This may be a UK General Election, but much has been made during the campaign of the SNP’s record in government in Holyrood.
Yesterday one of our correspondents wrote about the party’s “total failure to either make a convincing case for independence or to govern Scotland with any meaningful degree of success”.
Today one of our readers argues the opposite.
Mary Thomas of Edinburgh writes:
"Keith Howell ignores the fact that the Scottish Government faced budget cuts from Westminster, which Labour in Wales blames for its much worse NHS problems, a situation exacerbated by Brexit that the UK parties don’t want to mention in the election campaign. Over 1,000 schools have been built or upgraded since the SNP took office, we have more teachers per pupil than elsewhere in the UK and they are better paid than their counterparts. Under the SNP, 95.9 per cent of 2023 school leavers were in a positive destination three months after the end of the school year. The attainment gap is narrowing as more children from deprived backgrounds are going to university and there are no tuition fees in Scotland while Labour is increasing them to £9,250 in Wales.
David Phillips from the IFS said that Scotland’s economy is performing better than most of the UK due to higher growth than the UK average with a broad-based economy plus a well-educated workforce which is a testament to the SNP’s record in government. Scotland’s overseas offices have promoted Scotland’s interests to such an extent that Scotland remains the most attractive place in the UK for foreign direct investment outside London. However, these are under threat with Labour plans to bypass the Scottish Parliament and let London decide what Scotland’s priorities should be, including on levelling up funding.
The Scottish Child Payment has lifted 100,000 families out of poverty while John Swinney’s plans for a social tariff on energy, broadband and mobile bills which will see those on low incomes, with disabilities and the elderly pay less on their bills, is more targeted than Labour’s nebulous GB Energy plans that might happen sometime in the distant future. Meanwhile, Labour is protecting bankers' bonuses while refusing to lift the two-child benefit cap."
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