who support the SNP for their perceived moderate left wing economic policies
I haven’t yet seen any moderate left-wing economic policies from the SNP, I’ve actually seen some quite right-wing economic policies such as on taxation. I have seen plenty of left-wing social policies from the SNP though.
Whilst I’m happy to see Labour wiped off the Scottish political landscape by the SNP on May 7 I actually agree with Miliband’s criticism of the SNP’s policies – their figures just don’t add up. Only in fantasy land can you combine neo-liberal economic policies with social-democratic levels of spending.
The SNP’s anti-austerity campaign is extremely important and for that reason they have my support (and obviously the support of a lot of Scots). But the great danger is that having unsustainable policies will in the longer term undermine those who argue that austerity is not the solution and give further ammunition to those who peddle the TINA lie.
The problem is that the SNP unlike Plaid Cymru is not an instinctive left-wing party. It is fundamentally a right-wing party which initially stayed stationary as the Labour Party drifted further and further to the right. As disillusionment with the Labour Party among traditional Labour voters grew the SNP grabbed the opportunity and started attacking Labour from a left-wing perspective. All great stuff but potentially highly fraught.