Scottish Election 6 weeks away.

Well,the U.K. went ahead with a very economically damaging policy in Brexit for emotional reasons didn’t they?

Does that make it a good thing? Two wrongs don't make a right.

Perhaps a less damaging deal could be negotiated.
I guess it depends how reasonable our neighbours are.

Salmond is able to game the regional system because the method of proportional representation that is used to determine the MSPs from the votes cast for each party penalises a party which has done well in the constituencies.

Therefore, if enough SNP voters follow the Salmond playbook and vote for Alba in the regional lists, then a SNP/Alba coalition will end up with more MSPs than the SNP would achieve if its supporters voted SNP in both the constituencies and the regional lists. In effect, assuming the SNP does well in the constituencies, a vote for Alba in the regional lists is worth more than a vote for the SNP, which is exactly what Salmond is counting on.

Lets face it the new party is all about "him" isn't it?

You are right seamstress. A few old established SNP MPs have defected to join him too which says something - I'm not sure quite what though!

The GERS figures show what they Scottish economy is like under the Union. It usually gives rise to comments along the lines of "look how awful things are (in the Union)". Then are used to try to prove why we shouldn't leave the Union. Often followed by "Oil is running out you know".

Instead of giving up baby boxes, or free prescriptions, we could give up things we don't want but still have to pay for. Trident maybe?

Or maybe pay more tax for the good of our population... like a proper grown up country like Norway or Sweden?

Independence won't be all fairy dust and rainbows, but yes it will be worth it. I'm sure all those poor people who don't know what they are voting for will cope...

Those in safe government jobs will be fine. For a whole. The already squeezed middle classes will suffer and the poor will be worst off of all.
As ever - where will the money come from to provide all the various benefits as well as just plain running the country?

For a while.

Food and drink industries.
Bio tech.
Forestry.
Education income from overseas sales.
Space industries.
Software development.
Renewables.
Travel and Tourism.

Oh, and Fin Tech.
and textiles.

But not handouts.

And the investment funding for those? If they were so lucrative why aren't they coining it right now?

You think software development isn't "coining it"? Or bio tech? Or food and drink?

Fin Tech GVA is £15bn. Aerospace and Space £4bn. Most people don't even know we have a space industry. Technology and Engineering £6bn. Life Sciences £2.4bn.

Compare all that to Oil & Gas £9.2 bn

I think we need some economic honesty from the SNP . The only economic debate we had in the first referendum was what currency we would use . But of course to be honest would not advance their cause .
Nicola said “independence transcends Brexit , oil and the economy “. She’s not going to say we will have austerity max or which taxes will be increased and which services will be slashed .
I am also worried because a new currency will be pegged to Sterling....from what I’ve read .... which will mean it will be worth less than Sterling . Therefore the value of our wages and pensions will drop and mortgage payments will rise .
What will the new currency be called ? Someone referred to it as the Skinto. !!!
-new-Scottish-currency-would -be-catastrophic/

Alegrias if Scotland is doing so amazingly well why do we need the excess funding from the Barnett formula and the huge Coronavirus support funding (which has not all been disbursed to the businesses it should have been)?
There's no actual point in arguing with you about Scottish politics. If SNP was going to be any good we'd have noticed in the last 14 years. Instead we've had a litany of desperate failures.
We should work with the rest of the UK for the benefit of all.

Its a pity you feel that way Aveline. You can read in some of my posts on this thread that I have some doubts about the SNP's record in government, that I have high hopes for Sarwar and a Scottish Labour Party.

I will admit to being a bit puzzled about your comments regarding the Barnett Formula and the Coronavirus funding. Am I right in thinking that you are suggesting that we should just be standing on our own feet now, not accepting the funding that is ours by right, due to our being part of the Union? We pay into the WM coffers and we deserve our money back. The Barnett formula and the Coronavirus funding aren't a lovely, generous gift from Westminster for us, it's our own money.

One thing that is definitely not worth trying to convince me of, though, is that Scotland is uniquely placed in all the world to fail. That we're the only country of 5 million people whose population are too stupid to run their own affairs, and who don't have the resources to make a success of their own economy and government. Because that's not the case. You won't change my mind on that.

I was looking at some figures and didn’t realise that the free bus passes cost 200 million per year. ... that was in 2017.
I think the passes are very useful and necessary for some people but what a huge amount of money.

Your article, Cathymac. Published in a free newspaper by a contributor to a website called Brexit Central. About the author, Joe Ray:

Joe Ray was born in Aberdeen, studied in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh where he works in the social investment sector. He writes about Scottish and British politics from the perspective of a Conservative-voting, Brexit-supporting opponent of Scottish independence.

Imagine that. Doesn't make him wrong of course. Just a bit partisan, maybe.

It’s useful to read all viewpoints ... which I am very much open to doing .

Will any of you be watching the tv debate tonight?....all the party leaders will taking part . (Not Alex Salmond because his party obviously has no seats yet ). That would have been interesting though !

I will watch ... not quite decided who to vote for yet.

I'm not sure I can stand it Cathymac! I see the Greens have put up Lorna Slater.

Alegrias. I did not realise that . Wondering why it’s not Patrick Harvie. ?

Lorna Slater is the Joint Leader of the Scottish Greens and has a higher personal rating than Patrick Harvie.

That's interesting Granny23, I knew who she was but not about the personal rating.

I also didn’t realise that Lorna Slater has a higher personal rating than PH .