Anyone with half a grasp on economics would probably agree that the Scottish economy is over reliant upon public spending and that the English economy, and therefore UK economy as a whole, is over reliant upon financial services / banking, so yes the capitalist system is struggling to meet the needs of the average man on the street. That is why the voters are turning away from the traditional parties, that means SNP north of the border and UKIP south of the border, but don't think that in doing so a new utopia will spring into existence.
I really can not see how you can possibly draw a connection between the voters aspirations of ukip and those of the SNP,,, two entirely different parties with entirely different agendas and entirely different grouping of supporters.
I think John means that although poles apart politically, both offer an anti establishment platform free from historical baggage and external big business lobbying. I think he is right.
The connection is that they are hoovering up voters who have deserted what were the more mainstream parties. The difference though is that the SNP are now in power and will be judged upon their record. Yes 749er that is exactly what I mean. It is merely a phrase TTonup, both the SNP and Sinn Fein see Westminster as the "enemy" and that therefore makes them "friends". However at this stage of the game I would suggest that Wee Eck is just putting it out there knowing that it would get him some publicity and rattle a few cages.
I suspect that if you surveyed a random group of people and asked them what their aspiration were there would be widespread agreement about the main objectives, the differences would only become apparent once you started asking how those aspirations could be achieved. People want the same things; job security, a share of the economic prosperity of the nation, decent housing, access to effective healthcare, decent education for their children, dignity in retirement and old age, these are all independent of political affiliation. How they could be delivered and maintained is where the differences of opinion would appear.
oh err,, I think you have forgotten about the SNP,, these are a people who at long last have realised that they no longer want to be affiliated in a political manner to your English Westminster and wish to be a self governing country , and on another equally as important issue want culturally to be rid of the english albatross.
Where have I tried to speak for Westminster ? What aspirations mentioned in my last post would the people of Scotland not want ? You obviously hold deeply held views TTonup but they blinker you to the bigger picture.
ok I guess so,, Westminster re " enemies " aspirations,, it is actually the ones which you chose to ignore which concern me. bigger picture,,, than independence,, really ??
I did offer the opinion that both Sinn Fein and the SNP see Westminster as the "enemy". But that certainly isn't "speaking for Westminster". The aspirations I mentioned are fundamental to us all as human beings, are there any others that you wish to raise. If you think independence is a destination then good luck to you.
I guess that you do not consider the issue of / aspiration to an independent Scotland a relevant one,,, therin lies the problem,,therein is the reason why you can not see the totally dividing difference between your ukip escapisim and our SNP.. end of..
wiat,, I retract,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,maybe not end of ( for you ),, maybe next year big Eck will be telling you all what you can do,, not just us :Happy:
The "capitalist system" has not created any of the problems, social or economic which we we face today, quite the reverse. The "financial crisis" Gordon Brown's gift to the nation was not created by capitalism but by a failure to apply capitalism; by the subjugation of well regulated free-market capitalism to the ideology of state paternalism, a corrosive process which reached its nadir under New labour, who bankrupted the entire country - yes your bit as well - destroyed our borders and produced a low wage, low productivity, high tax, stagnating economy shackled by a grossly distended state sector and consequently mired in debt, and who, for the record, when they came to power might more accurately have been named Scottish Labour. Not that it matters one iota but, again for the record, the last three Prime Ministers including the present incumbent, like the last two chancellors and the present Secretary of State to The Treasury have all been Scottish. Yes even Mr Cameron. The clue is in the surname. For the last 17 years there has certainly been much delusion, acute economic mismanagement, incompetence in every sphere of national politics and cultural vandalism. But the process has scarcely been an exclusively English affair. Scotland, as it has been at so many landmark moments in British history, was over-represented at the scene of the crime. But we don't like to go on about it. The "oil-fired socialist dystopia" incidentally, is a plagiarised update of Nicholas Fairbairn's crack about an "oil-fired, tartan clad, Ruritanian tax-haven" which he made when Mr Salmond was still in short trousers. And he (Mr Fairbairn) was a Scot. And an alleged child abuser and dead so that need not detain us. Also, English I may be but I am emphatically not a Tory.
are you seriously suggesting that baffoon brown was also responsible for the economic " crisis " which befell the whole world back in what '08 was it ? or was he / we just another victim of corrupt capitalists , America, japan, brazil , Germany, any of the ( so called ) leading nations you care to mention were all hit by the failings of capitolisim and were only rescued by state intervention ,, now brown may like to take credit for many things but I doubt even he will accept such mighty praise. capitolisim has been the governing force in world commerce for generations and has finally fallen into its own pit, how you can think that another four years of the same is going to help I don't know...
ScoGov policies are derived from evidence and research. People understand and therefore support the policies. Eg people support the new drink drive limit because evidence shows that people with between 50-80mg are 2-3 times more likely to have an accident than someone sober. The Westminster parliament is dominated by red and blue Tories whose policies are dominated by party politics, focus groups with no expert opinion and big business. They only feel they can produce a forward thinking social policy is when the smaller nations shame Westminster into. Expect to be paying 5p for your carrier bags soon.
