The Devolved Disaster

Boris Johnson recently took a lot of stick from the SNP for calling devolution a disaster, the SNP are expected to capitalise on this during next years Scottish Parliamentary elections, this was ofcourse taken out of context by the SNP and media, the point he was trying to make was that the SNP have used the devolved parliament as a platform to keep trying to propel there independance drivel... Thic can be seen nowhere better than the daily news briefings where Nicola Sturgeon consistantly follows a different path of that followed by the UK government, for better or for worse.

As a Scot, I have in the past, voted for the SNP, and voted for independence in 2014. My view is that Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales should have their own fully devolved parliaments with a central government to deal with international affairs and defence etc. This would more or less put an end to the SNP's arguments and be fairer to all nations with regards to how taxes are raised and spent.

The SNP have lost my vote since the referendum, they have lost focus on dealing with the problems which face Scotland and their primary focus is independence at all cost. Education for example, Scotland spends the most per head on education out of all the UK devolved goverments, £800 more than England per head per year, yet consistantly underperforms against England when compared to high school English, Maths and Science results. This is according to the independent OECD.

Scotland has the highest number of drug related deaths in Europe per capita, this situation is only set to increase as the number of people thrown into poverty increases as a result of the SNP's covid measures. We have 1 in 4 children living in poverty, a figure which the Scottish government admits future estimates show is set to increase even further.

Scotland has one of the unhealthies populations in Europe, levels of obesity outstrip other european nations per capita, in fact, more people will die of heart disease in Scotland than will die of COVID, yet McDonalds is open and gyms are closed. More people will die of Dementia and Alzheimers in Scotland than will die of COVID, almost as many people will die of lung cancer, yet the SNP makes unnecessary measures to try to stop COVID, whilst forgetting the other problems. NHS waiting times are at unprecedented levels with more people having to wait longer for appointments, the SNP have been missing their own targets for years and this looks likely to worsen.

When it comes to the SNPs argument for a second referendum, the sole argument is that backing for a second referendum has risen, the SNP does not say how they plan to solve the problems Scotland faces, they have no direction and no plan for an improved Scotland. Whilst Westminster in my opinion is no better, the alternative, an independant Scotland would be like living in a socialist borderline communist state with Nicola the Dictator at the head, it's not the freedom I imagine and probably not the same one many other Scots want too.

When it comes to Brexit, the SNP continously spout that Scotland voted to remain, forgetting the fact that more than 40% of Scots, that's over a million of those who voted in the EU referendum voted to leave, the SNP have completely marginalised these voters, many of whom voted for independance. If the SNP wants to win people over, they need to act on the issues facing the people of Scotland and set out clearly why things will be better as an independent Scotland inside the EU (we would have to go through the EU application as an independant Scotland). All I see is Nicola constantly blaming Westminster for Scotlands problems even though most of the critical issues are devolved (Health, Education, Police) and Scotland spends more than we generate. You can view the GERS figures which show we have a £15 billion deficit, which shows that Scotland would need to find an extra 15 billion each year or else we will be poorer.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/government-expenditure-revenue-scotland-gers-2019-20/

So is the devolved government really working for the best interest of its people, or itself?