Thursday, April 6, 2017

SNP’s ‘pig in a poke recession’, Scotland appears to be heading towards a major recession as shock figures show that Scotland is badly lagging behind the rest of the UK, Nicola Sturgeon and Derek Mackay playing the ‘Brexit’ card show how playing political games make you look and sound irrelevant, the country is going down the tubes due to SNP mismanagement, invest in education and infrastructure
















Dear All

If you are running a business, you want economic security as much as possible with little risk or minimised risk from the political parties as they push their agenda while in government. Scotland is a country which business is backing away from, the continual dragging down the country with uncertainty isn’t a good climate to contemplate investment at the moment.

Scotland is at risk from going into another recession due to the SNP’s ridiculous obsession with independence, business is also worried by a failing SNP government which is solely focused on a single issue instead of laying the foundations of infrastructure for a stronger Scotland.

Business needs confidence, it needs certainty and it needs it now.

As news trickles down that there is ‘concerns’, the political parties are doing what they always do, blame each other and hope they can get their message over to tarnish the other side. The blame game is one of the reasons why people are turned off politics, it is like a game of ping pong or musical chairs where the main parties just move from government to opposition and vice versa.

Depending who you are and in which party, the ‘causes’ are getting defined as ‘Brexit’ or the nonsense of a second independence referendum being rammed down Scotland’s throat. Scotland’s economy shrank in the last three months of last year because the SNP aren’t planning for Scotland, we keep hearing of the now famous ‘ten year plan’, obviously because of inflation the old 5 year plan isn’t cutting the political mustard.

Last year Scotland's economy grew by just 0.4 per cent; this is far below the figure of 1.8 per cent for the UK as a whole. So, why is the rest of the UK doing so well, it comes down to investment, the SNP aren’t investing in people and their education, they want a dumb downed society so they raise immigration as an issue to claim we need ‘skilled’ workers when they aren’t investing to produce home grown talent.

The most important thing a country can do is invest in the education of its people; Nicola Sturgeon as we all know isn’t the genius which the Nationalists like to claim she is, far from it. Our education system in Scotland is in a dreadful state and it isn’t a secret anymore, how can 25% of our kids leaving primary school be functionally illiterate?

Think about that for a second, 25% of our kids leaving primary school are functionally illiterate?

Scotland is producing kids who have no future under the SNP, failed at every level right through the educational system.
 
The SNP take on the collapse of Scotland comes from their SNP Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay; he says that the fall is the "economic reality” of the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Derek Mackay as I have observed in the past is a walking SNP election leaflet, he just parrots what the party line is at the time, hardly inspiring don’t you think?

Nicola Sturgeon is in America preaching about the wonders of ‘globalism and immigration’ and here we have Derek Mackay rejecting Brexit which effectively means he is just using the same theme as Sturgeon, slightly different angle.

This talk by him of Brexit being the ‘evil of all our ills’ is just bonkers, if his case held water we would be economically more or less in line with the rest of the UK albeit our position would be worse as per the norm for Scotland.

The economic reality is that the price of oil has crashed; the good times for that black gold appear to be over for quite some considerable time. As to his take that the foundations are "strong", you can take that with a pinch of salt which reminds me of Alex Salmond and his ‘second oil boom’, which never came to pass.

There might be a second Oil boom, but since Salmond isn’t an Oracle or even a guru, you have a better chance predicting the lottery.

I would also add, what happen to Scotland being the Saudi Arabia of renewables as Alex Salmond boldly claimed?

Why did that never pan out?

Jeremy Peat, visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde’s International Public Policy Institute says that:

“This is just the wrong time for Scottish growth to be so significantly underperforming growth in the UK as a whole.”

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP cannot build a stronger Scotland, they don’t know where to start, what the plan is, how long it would take and critically they haven’t built up the all important connections. In the world of high finance, people like to do business with people who can be trusted; would you back the SNP with their small potatoes mentality?

Oil doesn’t have a lot to recommend itself at the moment.
Scottish services sector was flat in the fourth quarter of last year.
The construction sector has been hit by the fact that major infrastructure projects are coming to an end.

Where’s the plan Nicola for the future?

I will save time, there is no plan, there is never a plan, and things just tick along and if something ‘good’ happens; the SNP claim credit whilst not having done any of the work. Did you see the huffing and puffing by the Nationalist over the £6.3 million investment that Sturgeon’s crew were crowing about, the deal depended on £1.5 million in grants from Scottish Enterprise.

As I remarked, it is hardly Xmas, 44 jobs, isn’t even a drop in the bucket but Nicola needed something to wave about for her highly expensive visit to the US to justify it to voters.

£6.3 million investment doesn’t turn Sturgeon into a ‘Statesman’.

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser says the SNP Government have to “take responsibility” for the disastrous figures. One thing that Nationalists don’t do is take responsibility for anything, everything is a botched up job when they get their hands on it. Murdo added that he rejected the SNP’s claim that Brexit was to blame for the contraction in the economy.

He said:

“If that was the case, why is the rest of the UK powering ahead, while Scotland comes to a standstill?

There are a lot people with questions which the SNP can’t answer.

Why is the rest of the UK powering ahead?

Brexit down there is really the same as Brexit up here, there isn’t a lot when you get right down to it.

Nicola Sturgeon made Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK and guess what, there isn’t a land of milk and honey being produced, no nirvana just loads of people wondering if they will have a job tomorrow. As Murdo Fraser aptly says, we really are seeing real-life impact of her mismanagement. Scotland’s government has been run as a part time plaything, then the SNP run off to do something else which by enlarge is mostly independence related.

Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie chipped in her bit when she said the SNP have to call off another independence referendum.

She added:

“These figures provide further compelling evidence that the last thing Scotland needs is another divisive independence referendum. With Scotland’s economy flatlining and Brexit creating unprecedented levels of uncertainty, it is time the SNP government in Edinburgh started taking some responsibility for its failures and acted to address them. The SNP should take a second referendum off the table and get back to governing the country.”

With the economy looking bleak, no appetite for independence in Scotland, and a government floundering being out of its depth, you have to wonder just how bad the defeat will be for Nicola Sturgeon when or if a second indyref is approved by Westminster.

Quick question, can you sell a pig in a poke?

No?

Well, you are about to see Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP try, you can't sell failure no matter how you dress it up, we all know this as a self evident truth, and what is needed hasn't been addressed by the SNP Government, there is no roadmap, just meaningless short term knee jerk announcements to get them over crisis after crisis.

The SNP is a government that has ran out of steam! 

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

10 comments:

Martin Brooks said...

Nail hit on the head. How offensive is it to any Scottish person with half a brain to be told by Derek MaKay that this drop in economic output is down to Brexit and the Tories when rUK is powering ahead.

I can only assume that the critical thinking component of his degree came after he failed miserably and dropped out. The SNP really are our shame.

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

It's honestly like looking at expired milk on a shelf and Sturgeon trying to make Scotland drink it because it's "good for the people" or some other such bollocks.

Roll on the end of these SNP bunglers. It cannot come too soon.

Aldo said...

And they can't blame it on the oil crash either - as every sector of the Scottish economy is either stagnant or in decline.

This is what happens when you let seps run the government and get everything their way - as Quebec and Montreal can well attest to. I would like to buy a house or flat but point blank refuse to until the seps are back in their box. I don't want to be left high and dry, with a property, bought in Sterling, now valued in Groats. There must be a lot of people thinking that way. That presents a massive problem for Scotland.

Auld Jock said...

Hello George

You understand politics much better than me.

Is it a first for a 1st world Western democracy to elect and sustain in office a 3rd world government?

To the extent that there is any good news to be had here, it must be that, after a further 4 years of this insanity it should be impossible for even the snp to get re-elected as a "government". How different it might all have been if the Labour party had not alienated their Scottish vote. If the snp don't get a bloody nose in May, then we will have more to endure.

Auld Jock

Anonymous said...

Kranky went to America, she's bringing back £6.3m investment, 44 jobs, well done' but she didn’t meet Trump or any of Trumps administration. She’s useless. Now we hear, we are getting nice ex president Obummer, he’s visiting Edinburgh and so Kranky will get to meet him. Two leftards, a match made in Leftard heaven. Maybe he will tell her how he caused the Arab spring, the war in Libya, the Syrian war, armed Isis and Jihadi rebels and is responsible for the flood of refugees into Europe. Getting her selfie photo opportunity with the worse president ever. She pathetic.

G Laird said...

Hello Auld Jock

“Is it a first for a 1st world Western democracy to elect and sustain in office a 3rd world government?”

Short term, the answer is yes, long term the answer is undoubtedly no, there comes a point where sustained governance must take place which show a measure of improvement in society, the SNP is dragging Scotland down the tubes.

“To the extent that there is any good news to be had here, it must be that, after a further 4 years of this insanity it should be impossible for even the snp to get re-elected as a "government".”

Ideally that would be the situation except for the fact that the opposition has collapsed and the SNP is seen as a protest vehicle to use against Westminster.

There are problems caused down there which are impacting on people in Scotland, these problems relate to social mobility and welfare and they aren’t going away. If the Union is to continue the current Westminster course on these issues isn’t sustainable and will lead to a breakdown of confidence.

“How different it might all have been if the Labour party had not alienated their Scottish vote. If the snp don't get a bloody nose in May, then we will have more to endure”.

Scottish Labour’s problem started decades ago, bad candidates, bad policies and a lack of and willingness to represent; hence they got kicked out as the 2014 referendum was a tipping point. Since that event, Scottish Labour has clung to the same people who have been rejected, May is looking like the third in the trilogy of defeats, and this one is worse because it could destroy Labour’s councillor base and they need these people to rebuild from the bottom up.

You might have observed online from Scottish Labour people’s twitter accounts that there is a lack of former MPs and MSPs out campaigning for the party. They got helped into a position of benefit and now the former elected reps have cleared out when they aren’t getting anything out of it. If you are serious and lose your seat at election, you should be still willing to do the graft.

George

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

Question George, how many seats to the SNP need to keep in government? I'm not too clear on this? Because it seems that during their win in 2007, they had a fairly small chunk of the vote in the long term.

Also, do you think that it might be time to prepare for a new party other than rely on Labour? And are there plans for that yet? (By anyone.)

G Laird said...

Hi AL C

“Question George, how many seats to the SNP need to keep in government? I'm not too clear on this? Because it seems that during their win in 2007, they had a fairly small chunk of the vote in the long term”.

There are 129 MSPs, so in theory to get outright control and ‘win’ the election if you can get 65 MSPs, you don’t need to rely on any help. If you don’t get 65 seats, you then can go minority, if you have the largest block, attempt coalition with a third party or come to an agreement of understanding with others without coalition.

You can still be the government even if there is a low turn out, you just have to do better than others, all you need to win a seat is plus one.

”Also, do you think that it might be time to prepare for a new party other than rely on Labour? And are there plans for that yet? (By anyone.)”

If you are thinking new unionist party situation, depends on when the next election is called, and ideally you would want to have any new party do the council elections. The real problem with a new party is that you get people who come up with policies which are plainly wrong and that goes on to make them unelectable, you then also have the added handicap that some people who speak say really bad things which impact and make the party looks like cranks. One of the problems is that the way some people portray Unionism as if it was an extension of football supporter chanting instead a cool reserved and intelligent credible opposition making a case.

Scottish Labour is in a really bad place, they have failed to connect with working class people, the results speak for themselves, Labour voters either jumped to SNP or Conservatives for various reasons. You can totally forget any chance of Scottish Labour being viable for some considerable time; they are still in denial about what they need to do to change. They seem to think that if they wait long enough they will get back into power because people will fall out with the SNP. The Scottish Tories made a comeback via the unionist vote from Labour supporters but that vote is a pro UK vote, not solid but hats off to them they were able to captialise on Labour’s failures. And failures is the right word, failure to represent, failure to defend people’s rights, bad policies, callous attitude, no wonder they all got sent packing. There was no reason for Scottish Labour’s troubles other than their own arrogance which led to self harm of the brand.

Basically they cut their own throat and then sat about wondering why there was so much damage being caused to them.

There are some people who have started ‘the Unionist Party’ but it would be better to have gone with another name because a party cannot just be looked at through the prism of a single issue if it is to have broad appeal. Although protecting the union is important it is also important that it is protected via good governance which serves the people.

If I was designing a party, it wouldn’t have the nonsense that we see in many parties, like anti NATO, or crushing welfare cuts, or ignoring corporations dodging tax, or ignoring inequality.

George

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

Thanks George!

Interesting. I was going to say that it's probably a waste of time waiting for Labour to come to their senses. But in general, I think that maybe the SNP is part of a much larger picture.

The same picture as Brexit, Trump, European far right parties, even the failed "Arab Spring". I've honestly lost count with the number of friends who've said "politicians are all the same, all in it for each other". Only now we're seeing them here, in Europe, and in the US, squealing about the "need for career politicians" when they should've been thinking about that when people were grumbling. And they have the nerve to complain that people "vote against their best interests".

For all the times that "liberal" friends of mine have praised Obama in the US because he's so cuddly and sucks up to all their celebrity pals as some cheerleader, and his "Obamacare" plan, when the rest of the world doesn't give a shit! What about peace with Russia and in the Middle East? Islamist terrorist groups? ISIS? Economy of the world and stability in Europe and the world?

I remember Labour acting like a bunch of entitled tossers back in the days of Blair and Brown, and feeling that they had the right to push people around and enforce stupid policies with the assumption that all would be well because there was nobody else to vote for. (Wrong!)

And in Europe, Merkel et al enforced a shockingly stupid knee-jerk policy towards the migrant crisis, and such chaos has made people scared and angry. And now European cosmopolitanism and liberalism seems to be very much a thing of the past.

I've got a list as long as my arm, George. I have a few of my own grievances to mention, but I'd be here all day.

All everyone wants at the end of the day is peace and prosperity, and round the world that is clear as anything. Unfortunately, too many of the political and chattering classes are not on message.

Anyway, thanks for replying George, I do enjoy chatting with you over these things.

Al C

G Laird said...

Hi AL C

the problem in Scottish Labour is that the Blair faction need to go, and momentum isn't the answer.

If you take Brexit, both factions supported remain.

Where is the choice.

George