An interesting bit of polling - all the things are policies from various party manifestos - some of course are particulalry scottish but it is interesting nontheless. in order of priority
1. Reduce the waiting time for suspected cancer cases to see a specialist, from four weeks to two
2. Keep up the number of police on the streets
3. Retain free university education for all Scottish students
4. Spend more money on apprenticeships for unemployed young people
5. Reduce the council tax for households where all the adults are pensioners
6. Freeze the council tax for the next two years
7. Scrap the council tax for pensioners on low income
8. Keep free bus travel for everyone aged over 60
9. Cut the bill for the highest paid in the public sector by 10%
10. Keep prescriptions free for everyone
11. Get more minor criminals to do work in the community instead of sending them to prison
12. Increase spending on the health service, even if it means cutting spending on other things
13. Send everyone convicted of carrying a knife to jail
14. Increase the minimum that anyone working in the public sector is paid, from £5.93 to £7.15 an hour
15. Recruit more health visitors
16. Set up regional development banks to lend money to business
17. Spend money insulating every home in Scotland
18. Ban shops and pubs from selling alcohol at below a minimum price
19. Phase out nuclear power stations and replace with wind and wave power
20. Reduce taxes on business
21. Raise the money local councils need through a local income tax rather than the council tax
22. Hold a referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country
23. Combine the eight separate police forces in Scotland into a single national force
24. Build a new road bridge across the River Forth
25. Allow 14-year-olds to leave school to train for a trade
As an aside the party poll for he election comes out at around 40% each for labour and SNP, tories third with around 12% and lib dems with around 8% Greens on around 6% but some difference in the list vote with some polls showing lib dems in 5th or even 6th place with a good chance of losing most of their seats ( down from mid teens % to as low as 6%. in some polls.)
I couldn't be bothered to read the whole lot in detail, but just scanning the top 10 showed that they all required either spending more or cutting taxes. Overall impact is an increase in spending.
I'm absolutely no supporter of the current Westminster government, but even the blindest person will see that some level of spending adjustment is necessary. And I don't mean an [i]upwards[/i] adjustment.....
So how will the Scottish parties fund this wish-list from their electorate?
nickf - they won't have to fund it (I agree with you entirely - although I don't think any single party is proposing everything on TJ's list). The reason they won't have to fund it is a minority/coalition government is inevitable so they will just say they didn't have the parliamentary clout to get the policy through parliament! And if all else fails they can fall back on the "well if we had fiscal autonomy we could have done all this - but westminster won't let us"
#3 is a pipedream, sadly. No Scottish politician of any stripe has the bottle to grasp that particular nettle, though, so it will have to wait until after the election.
What happened to #26) raise taxes to pay for all this shit?
11. Get more minor criminals to do work in the community instead of sending them to prison
...
13. Send everyone convicted of carrying a knife to jail
What the sweet Jesus? Why would you advocate an expensive and ineffective policy that directly contradicts another objective? What is the point of putting some moron ned in prison at great expense and great harm to their employability and integration into the social fabric for carrying a knife?
16. Set up regional development banks to lend money to business
Why? This is one area where the private sector really has it covered and the government doesn't need to get involved.
Ah - well you see they can't do that because the only tax raising powers they have they "turned off" (by not paying Westminster to maintain the system)konabunny - Member
What happened to #26) raise taxes to pay for all this shit?
I think those policies are from different parties.
11. Get more minor criminals to do work in the community instead of sending them to prison
...
13. Send everyone convicted of carrying a knife to jail
What the sweet Jesus? Why would you advocate an expensive and ineffective policy that directly contradicts another objective? What is the point of putting some moron ned in prison at great expense and great harm to their employability and integration into the social fabric for carrying a knife?
Because the banks aren't really playing ball with business lending. However I think the proposals (I've not seen them recently) are to try and replace some of the government grants / support mechanisms (which exist to encourage economic development / job creation etc) with loans - which should help recycle the cash and also force business to be more realistic about which support will make a difference.
16. Set up regional development banks to lend money to businessWhy? This is one area where the private sector really has it covered and the government doesn't need to get involved.
The biggest problem with most if not all of these proposals is the lack of knowledge within the civil service in being able to deliver any of this without making an almighty mess of it ❗
My wife is a civil servant and is constantly frustrated at how inefficient and cumbersome the systems are.
eg office is only 3yrs or so old. Heating system breaks down and spare parts have to be obtained from Holland ❓
No mention anywhere about our roads system being overhauled. We will be unable to drive around, get anywhere soon due to the state of the roads. Instead of reducing the number of 4x4s we will all need one to do the shopping ❗
I think those policies are from different parties.
I do apologise and think I may have the wrong end of the stick. I thought that these were policies that TJ was endorsing.
26) Source Magic Goose to keep laying golden eggs to fund all this wanton and totally unrealistic profligacy
27) Melt down every third golden egg in order to erect a huge statue of William TJ Wallace in front of Edinburgh Castle
😉