music-stars-including-Proclaimers-hit-SNP-arts-funding-cuts-claim-cause-cultural-catastrophe.html

Now imagine how much worse it would be when billions are having to be used to pay for the cost of independence.

We should also remind them how much money is being used to indoctrinate our kids with gender ideology nonsense via stonewall and the nonces at LGBTYS.