Spare us the tired rhetoric, please
As the country goes to the polls, it seems nothing can stop the SNP juggernaut.
As a proud Unionist and supporter of the United Kingdom, I won’t pretend to be delighted at the prospect, but, alas, that is the beauty of democracy.
Of course, the campaign has been one of frustration for those of us opposed to nationalism: The SNP and their leader seem to have adopted a Teflon coating.
Our own SNP candidate does not even understand her party’s policy of Full Fiscal Autonomy. I attended the recent hustings in Burnside and was amazed at Ms Ferrier’s lack of knowledge on a key issue.
All the soundbites about Trident and the proposed road through Blairbeth should not hide the fact our potential MP was woefully out of her depth.
I’ve been taken by the number of people who say their SNP candidate shows “passion”. Once again, voters are falling into the trap of focussing on the tone of the message rather than the message itself.
That is a good thing for the Nationalists, as their message is, to put it mildly, a load of nonsense. endorsed by their Tory and Lib Dem pals.
What their conclusion tells me is that after over 300 years of union and a series of governments of different colour (in my adult lifetime, Tory, Labour and now Tory-Lib Dem), Scotland has been deindustrialised and left in a totally parlous state despite the discovery and extraction of massive amounts of oil and gas from Scottish territorial waters.
The contrast with Norway and other Scandinavian countries is stark. Of course, as he indicated at the hustings, Mr. Greatrex doesn’t like Scotland being compared to Norway.
I suggest this is mainly because Norway highlights the appalling failures of successive UK governments
When putting your cross beside a name, it is worth remembering that the SNP exists for one reason and one reason only - to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK.
Do people really believe they will go to Westminster to get a better deal for the Scottish people? Or does it not serve their objective more by creating more division across the UK?
Do we want someone representing Rutherglen and Hamilton West who is hell-bent on destroying the very country whose Parliament she sits in? Or do we want one who will work constructively with those from across the nation to make things better for people everywhere - not just in Rutherglen, but in Rotherham, Rhyl and Randalstown as well.
The SNP is not a beacon of progressive politics. Their anti-austerity stance has already been taken apart by the IFS. They have been unable to give us a single redistributive policy since they came into power at Holyrood. Their flagship policies disproportionately benefit the middle-classes. Despite free tuition, more people from deprived backgrounds go on to college or University in England and with regard to Scotland, including from 1997-2010 under his own party.
As a reward for reducing Scotland to the hopeless situation that they describe, the representatives of the various Unionist parties want you to return them to power to continue the same policies.
Policies which by their own admission, have been a complete disaster for Scotland!
To use an old quote from this axis, “No Thanks”. I will be voting SNP at this election. They at least wish to adopt a different strategy in an attempt to build the Scottish economy. The Londonbased parties will not even try. David Stevenson, By email. Wales than in Scotland.
None of these are “bad policies” as such, but spare us the tired rhetoric of the SNP now being the party of the working class, the party of the left.
In many ways, they resemble the very New Labour they claim to loathe. They cosy up to Rupert Murdoch and other big business people.
But they go even further than New Labour. Policies such as armed police and the named persons act point to a party willing to do whatever it takes to gain control of every facet in the lives of private citizens.
Scotland may have been “politically energised,” but I see little evidence that this has been progressive in anyway. The SNP don’t engage in debate. They simply resort to tired soundbites and shouting down opposition, as they attempted at the hustings in Burnside.
Vote for them if you wish, but make sure you actually realise what you are voting for. A party whose leader preaches about poverty while flying around in her own, branded helicopter. John Maxwell, By email.