Originally Posted by
Green Mikey
How can you generalise the feeling of a nation by quoting the number of Labour seats won in an election through first past the post. Also, people didn't just vote Labour because they opposed the Tory concept of society. If someone voted for labour purely through personal reasons this completely invalidates your already tenuous link between voting Labour and caring for others. You are trying to justify your personal view of Scotland using a wholly inappropriate and outdated concept.
It's not my personal view actually. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the mood of the nation, or what their philosophy is. I used a rough tool to assess what people want from their government, and assumed that the majority of voters would consider issues like public spending to be deciding factors in how they voted.
The fairest thing I can say is that, in my opinion, people voted for the party which wanted to invest more in public services. I then matched this to a trend in Scottish life which has shown a form of social democracy, and care for others in the community.
It's not scientific, no, but a lot of people have spoken about this aspect of Scottish politics over the years. One thing we do know, is that Scottish voting patterns have been different from English ones for many years.
The NHS started at the same time all accross the UK more than 50 years ago. How far behind England was Scotland that half a century of free healthcare for all coundn't eradicate the difference. The problems in Scotland are caused by the work shy, fast food eating, alcoholic, kinfe carrying reprobates that populate large parts of this country. You claim that Scottish people care more for each other this is contrary to the fact that people in Scotland knife each other more often than many places.
Since devolution, the NHS in Scotland has taken on a different shape (in some areas such as mental health, a radically different shape) from what is delivered in England.
I can't really make an objective comment on your reading of the Scottish character. I agree there could well be psychosocial reasons for Scotland having poorer health, that are uniquely Scottish. A recent paper identified a "Glasgow Factor" which compared Glaswegian health with that in similarly deprived areas of England. The Glaswegians were worse, nobody can say why, but your reasons could well be valid.
What are we meant to do though, the problems are there, we should try to fix them. Given that we could well be looking at a uniquely Scottish cause, I would say that a Scottish answer has to be found.
Mostly these things are judged by the facts such as contained in the link I posted. These are Labour PFI schools from before the SNP got into power. The SNP have given only the OK for 14 new Schools to be built in the next 3 years and before this there was no new schools commissioned for 2 years.
They are new schools that have been built, post devolution, where the Scottish people decided what their priorities are.
How can you devolve part of the defense budget to a part of the UK. Defense needs to be coherent across all regions, i think this is quitte a simplistic concept.
You can't really, it would be for an independent Scotland to decide its defence priorities. Maybe, given the number of Scottish soldiers who have died for Britain, we might not be so keen to keep wasting money fighting wars that have no relevance to us.
I think the money would be better spent developing better things for people in places like Central Fife to look forward to, rather than consigning them to a life as cannon fodder.
Our main industry in this country is not waging war but you live in a country where many people and areas rely on defense spending. Would you deny these people work because of foreign policy decisions made by Blair?
Many people in Colombia rely on Cocaine production, in Afghanistan on Opium poppies. Its a personal thing, but I believe that war mongering comes into the same spectrum of evil. Not something I want to be part of.
The public services in Scotland are superior because we get more government money per capita than the rest of the UK. The services you are proud of are founded on England's "generosity".
You've got a low opinion of what Scotland contributed to the union. I agree though, it would be better if we ran our own affairs. I think we have fundamental differences, and continuing to force us and England to walk a path neither of us is comfortable with is not the best way.
