Election result - what does it mean for Scotland?

[pete]

Anyway as far as I am concerned we're all friends.

I'll even buy you and Pete some new bedsheets.

If you take my smugness, sanctimony and self-righteousness away from me I'll have nothing left.

Is that what you want Kenny?

[rossybee]

Glad to see childishness being swept to one side by I suspect Kenny is currently too busy nursing a semi to reply to either of you.

[steve_weegie]

Seeing as the only good tory is a lavatory, I reckon he's perched on the pan. Perhaps nursing a Ruth Davidson inspired semi too?

[bertieduff]

Excellent: love it...good times again. We need more pish on the forum. Been terribly civilised recently

[Dominic]

Hi all.

I just logged on to say that I voted tory and it's absolutely glorious that they got a majority.

I would just like to offer a hearty and sincere Get-It-Right-F***ing-Up-You to all the socialist bed wetters on here who will be currently having a bit of a meltdown over this.

What does it mean for Scotland? Bugger all. we will continue as normal but with an economy in the hands of people less inclined to rack up a trillion pound of debt.

Well said!

BTW, there is no discussion about S1 Vs S2, the S1 is the best, end of story!

[tenkfeet]

So my understanding so far:

Exige S2: Tory
S1 Exige: Labour
Evora : SNP
S1 and S2 Elise: SNP
340R: Labour
211: Vote Elmo
Anything Supercharged: Tory
Car off road with blown engine: Greens
No Lotus: Lib Dem
Porsche: UkIP

[scott_e]

For anyone that is sceptical about what the SNP can achieve with their 56 MPs at Westminster among a Tory majority government ....

SNP officially the third biggest party and therefore get several benefits:
- right to an official reply to any government statement
- bigger offices
- seats on committee (specifically the Scottish Affairs committee)
- 2 questions per session or week (i forget)

Great (said with a hint of sarcasm).

Government has a slim majority , couple of bi-elections that go against the conservatives and the SNP will be right in the mix.

Also I would argue its pretty likely the SNP strength is here to stay. IMO some voters in England voted Tory to ensure the SNP were marginalised. 5 years down the line its unlikely that will happen again as some voters migrate back to labour and votes are split.

Has to be said a majority government is good for financial stability.

[campbell]

Bigger offices. Awesome.

[Rosssco]

Also I would argue its pretty likely the SNP strength is here to stay. IMO some voters in England voted Tory to ensure the SNP were marginalised. 5 years down the line its unlikely that will happen again as some voters migrate back to labour and votes are split.

You could apply the same to the SNP, this possibly being their high-water mark. I think they'll hold onto the Scottish majority gov. next year, but as the general economy continues to improve, people will stop being so taken in with the politics of division and blame. Hopefully the UK gov will have continued devolution, and the SNP will finally, genuinely, be on the hook for policy decisions.

[j2 lot]

While there is no doubt the SNP increased their following massively after the referendum. They got roughly 50% of the vote on a 50-60% turn out in the general election.
The number of seats they have would lead you to believe that the whole country is behind them - clearly not, (yet)

Rather strangely I have seen a lot of comment from English voters asking if they can get an SNP candidate. Not sure what they're on

[Dominic]

The part that worries me the most is how ill-informed many people are. Speaking to people about the referendum and now the general election has revealed to me that there are a lot of people with the power to vote who have no idea what they are voting for - irrespective of their political standing (you often see it in the interviews on the street with the public on the news). I don't claim to be a political expert (far from it) but I do try to make an informed decision, basing my assessments on the issues that matter to me. That's my biggest concern - a large part of the electorate casually wasting their vote on the basis of ill-informed matters. The challenge is how to educate people - get them interested enough not just to vote, but vote in an informed manner. Seems like a massive and impossible challenge.

[BiggestNizzy]

Does anyone know what they are really voting for? What little information is in the bloated manifestos is spun or down right lies. Economic figures range from just plain made up via "accidentally" missed to fudged to sound good.

I have no doubt the tories will get us paying back the £1.5t? Quicker than anyone else. I just hope nobody I care about gets caught up in the collateral damage.

[tut]

The part that worries me the most is how ill-informed many people are. Speaking to people about the referendum and now the general election has revealed to me that there are a lot of people with the power to vote who have no idea what they are voting for - irrespective of their political standing (you often see it in the interviews on the street with the public on the news). I don't claim to be a political expert (far from it) but I do try to make an informed decision, basing my assessments on the issues that matter to me. That's my biggest concern - a large part of the electorate casually wasting their vote on the basis of ill-informed matters. The challenge is how to educate people - get them interested enough not just to vote, but vote in an informed manner. Seems like a massive and impossible challenge.

Watch TV interviews with "the man in the street", and you will get a good idea of the level of knowledge thats out there for voting on Europe.

tut

[scott_e]

Interesting fact ...

In Scotland there are 2.6 million tax payers.
14,000 pay higher rate 45%.
280,000 pay 40% rate.

With Income tax rates to be fully devolved soon , be interesting to see what the Scottish Parliament does with these numbers.

[Mikie711]

Maybe someone should send a copy of this to Nicola
A very reasonable look at tax.....
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100...
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7..
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.
So, that's what they decided to do..
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
So the first four men were unaffected.
They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men?
The paying customers?
How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?
They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid £5 instead of £7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a pound out of the £20 saving," declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,"but he got £10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back, when I got only £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works.
The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible