Peter Murrell arrested

Ross and his gang - in particular Murdo Fraser - are saying what a good FM she would have made. That tells you something.

Yousaf has no positive track record and I don't think he will be a good FM.

I can only characterise what you say as hatred and you are starting to sound obsessed.

Not obsessed just fed up with the situation here. I should probably not read the Scottish politics threads on here but if I didn't give the other side to life in Scotland all the other Grans might think that everything is rosy up here. Which it's not!
Not great down South either but that's another whole set of threads.

I was just wondering... would other Scottish grans (i.e. anyone living in and committed to Scotland) care to join in and tell us how our Party of Government is a blight on the country because they don't behave the way you want them to, how we shouldn't be allowed to run our own affairs and how everything's just awful in Scotland?

And maybe at the same time, explain how we should have lived up to our stereotype for only caring about money when given the option of having a FM with social attitudes out of the 19th Century?

Facts only please, not prejudice.

I can only echo what Aveline has said - it's not such a rosy picture up here at all. Our education system is starved of cash with many teachers buying supplies from their own pocket. I know this - we have three senior secondary teachers in the immediate family. Road surfaces are crumbling with giant potholes nearly everywhere. Free prescriptions? All well & good but somebody somewhere is paying and it's not sustainable. Waiting lists? It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic in many cases. DH recently needed a minor surgical procedure - waiting list was 167 weeks. We went privately, not by choice but from necessity. Smoke and mirrors or Emperor's new clothes, take your pick, , but I think Pandora's box is opening.

Aveline

Not obsessed just fed up with the situation here. I should probably not read the Scottish politics threads on here but if I didn't give the other side to life in Scotland all the other Grans might think that everything is rosy up here. Which it's not!
Not great down South either but that's another whole set of threads.

It’s good to hear all sides re the SNP and what’s going in in Scotland so well done for sticking to your opinion.

Volver3 that’s kinda amusing but OTT as usual.You need to accept that other views are available.

Katek

I can only echo what Aveline has said - it's not such a rosy picture up here at all. Our education system is starved of cash with many teachers buying supplies from their own pocket. I know this - we have three senior secondary teachers in the immediate family. Road surfaces are crumbling with giant potholes nearly everywhere. Free prescriptions? All well & good but somebody somewhere is paying and it's not sustainable. Waiting lists? It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic in many cases. DH recently needed a minor surgical procedure - waiting list was 167 weeks. We went privately, not by choice but from necessity. Smoke and mirrors or Emperor's new clothes, take your pick, , but I think Pandora's box is opening.

I’m not sure that it’s fair to lay those issues at the door of the SNP when they all come down to funding Katek. All the countries of the UK are in the same position.

I appreciate Katek coming on with her view of what's what. No sarcasm intended, please don't infer any.

I'm not even going to respond to the "other views are available post". I actually asked for other views. Don't even think that I don't respect other views, when somebody saying that the party that 50% of us vote for (give or take) is a "blight".

Bit of respect would be nice. No chance of that.

(Oh, and cos I can't help myself...how's that local Tory MP working out Katek?)

Oh come on Volver you know the basics - lowest life expectancy, highest number of drug deaths, plummeting education standards, infant mortality the same as 20 years ago, books that don't balance, costly failed legal challenges, the ferries, the smelter the list of failures, wasted money and opportunities to work constructively together for the benefit of everyone. It's just depressing.

As a teacher in Scotland, twenty five years ago, I was buying materials out of my own pocket. You can't lay the blame for that at the SNPs door. In fact we had an LA with a Tory Majority.
Before I retired, I thought things had improved, in respect of supplies.
I agree that NHS waiting lists are horrendous, but it seems to be the same across the UK.
I wouldn't describe life in Scotland as bleak, it's no worse than anywhere else.
Some people voted SNP, ( my self and DH included), because the alternative was worse. The thought of Douglas Ross and his cronies in power, terrifies me.

I wonder why Accountants Johnston Carmichael have resigned as SNP auditors? Seems a bit sudden when they've been with them for 10 years.

Curiouser and curiouser

This is a genuine question: what is the counterfactual ?

casdon has pointed out that things are much the same in the other Great Britain (and possibly UK) countries.

What, therefore, would have been different/better if the SNP had not been majority/minority government in Scotland? What would have improved, stayed the same, or worsened if any of the other parties had been either a sole, or minority government?

I’m off out, but it will be interesting to read your views this evening.

Hermother

I wonder why Accountants Johnston Carmichael have resigned as SNP auditors? Seems a bit sudden when they've been with them for 10 years.

Auditors may resign because they refuse to break the law if directed to by their clients.

The post industrial legacy has left endemic problems in many parts of the UK, and Scotland’s poverty and health issues are related to that, just as they are in Wales, the North East of England, etc. There are no easy answers and it is quite wrong to lump those issues in with political decisions about bridges, ferries or whatever. In reality, the health systems and care systems in the whole of the UK are failing because of the investment policy decisions made by the UK government.

Totally agree it's down to funding Casdon but it's government choice as to how it's spent. We have an annual public spending deficit of over £2000 per person- to borrow from Mr Dickens, "annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery"

Thank you for the welcome volver - I have to admit the current Tory incumbent is a little conspicuous by his absence! Mind you we had a previous SNP incumbent who was very, very visible and look what's happened to Eck the Fish?

Marydoll - at least one of my children has been teaching for the same length of time that you have been retired. Yes, you may have bought some bits and pieces all those years ago but times have changed. Staff are now subsidising essentials, like textbooks, and are swamped by a sea of paperwork and changing curricula.

Casdon

The post industrial legacy has left endemic problems in many parts of the UK, and Scotland’s poverty and health issues are related to that, just as they are in Wales, the North East of England, etc. There are no easy answers and it is quite wrong to lump those issues in with political decisions about bridges, ferries or whatever. In reality, the health systems and care systems in the whole of the UK are failing because of the investment policy decisions made by the UK government.

Yes

Auditors may resign because they refuse to break the law if directed to by their clients.

Oh my word! Thanks Whitewavemark2.

Auditors can resign for whatever reason they wish. Remember we have to be careful following Murrell’s arrest.

I agree with you *Marydoll and Peter Murrel been released without any charges against him it’s a real witch-hunt

Yes there is poverty in other parts of the country but SNP spending choices in Scotland have reduced funding that could have been spent much more usefully and productively. So yes misspent money on political options certainly have led to unnecessary levels of poverty and deprivation here.

The fact that charges haven’t yet been brought doesn’t mean they won’t be.

Aveline

Yes there is poverty in other parts of the country but SNP spending choices in Scotland have reduced funding that could have been spent much more usefully and productively. So yes misspent money on political options certainly have led to unnecessary levels of poverty and deprivation here.

Are you saying that isn’t the case everywhere else Aveline? If there isn’t enough money going into a system unfortunately tinkering around the edges cannot make up for that shortfall. If you look at the relative performance of the UK health and care systems, once you have accounted for the underlying health inequalities, there is very little indeed between them despite the different political persuasions of the governments.

Germanshepherdsmum

The fact that charges haven’t yet been brought doesn’t mean they won’t be.

Exactly. Hence the warning from Police Scotland as I posted in an earlier response to this thread.

So police arriving and erecting a blue tent then taking Murrell to question for over 12 hours. Over 20 officers have been seen at the house.

Politically someone will clearly know where the bodies are buried and bizarrely the police are now apparently digging up the couple’s garden. What on earth are they looking for? But they must have had a strong suspicion or lead that something is in the garden and now a designated crime scene.

It can be strongly suspected that Sturgeon knew that the ongoing police investigation had reached a critical mass and this pushed her into resignation.

Who told the police what? And did they delay the raid until after the election for new leader?, in which case I would have thought Forbes had a good case to demand a re-run now that the knowledge is out there.

The News Agents

She did have death threats, most recently threatening herself and her close family with "Assassination". Police were said to be taking these threats seriously. Now of course, the whereabouts and photographs of her home are in the public domain and without the security provided at Bute House. I cannot imagine that she feels safe there.