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Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

Scottish Elections who do you think will take the majority of Seats?

708 replies

Fundays12 · 12/04/2026 11:15

As a Scot I genuinely have no idea who to vote for.

I dont trust the SNP and find John Swinney completely incompetent. I wouldnt trust him to run my household budget let alone the countries so he is out for me. I cant stand labour, the tories well are not my cup of tea, lib dems and green would never get my vote.

However i dont seem to be alone in having no idea who to vote for which leaves me wondering who will take the majority of seats across Scotland. What do others think will happen?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
24
Helpmaboa · 07/05/2026 20:38

The proposed named person legislation was one of the most stupid and ill advised propositions ever

It failed completely to deal with issues of child protection and yet again the SNP refused to listen to people in the field who actually knew about this stuff

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 20:44

My son who has just finished S6 is going to one of the counts tomorrow and is very excited. His friend's dad is one of the local organisers for one of the parties. He's very engaged with the whole process which is good to see.

Sliverfish · 07/05/2026 20:52

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 20:08

Still no clue I see. I helped set it up.

And that partly explains the whole enormous mess-up, doesn't it?

You are not acknowledging that the role of the Named Person would have been much wider than you have told us. Very much not just a matter of forwarding reports on to Social Work Services - a far more active role, with parents and children invited to contact the named person for information and support if they felt it was needed. Which is why it was anticipated that this role would be carried out by a professional like a teacher or a health visitor, rather than an admin clerk. And of course that person would have had full access to all confidential reports about the child - everything would have been sent to them. And at their discretion they would have had the right to pass that information on to people in the child's life, like their GP and their school.

The legislation was blocked by the Supreme Court, because it breached families' human rights to privacy and family life (European human rights). However, John Swinney said that the scheme would go ahead despite the Supreme Court judgement - he tried to amend the faulty legislation. That was blocked by Holyrood's education committee, who refused to move the legislation along until they saw a draft code of practice for Named Persons. Swinney complained that producing a code of practice for Named Persons would delay things. And then - guess what - producing a code of practice for Named Persons turned out to be an impossible task. The idea was dropped.

But not completely - voluntary schemes are in place in parts of Scotland. If you have a look at how these work, it's clear that there is contact between the child and the Named Person.

"Once a wellbeing need has been brought to the attention of the named person, it is their responsibility to work together with the child, young person and their family, and other agencies if needed, to explore what support could be provided to address the identified wellbeing needs... There may be situations where a child, young person and family no longer wish to continue to work with the individual who has been offered as their named person and will seek someone else to undertake that role." (That's from the Scottish Government's website)

So it's certainly not a matter of collecting pieces of paper and sending them on.

Are these the hallmarks of an SNP policy? - huge overreach and disregard for citizens' rights, a belief that they are more intelligent, more right and more moral than everyone else, an assumption that they would make such a massive scheme work, despite their history of failing at even basic projects, trying to rush things through, avoiding or fudging inconvenient but hugely important things like a code of practice for Named Persons, losing at the Supreme Court but trying to go ahead with the scheme anyway, never accepting that they've got things wrong. And such a massive inability to imagine the probable unintended consequences, including the abuse of children.

NB. I've got the facts from 1) the BBC and 2) the Scottish Government.

Sturmundcalm · 07/05/2026 21:24

Igneococcus · 07/05/2026 20:16

I did an exit poll for Norstat online about two hours ago. I hadn't actually voted at that point yet ("not voted yet but will vote" was an option to tick, I assume "not going to vote" would have screened me out) but have voted since. I was sent an invitation by email for it. The survey asked for my postcode so I got the list of candidates for my region and list options on another page.

v good! I'd heard via work that there wasn't one and a few of the papers were saying the same. would make for a very boring start to the day tomorrow if there was no speculation 😂

Igneococcus · 07/05/2026 21:30

Sturmundcalm · 07/05/2026 21:24

v good! I'd heard via work that there wasn't one and a few of the papers were saying the same. would make for a very boring start to the day tomorrow if there was no speculation 😂

I don't know who commissioned it, could be any newspaper or TV channel but whoever publishes it, others will pick it up.

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 21:44

Sliverfish · 07/05/2026 20:52

And that partly explains the whole enormous mess-up, doesn't it?

You are not acknowledging that the role of the Named Person would have been much wider than you have told us. Very much not just a matter of forwarding reports on to Social Work Services - a far more active role, with parents and children invited to contact the named person for information and support if they felt it was needed. Which is why it was anticipated that this role would be carried out by a professional like a teacher or a health visitor, rather than an admin clerk. And of course that person would have had full access to all confidential reports about the child - everything would have been sent to them. And at their discretion they would have had the right to pass that information on to people in the child's life, like their GP and their school.

The legislation was blocked by the Supreme Court, because it breached families' human rights to privacy and family life (European human rights). However, John Swinney said that the scheme would go ahead despite the Supreme Court judgement - he tried to amend the faulty legislation. That was blocked by Holyrood's education committee, who refused to move the legislation along until they saw a draft code of practice for Named Persons. Swinney complained that producing a code of practice for Named Persons would delay things. And then - guess what - producing a code of practice for Named Persons turned out to be an impossible task. The idea was dropped.

But not completely - voluntary schemes are in place in parts of Scotland. If you have a look at how these work, it's clear that there is contact between the child and the Named Person.

"Once a wellbeing need has been brought to the attention of the named person, it is their responsibility to work together with the child, young person and their family, and other agencies if needed, to explore what support could be provided to address the identified wellbeing needs... There may be situations where a child, young person and family no longer wish to continue to work with the individual who has been offered as their named person and will seek someone else to undertake that role." (That's from the Scottish Government's website)

So it's certainly not a matter of collecting pieces of paper and sending them on.

Are these the hallmarks of an SNP policy? - huge overreach and disregard for citizens' rights, a belief that they are more intelligent, more right and more moral than everyone else, an assumption that they would make such a massive scheme work, despite their history of failing at even basic projects, trying to rush things through, avoiding or fudging inconvenient but hugely important things like a code of practice for Named Persons, losing at the Supreme Court but trying to go ahead with the scheme anyway, never accepting that they've got things wrong. And such a massive inability to imagine the probable unintended consequences, including the abuse of children.

NB. I've got the facts from 1) the BBC and 2) the Scottish Government.

Tldr

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:51

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 21:44

Tldr

So rude.

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 21:52

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:51

So rude.

Truthful though.

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:55

No, it's rude and dismissive to someone who has spent time trying to craft a post laying out the issues and engaging with your previous points.

Saying "tldr" is just downright rude.

Helpmaboa · 07/05/2026 22:01

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:51

So rude.

Very rude

But unsurprising

Sliverfish · 07/05/2026 22:04

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:51

So rude.

Oh, he/she read it. They were involved in setting up the scheme, remember? They've been deliberately dishonest to everyone on this thread, accused everyone who was against the scheme of child abuse, been very rude to me (it's always the same technique - aggressively accuse other people of being stupid, ignorant and badly educated (coming from the SNP who are responsible for our disastrous education system 🙄). Then ignore anything anyone says that you don't have an answer for / where the evidence is against you. And then finally bugger off because you have NOTHING and will never, under any circumstances, admit you've got anything wrong. If you work for the elected government, don't you aspire to do better than that? And how much money did the failed Named Person Scheme, including fighting for it to the Supreme Court in London, cost the Scottish taxpayer? You were a part of that.

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 22:06

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 21:55

No, it's rude and dismissive to someone who has spent time trying to craft a post laying out the issues and engaging with your previous points.

Saying "tldr" is just downright rude.

Considering your replies to me on this thread you either have a cheek or cognitive dissonance. Either way, I DON’T CARE.

I’ll ignore your next reply 😊

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 22:06

Sliverfish · 07/05/2026 22:04

Oh, he/she read it. They were involved in setting up the scheme, remember? They've been deliberately dishonest to everyone on this thread, accused everyone who was against the scheme of child abuse, been very rude to me (it's always the same technique - aggressively accuse other people of being stupid, ignorant and badly educated (coming from the SNP who are responsible for our disastrous education system 🙄). Then ignore anything anyone says that you don't have an answer for / where the evidence is against you. And then finally bugger off because you have NOTHING and will never, under any circumstances, admit you've got anything wrong. If you work for the elected government, don't you aspire to do better than that? And how much money did the failed Named Person Scheme, including fighting for it to the Supreme Court in London, cost the Scottish taxpayer? You were a part of that.

Tldr

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 07/05/2026 22:06

Sliverfish · 07/05/2026 22:04

Oh, he/she read it. They were involved in setting up the scheme, remember? They've been deliberately dishonest to everyone on this thread, accused everyone who was against the scheme of child abuse, been very rude to me (it's always the same technique - aggressively accuse other people of being stupid, ignorant and badly educated (coming from the SNP who are responsible for our disastrous education system 🙄). Then ignore anything anyone says that you don't have an answer for / where the evidence is against you. And then finally bugger off because you have NOTHING and will never, under any circumstances, admit you've got anything wrong. If you work for the elected government, don't you aspire to do better than that? And how much money did the failed Named Person Scheme, including fighting for it to the Supreme Court in London, cost the Scottish taxpayer? You were a part of that.

They are like that across many a thread. Extremely unpleasant. Not much of a positive advert for the SNP.

GenieGenealogy · 07/05/2026 22:09

Anyone can say they are anything online. I could say I’m the Duchess of Devonshire. I mean, I’m clearly not, but I could claim all sorts of things. Just saying.

Nimonion · 07/05/2026 22:30

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 07/05/2026 22:06

They are like that across many a thread. Extremely unpleasant. Not much of a positive advert for the SNP.

God yeh. The worst sort of SNP mouth prove. Talks utter shite. Is even a fan of putting trans women in women’s single sex spaces. Will never admit SNP are shite - which they unutterable are. Ignore, ignore, ignore.

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 07/05/2026 22:35

Nimonion · 07/05/2026 22:30

God yeh. The worst sort of SNP mouth prove. Talks utter shite. Is even a fan of putting trans women in women’s single sex spaces. Will never admit SNP are shite - which they unutterable are. Ignore, ignore, ignore.

Took the words right out of my mouth!

Helpmaboa · 07/05/2026 22:45

I think the real problem with the SNP across the board is the refusal to engage in any kind of reasoned discussion

Of course, any dissent is forbidden by the party hierarchy

But surely failures such as the named person scheme, and the bottle return scheme, and men in women’s prisons, and the Salmond case, and the continued spaffing of taxpayers’ money on these ill advised causes are worthy of debate?

Never mind them nicking the donations of their own members

Nimonion · 07/05/2026 22:53

Helpmaboa · 07/05/2026 22:45

I think the real problem with the SNP across the board is the refusal to engage in any kind of reasoned discussion

Of course, any dissent is forbidden by the party hierarchy

But surely failures such as the named person scheme, and the bottle return scheme, and men in women’s prisons, and the Salmond case, and the continued spaffing of taxpayers’ money on these ill advised causes are worthy of debate?

Never mind them nicking the donations of their own members

And education? No the SNP will just stick their fingers in their ears and pretend not to notice. Weesht for Indy wankers every one of them.

MyFellowScroller · 07/05/2026 22:54

The ferries, is that all finished and what have they cost you all?

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 23:00

All the wee attention seeking bullies 🤣. I’m so sorry this is what you have become 😔. Take care.

Helpmaboa · 07/05/2026 23:05

Make point = bullying 🙈🤷🏼‍♀️

This really does prove the point

boobashka · 07/05/2026 23:24

Classic DARVO tactics whenever anyone dares to ask a difficult question.

It really makes me wonder if we’re dealing with an SNP staffer tasked with "managing" the conversation. Instead of providing actual arguments or defending their dismal record on education, they just pivot to personal slights and call people 'sad' for disagreeing.

Whether it's the plummeting standards in our schools or the total disregard for women's concerns about single-sex spaces, they simply cannot defend their policies. If they can’t make a coherent case for their time in government without resorting to name-calling, they’re never going to win the argument for independence. It's a complete lack of substance.

Quarrystone · 07/05/2026 23:53

Differentforgirls · 07/05/2026 22:06

Considering your replies to me on this thread you either have a cheek or cognitive dissonance. Either way, I DON’T CARE.

I’ll ignore your next reply 😊

Jesus, are you nine?

What a bloody embarrassment you are.

Quarrystone · 07/05/2026 23:55

And all the false “take care”, it’s like a paupers Mean Girls.