Scottish Election 6 weeks away.

The budget for drug rehabilitation was drastically cut by the Scottish Government from £114 million in 2007 to £53 million in 2020.
For example Castle Craig Rehabilitation Centre in Peeblesshire took in more Dutch patients ... all paying of course... than NHS funded Scots patients.. only a handful of Scots were funded .
Nicola Sturgeon said she “ took her eye off the ball “. What a crass thing to say about something so serious. She decimated the drug treatment services against the advice of all the experts. ... slashed the funding and all but wiped out the rehab places .

I know my opinion, as a Scot not currently living in Scotland, will never count but , having watched the leaders' debates on tv, I thought that Willie Rennie would be by far and away the best First Minister.

I know it won't happen. No matter how good the arguments, there is a lump of the Scottish electorate who will support the SNP no matter how dreadful their record in government is.

Why is Scotland the Europen record holder in drugs deaths?

I was agreeing with Cathymac too Aveline.

The SNP will take "even the tiniest majority" as a mandate to have another referendum, their manifesto is clear about that. They would be forgiven for thinking that any majority would show that there is still support in Scotland for independence, but after the elections next week, the most they can do is have a referendum. Short of declaring UDI, and Sturgeon is far too savvy to even consider that.

So, if the majority of the country vote for parties that want to have a referendum, we need to have a referendum. Then when we're having a referendum, let's have all the discussion you want about borders and currency.

Douglas Ross is missing a trick by constantly harping on about how they are the only party to stop the SNP. Why isn't he harping on about education? Why isn't he harping on about the economy? My view - he's a one trick pony who has been told be WM to focus on preventing a referendum and that's all he's got.

Sorry but I think Cathymac is right. SNP will take even the tiniest majority as a definite vote for independence.
SNP really haven't covered themselves in glory in the last 14 years. Them losing their touch isn't a recent thing. They've wasted public money, not passed on Covid support money (which is an outrage in itself) and made some very bad decisions all the while blaming Westminster as if Scotland isn't already represented there.

Yes, I agree Cathymac If you vote SNP this time, you're accepting that you are happy to have another referendum. (Or Green, or if you're really feeling anarchic, Alba )

And if and when we have another referendum, that's the time to talk about borders, and currency, and fiscal policy for an independent Scotland. But now we're voting on education, the environment, etc.

I think the thread gets pushed to discussing independence because the SNP will use a majority vote to push for another independence referendum, obviously,....so if you vote SNP in this election you have to be sure in your own mind that you are happy to have another Indy Ref.

Thank you Aveline. I'm happy to explain why I post like I do.

Any party that has been in power for 14 years is going to start to run out of steam. There are going to be things that they get wrong. So when it comes to government, I look at manifestos and past performance to decide on who to vote for.

But I have a red line; I think Scotland should be independent. I know many disagree with me. But I couldn't vote for a party that doesn't support independence, because it is so contrary to my basic political beliefs, so more than half the parties are off my list straight away. Of the parties who do support independence, there is only one who has any experience of running a country.

If Labour could take the step of "allowing" for independence, I can see me going that way. Green probably have the policies at the moment that most match what I'd like to see. Its good we have the list system in Scotland so that I can send a vote that way.

One can be in support of independence without being an SNP fanatic, many people don't seem to get that (I don't mean you). This is a thread about the election, not independence, but it gets pushed in that direction all the time.

Alegrias you always strike me as a very fair commenter on SNP. Its hard to understand why you support them though.

In 2019 almost 40% of children from poorest backgrounds left primary school without meeting basic literary benchmarks and nearly one third failed to achieve the same in maths . There is also a reduction in subject choice in secondary schools .
Pisa is a programme for international student assessment , based on the ability of pupils to use reading, maths and science knowledge. Scotland’s performance in all three subjects ranks well behind where it stood in 2000. There was some recovery in 2019 in the reading scores . For a Government who wants to be judged on education it’s not good news for a major piece of research to come out with this news.
In 2019 ,England was the highest achiever in all 3 subjects within the Uk ‘s 4 education systems.

Probably because there's an election coming up and they are politicians. I'm not deifying them, education is not good.

Why are SNP refusing to release the latest education report until after the election? If it was any good they'd be shouting about it from the rooftops. Our children's education has suffered enormously under SNP.

I was horrified to see that people are still using the discredited Lib Dem style of data presentation to try to make people think things are different to how they really are.

PISA scores are down in Scotland, that's true. SNP haven't done well in education, but now, what about these graphs. What are the comparisons with other countries? How have other countries changed? What are the parameters that give rise to the score? Why are you using misleading axes? Actually, why aren't you defining the y-axes at all? What is the implication of the comment about bold type?

I don't know a thing about PISA but I know about data presentation. Did some updates for you, attached. I probably have too much time on my hands..

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-485585--20210429-085109.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-59660--20210429-085040.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-795146--20210429-085019.jpg

I was horrified when I saw these tables illustrating what's happened to education in Scotland under SNP

Yes Lemongrove 60% of our trade is with the rest of the UK. We do not want a hard border.

Also if we had become independent in 2014 we would have been out of the EU with no guarantee of if / when we would have been allowed to rejoin. So all this repeated mantra...... “ dragged out of the EU against our will “ is a bit ironic/ hypocritical. It was ok to leave in 2014 though. .

Alba is not a threat to SNP because they are not standing for the constituency votes, which are FPTP, only for the regional list votes, which are PR.
Because of the way the calculations are done, SNP is unlikely to get many regional seats anyway.

I do think NS is totally stressed out and was unwise to badmouth AS, which didn't make her look good.

Okey dokey. ?

No you wouldn’t Aleg ( take my advice about Scottish politics) because you are a firm SNP supporter who can’t wait for another referendum so that you can vote to leave the Union. However, you may well have to wait. ?
Sturgeon gave a miserable performance on Marr, he easily ran rings around her.Not hard to do when she either has no knowledge or tells half truths ( in true politician form.)
Leaking support to Alba ( even if a small percentage) along with leaking support to Labour, may mean an end to any large majority for her.Even if she did well, it does not mean that the outcome will be what she hopes for in any future indie referendum, that ship may have sailed :with Scotland doing well with our Union over vaccines, and the prospect ( if rejoining the EU) of a hard border, since 60% of trade from Scotland goes to the rest of the UK, and only slightly less than 20% to the EU.

You mean legislation was passed by the governing party?
Well, you can only hope that they get voted out in May Kapitan. Don't hold your breath though.

BTW - Scotch is a drink or a way of trying to insult the population of this country. Just makes us shrug and shake our heads.

BTW2 - I do have concerns about the SNP's tendency to try to over-control the population and centralise everything. But I also think that comparing them to the North Korean dictatorship is pretty childish and up there with protesters wearing yellow stars.

The Scotch Dictator Sturgeon imposed the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, a fine example of North Korean style oppression if ever I saw it.

Oh suzie its just awful, just like North Korea. Do you know what they make us do? They make us vote for the party we want to run the country! And they make us vote twice, so that we have a good balance between FPTP and Proportional Representation! And so many people vote for the party they want to be in charge that - oh no, its too awful - they take charge! It's just a one party state, really. A dictatorship! (leaving aside that the party of government don't have a majority right now, and have to work with the Greens to get things through).

Please, send help!!

Aveline

*Suziewoozie*- seriously, it's bad up here. SNP track record is awful. Alegrias is right the Alba party isn't doing well (not a surprise considering who's involved)

It cannot be worse than down here ?

Suziewoozie- seriously, it's bad up here. SNP track record is awful. Alegrias is right the Alba party isn't doing well (not a surprise considering who's involved)

Kapitan

Scotland is being run like a one party state. Bit like North Korea.

Phew so glad I live in England. Beacon of democracy ???

Scotland is being run like a one party state. Bit like North Korea.

I can understand the questions about the border and about finance in an independent Scotland but I do sincerely think that they are questions for another day. I'd like to see more questioning about the SNP track record in government, same as I'd like to see Douglas Ross questioned about how the Tories are going to mitigate the ongoing impact of Brexit in Scotland.