Good post overall with a lot of info I didn't know about the SNP's inabilities. This part threw me though. Firstly criticising the SNP whose raison d'etre is Scottish independence as idiocy is a sign of the bias you have against them. Not that there's anything wrong with bias in politics but I just don't see how in the current climate Scottish independence is a bad idea, or at least worst than their current path to be a country with all the outlined problems re education and health in an instable post Brexit UK, a country which has always thought London first and the rest later.
Becoming an independent nation is an extremely difficult thing to do and I doubt Scotland would do it right because generally it requires the party who led the campaign for independence to step aside as they're not fit to lead only oppose but Scotland has incredible potential to thrive in the EU more than they would in the UK. They'll have the second and third largest English speaking cities in the EU which is incredibly attractive for multi nationals to establish themselves as Dublin is currently seeing with two consecutive years where mergers and acquisitions have been at all time highs, and multiple respected universities will compliment this. A significant portion of the population are in the agri sector and would be far better served by the EU. And of the problems you mentioned they'd have serious leverage in the EU to get the necessary grants to fix that as both parties will be keen on showing the rest of the Union that you're better off in than out of the EU.
The austerity/deficit argument is a bit of a red herring here, it's a problem either way. History has always shown that without some strong leverage over the ruling government, which Scotland don't have, you're better ruling yourself because otherwise your country will never be prioritised. Problems won't magically go away but having total control over your trade, budget, residency laws etc... and being free to introduce measures to make your country attractive for businesses to incorporate always leads to a better country in the long run.
The question really is whether or not the opportunity to improve the current status quo is there with independence and when I look at Scotland and Westminster I think it's fairly clear that it is, they probably just need a handful of people to step up and deliver down the line.
Yeah I probably should have left that bit out/worded bit better to be honest.
The main issue with the Indy question is that the accusations levelled at the SNP that many of their cornerstone policies are so focused on achieving independence that they have forgotten that they are meant to be running a country at the same time.
I was speaking to a very senior opposition MSP (I'll leave his name out) last week about the SNP reaction to Covid and he mentioned about how the Covid Committee in particular is concerned that the SNP will intentionally torpedo Scottish tourism over the next few months in order to use that as their, "natural resource to be the gem that an Indy Scotland will harness but is currently scuppered by the UK(as oil was last time)".
If the SNP had an interest in lowering tax rates and encouraging immigration and business from England and the rest of the EU then there may be an arguement that an Indy scotland would good for business then it might make more sense in an economic sense but that's not what they intended to do, at least Alex Salmond understood the idea of an optimum point of taxation better than Nicola.
The Barnett formula leaves Scotland recieving the 2nd most money per capita in the UK (with England being last) that would instantly disapear in independence. How is that not being prioritized?
Inc North Sea Oli revenues (which scotland wouldn't have an automatic right to in Indy) they still have a deficit of 7%, which will only be exacerbated by an INDY2 and a per head fiscal deficit of £2,713 (guardian and BBC)
There isn't really a sensical economic arguement (under the current trajectory) for independence, I may be missing one so please correct me if you think I'm missing something?
Also, kind of a weird one, but SNP rhetoric over the last few years (from supporters more often than the leadership) is that they seem to think that independence would mean that the Scottish Conservatives wouldn't exist any more because they're all English invaders or something... I'm not 100% sure why they think that but hey ho.
Also the pound issue?
Basically, to me at least, it's as redicu as the hard Brexit attitude of "well we're proud to be British so **** the EU, economics don't matter"
