But we don't have all the levers of power? Independence gives Scotland more routes to fix those things. Scotland can't borrow, so if Westminster tighten the budget, then Holyrood can't just make money appear from nowhere. I think the financial argument FOR independence is going to get quite strong as we recover from Covid and the schemes and projects that Scotland want to do can't be funded because of a skinflint Rishi Sunak.
Yes.
I'm curious. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but on gender recognition, I always thought it was a minority but loud view within the SNP opposed to it. How do you think the SNP compare to other parties here?
I think I know the answer, but why? And why specifically the SNP, when they already sit opposed to most Westminster politics (from my admittedly limited knowledge)?
I disagree, from a Scottish perspective anyway. Scotland has clearly made decisions based on the limitations imposed by Westminster. Furlough is the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head. The Scottish Government had to plead for it to be extended, and at the end of the day it sill wasn't until London and the South East needed it that it happened.
That is a good way of getting it to a concise sentiment. I suppose the difference is that people still like Nicola and want independence, so the pressure within the party to sort it out is much smaller than what Corbyn had to go through.
Nominally yes, but in practice if it was a hung parliament and they held the balance of power, they'd back a left government (as very nearly happened in 2017, if the Tories had just lost a couple more seats). Taking 60 typically left seats off the total number of UK seats just makes it much easier for the Tories to win each time, basically.
I'll have to defer to you for the detail on this, since it really isn't my area at all. However, I am not sure that it makes sense to wed independence entirely with the SNP. Other parties would form the government in an independent Scotland. Why would remaining in the UK vs. leaving it help solve these issues?The NHS has spent the last five years working on reform at the whim of the Scottish Government. The SNP had the bright idea of reducing the number of health boards to five before deciding not to at the last minute after they had made Boards develop full blown merger plans. This was round about the time Tayside was hitting the headlines and possibly a way to pave over that disaster (which happened to be where the previous Cabinet Secretary for Health’s constituency was based) They finally decided that it wouldn’t sort out issues with funding, staffing levels or health and social care integration - which NHS staff and leaders said all along.
They then decided instead to develop a new network of specialist primary care and trauma centres across the country which seemed to fall out of favour the minute the first ones were launched.
Then they launched the National Transformation Fund to support projects delivering local, regional and national structural change (like getting health boards to use the same systems). Money was committed and projects half delivered before the Scottish Government hollowed out the money, cancelled loads of work midway and decided to focus on Jeane Freeman’s big ticket priorities around waiting times.
In summary years and years of work with very little to show for it. But it’s not the Scottish Government’s fault of course!
Why should Scotland suffer because England shits the bed in so many general elections?
Budget-wise, Scotland gets a shitload more support in terms of the funding for stuff like furlough through being part of the UK/a country with an independent central bank than it would do if it were independent.
I mean, I'm not telling you to as a reason you shouldn't, I'm just saying we'd be worse off to a fellow Englishman.
Except tons of European countries have financial schemes similar or more generous than the UKs.
I've never been fully convinced by why the Euro is that bad, but we don't even need to actually join it if it didn't suit us. The commitment can be deferred easily enough. And EU funding would be available to us again, so there would still be some resources flowing in our direction.
This is a weird argument. Quite obviously we would have more powers in an independent Scotland. Including the power to borrow, and it is hardly the only thing that matters. Indeed, given the trainwreck of Brexit, and a lopsided recovery from Covid looming, I think the economic argument for staying in the UK is at the weakest it will ever be, and plenty of people will give it less priority now than they did in 2014.
The only name I can think of that is even halfway appealing is Monica Lennon. But I don't know all that much about her.
