Scottish Election 6 weeks away.

esspee. I agree with you. It is a difficult decision.
I feel that the SNP after all these years have had their chance with health and other things . Their record in education is poor. For example 2020 statistics show that the free tuition fees for Scottish students actually results in less places being available for Scottish students . The number of Scottish students is capped to make it affordable.
Also where are the smaller class sizes promised in primary schools.
Highest drug death in the Eu because of SNP cuts .
There is a huge collection of broken promises .
Now there is another huge list of promises ... free dental visits, pilots for trying out a four day week , free bikes for children of low income households , free laptops for every school child . £ 60 million to restore playparks . So many free things . Where will the money come from. ?? They have already been using Covid money to fund free school meals and bus passes etc. storing up trouble for harder times ahead .
Aveline I agree with you too that it is hard to believe in any one party. Think I am getting too cynical now to know who to vote for. But I will use my vote .. still time to decide as I don’t have a postal vote.

All the parties are promising the earth. All we can do is look at what they've actually done. Most manifesto promises are not kept. I've lived through too many elections to believe any one party. Ideally, I'd like no one party to have a majority and for them all to actually work together for the benefit of us all.

I do think that the issue you have a problem with, Far North could usefully be the subject of another thread.

All political parties have many proposed policies in their manifestos and we have to balance up what we might agree or disagree with.

I won't be voting for this, from LibDems.

We need more MSPs who put the needs of the Scottish people first, not the needs of the SNP or Alba or any other party obsessed with their own separatist agenda. .

We need more Scottish Liberal DEmocrat MSPs.

twitter.com/willie_rennie/status/1382929179960877057?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Thanks FarNorth. I'll read the article from Margaret Lynch, thanks again.

For anyone in Edinburgh Central - what do you think of Bonnie Prince Bob ?
Link includes a video of B P Bob explaining his political stance.

uk.gofundme.com/f/voteBPB

With difficulty, Alegrias1, but less difficulty than voting for people who support self-id of sex.

Wrt the accusations, here's a link to Margaret Lynch of Alba explaining what she actually said.

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/what-i-really-said-at-the-alba-party-conference-margaret-lynch-3202489?fbclid=IwAR2_hiu_OtJVByqmQYjN-zxQBFrGPrqRSJxFOzjmJB61nB-B1YbJMoXhzrU

This is a serious question FarNorth, I'm not being goady.

How do you square Salmond's attitude to women and his actions with respect to women with your understandable concern about self-id? Or the Alba Party trying to discredit LGBTQ+ groups by saying they were trying to lower the age of consent to 10? I think they are just a bunch of chancers, jumping on bandwagons as fast as they can.

Greens have been really pushing the woke stuff during the last parliamentary session, by the way, but are keeping very quiet about it now, in their campaign.

Granny23 I didn't know that about Alba supporters.
I'll be voting Alba on the list because of their stance against self-id of sex (and obviously on independence).
I had intended voting ISP who were first on the scene with that policy but they withdrew when the Alba juggernaut came through.

Well I have my ballot paper and want to make a decision as soon as possible but am not finding it easy.
I have voted SNP from the time I was old enough to vote but am most unhappy with the idea of becoming independent only to potentially make the backward step of attempting to rejoin the EEC. I do not wish to be ruled from Brussels.
I am also unimpressed with the state of education and the NHS in Scotland. After all these years in power it cannot be blamed on others. Then there are the unkept promises from the last election. What happened to the reform of council tax for example? Where was it explained to us just what “woke” policies would be introduced in the last parliamentary session?
We are now hearing of wondrous promised changes for the future, all really pie in the sky as there is no suggestion as to where the money is to come from.
So what can I do? There is no viable alternative party. The so called opposition in Scotland is a joke.
Down in Westminster we are being governed by the snouts in trough party which daily is shown to be more and more corrupt. No way can I vote for a party headed by sleazy Salmond. If I vote SNP that will be taken as a vote to rejoin the EEC.
I have never agonised so much about an election. Am I alone in this?

I'm going to vote in person so I've got a while to think about it. My decision is almost the opposite of yours Granny23. We have a sitting MSP who is a almost bound to get back in and they are not SNP. I listen to what Anas Sarwar says and agree with a lot of it, but the local Labour Candidate is conspicuous by her absence and I could never vote for a party that not only opposes independence, but is actively trying to stop us even having a referendum about it.

I was going SNP 1 & 2 but the SNP has little chance of getting a list candidate in our area so it will be Green. If Green were standing in the constituencies I'd seriously think of giving them my vote this time.

No way on earth could I ever vote for Alba. Saw something online this morning saying they could have done the SNP a favour in the long run because all the rather extreme indy supporters have gone to Alba. I sincerely hope the SNP won't have them back.

Decision Time. My postal vote has just come through the letter box. I'm 99.9% sure that my friend and our sitting MSP will win the Constituency vote. I will place my No.1 vote to help ensure that happens. The problem lies in the second vote. As an SNP member I should of course vote SNP 1 & 2 but I doubt very much if that will lead to an additional member via the list because the SNP will probably win too many constituency seats in this region.

I could vote Green on the list as they have a good chance of having a list member elected here. The alternative is to vote for ALBA. Top of their list is a dear friend of over 40 years, who would make a very good MSP. However, I really cannot support the bunch of entitled has-beens who have set up ALBA. Their actual Web Site is fine, but the ALBA supporting blogs are disgusting, full of foul language, telling lies about the current SG and slagging off the SNP & Greens, (in particular Nicola Sturgeon), rather than attacking the current UK Government led by BJ, or indeed the Westminster controlled, Branch Office Tories, Labour & Libdems who sit in the Scottish Parliament.

I like to get my postal vote in as soon as possible, in case I am hit by a bus or kidnapped by Aliens before election day. This time, I can see my decision going right up to the wire, till I decide which Regional vote will most help the Indy Cause.

I stuck it through to the bitter end, but it wasn't very edifying.

The best bit was when Willie told Nicola that the best way of getting back into Europe was to persuade Boris Johnson.

Douglas Ross is really a waste of space. As my DH said: Just like a referee - knows nothing about football and stands around thinking he's important.

Decided not to watch . Just read some news reports about it this morning.

Anyone watching the debate? Shouting already....?

DH just wondered off but asked me to give him a shout if Nicola lands a punch on Willie ?. She'd have to get through Colin to do it but my money's on her.

At one time there were no MSPs or Welsh AMs or NI Assembly members.

MPs made decisions for the UK.

When we decided to devolve powers, it might have made more sense and saved money, if the MPs attended the HoC just three days a week to decide on UK wide legislation.

On the other two days a week, Scottish MPs could have met in Edinburgh, Welsh MPs in Cardiff and NI MPs in Belfast to decide on devolved matters.

During these two days a week the House of Commons could have been an English Parliament, deciding matters which only affected England.

At least Scotland has it's own parliament.
England doesn't, but has to put up with interfering and vote/policy manipulation by Scotland et al.

Haven't you heard of EVEL - English votes for English laws?
Although the SNP MPs never voted on English-only legislation, EVEL was brought in immediately after the 2014 referendum.
It is now used to exclude Scottish MPs from voting even on matters which will have a knock-on effect on Scotland via the Barnett rules.
Of course England has it's own Parliament, but if you think there should be change you should do something about it instead of whining here.

All these people went abroad because there were no opportunities in Scotland. Now they can all have the opportunity to stay here. Sir Tom Hunter. Sir Ian Wood. Andy Murray if you like. They are just the famous ones. There are many, many scientists and engineers working in quiet ways, that you have never heard of, it would appear.

I don't share your pessimism about this country and its inhabitants, its very unenlightened about what is going on in Scotland right now. I gave a list upthread of all of the industries that are thriving in Scotland, but you've decided that's just made up, or something. What a pity that you think we've "gone downhill", I guess that's something we'll never agree on.

We've had hundreds of years being upheld as a great example. Scots engineers, doctors and explorers have gone all over the world including as prime ministers and cabinet members in Westminster. It's only recently that we've gone so far downhill.

Thinks, not things

You used the word fanatics Aveline, and you're right. There are fanatics in every political debate and the "English out" crowd are part of the wing that has gone with AUOB - The Alba party and Tommy Sheridan's bunch. Got no time for them, they don't speak for the majority of Scots that I know.

The English don't support the Scots. I've explained the Barnett Formula before and I'll use your phrase: I can't be bothered explaining it again.

I'd like all English, Welsh and NI Grans to know that there is a difference between voting a party into power in the Scottish Parliament and wanting independence. Scotland is still great, anyone who things otherwise is deluded. We just need to chance to show it to the world, that's all.

Alegrias have you not seen the placards carried by SNP fanatics on marches? They literally state 'English out' and other slogans including words I won't post on here. There is no doubt that some of the nationalists do hate the English but for the life of me I can't think why as the English seem to fund their way of life. Latest figures showing Scots get 30% more funding than people living in other parts of our country. SNP still hasn't made an economic case for separation.
We could continue to slug it out on here but I frankly can't be bothered. We'll never agree. I just want to make sure that English, Welsh and Northern Irish Grans know that, up here, we dont all want another term of SNP inept management of a once great Scotland and we certainly want to remain part of the union.

Posts like yours Keeleklogger, used to make jump to the defence of Scottish independence supporters but now that I realise that they are based on such lack of knowledge of Scottish politics that I just sigh a bit.

Nobody’s stopping England having its own parliament, tell your MP you’d like to have one. And it should be noticed that SNP MPs do not vote on English-only topics, so I don’t know what you mean by the vote/policy manipulation. Scotland has 59 MPs, which is more or less in proportion to the proportion of the UK population that is in Scotland.

The “hate the English” thing is so old. Borderline racism, dear God. That’s the only bit that still makes me a bit cross, actually. That you can’t see that modern Scots don’t have to define themselves in relation to anyone else, don’t have to hate anyone. It’s a compete misunderstanding of the whole situation, but what can we do about it?

The Tory Party PPB on TV last night started with Ruth, who isn’t even standing, who won’t even have an elected post in any Parliament after the election. Then Douglas Ross, who currently has only 25% of people who think he is doing a good job as leader of the Scots Tories. And all they spoke about was how to stop the SNP. No policies, just stop the SNP. That’s the politics of grievance, right there.