The proportion of our GDP spent on defence is far higher than most of our neighbours and I dont see what benefit it brings the people of this country. I dont see what good the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan brought to ordinary people. Denmark spend 20 times less than the UK at just 2.5 billion Euros. Ireland spend 50 times less with less than 1 billion euros. Do you really think that either of them are in greater danger than us?
The fact is that our only conceivable enemy is Russia, and having nukes just makes us a target. They wont attack Ireland, but they'll nuke the shit out of Britain.
But anyway these are my opinions whereas we're supposed to be talking about the SNP.
There doesnt seem to be much need for the SNP to stoke divisions because the mistrust/hatred/fear of the tory and labour parties and westminster politics in general is what led Scotland and the Scottish people to support the SNP. The fact that its 9 grand a year for english students is a total scandal and an absolutely disastrous and stupid policy for any first world developed nation. Undermining your young people by restricting access to quality education is an ideological policy that Michael Gove brought in and its incredibly short sighted and stupid.
If they wanted to reduce the number of students then they should have made education more difficult, not prohibitively expensive! The same goes for the policy on prescriptions. it costs the Scottish NHS less than half a percent of our NHS budget to fund that and it stops people falling ill and needing further costly treatments because they're not inclined to save the £7 per item on their prescription budgets. Which many people in England will choose to do. They ask the pharmacist which medications are most important. And they end up getting sick because they never took the meds that were prescribed to them. And they end up back in hospital. The policies that the tories and labour have pursued are not even sensible. They're not even economically sensible.. (But they DO get people used to the idea of paying for healthcare - which is where they're taking us).
The fact is that if your politicians wanted to prioritise these things in England then they could have. In fact to not have these policies is to deny the young people of England the chance to escape the minimum wage, part-time, zero hours contract bullshit that a lot of people find themselves stuck with. Britain needs a highly educated population or it will be left to compete with the likes of India. Which is not a game that we're likely to win. Adn if the next generation of pensioners want to have things as comfortable as they have it right now then they're goign to need a large wealthy middle class to support them. And folk on minumum wage can barely afford to support themselves, far less pay for the care and comfort of the growing pensioner demographic.
I've been outraged to see the things that the westminster parties have done in the last 20 years and it is only thanks to the SNP and the Holyrood parliament that the same bullshit hasn't been forced on us as well.. So ask yourself whether Britain wants to be a prosperous and fair nation like Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland? Or a hugely unfair country like America? Because that seems to be the choice ahead. Budgets are decided based on the priorities and the biasses of the leaders. Personally I have no faith with Westminster and I realised that our only and best option was to walk away from the whole mess. Which is what made me choose independence. And I'm not the only one.
Anyway. You might find this interesting. Its Alex Salmond addressing the hustings. Try to listen to what he actually says. http://www.facebook.com/carlo.zambonini/videos/10205009080800878/
In case you're not aware, Alex Salmond was a senior economist with RBS for many years.