Scottish Opinion Poll

[sKipper]

Since Smurphy seems to have missed this one

I though it worth putting up in the interests of balance for our foreign based readership .

SNP 41%
Lab 25%
Con 19%
Lib 13%

YouGov poll out this morning and believe it or not it was for Westmister voting intentions ! Never thought I would ever see the day when the Nats would lead by 16% for Westminster.

Unfortunatley there was no Holyrood equivalent poll but the gap would probably be even larger.

[mikeythibs]

Wonder how the polls will look when people cotton onto what is happening in the public sector re cuts in schools and the like?

Teachers, learning assistants being paid off, school kitchens being shut down and so on...Schools not being able to offer courses to kids in sixth year because of the cuts. Cuts in services re cleaning streets and emptying refuse. And so on...

Reckon things may look different by the end of the year.

[sKipper]

Originally Posted by mikeythibs

Wonder how the polls will look when people cotton onto what is happening in the public sector re cuts in schools and the like?

Teachers, learning assistants being paid off, school kitchens being shut down and so on...Schools not being able to offer courses to kids in sixth year because of the cuts. Cuts in services re cleaning streets and emptying refuse. And so on...

Reckon things may look different by the end of the year.

Well if these things were happening don't you think that they would be reflected in the polls now ? Why would folk postpone their anger until the end of the year ?

Personally I don't believe for a second that such cuts are happening. I think the anti SNP press would be blasting out such instances from the rooftops were they true, and not even the Record has said a cheap.

[FTJT]

Originally Posted by mikeythibs

Wonder how the polls will look when people cotton onto what is happening in the public sector re cuts in schools and the like?

Teachers, learning assistants being paid off, school kitchens being shut down and so on...Schools not being able to offer courses to kids in sixth year because of the cuts. Cuts in services re cleaning streets and emptying refuse. And so on...

Reckon things may look different by the end of the year.

are all of these done by Holyrood diktat rather than LEA/city council/etc decisions? Curious like.

[Colr]

Originally Posted by sKipper

Since Smurphy seems to have missed this one

I though it worth putting up in the interests of balance for our foreign based readership .

SNP 41%
Lab 25%
Con 19%
Lib 13%

YouGov poll out this morning and believe it or not it was for Westmister voting intentions ! Never thought I would ever see the day when the Nats would lead by 16% for Westminster.

Unfortunatley there was no Holyrood equivalent poll but the gap would probably be even larger.

YouGov were criticised by Labour and esp. Ken Livingstone about their overall approach and casting aspersions about their projections for the London mayoral elections.

Turns out they were the closest to the actual result.

[SKII]

Originally Posted by sKipper

Personally I don't believe for a second that such cuts are happening. I think the anti SNP press would be blasting out such instances from the rooftops were they true, and not even the Record has said a cheap.

Schools in our local authority have had to cut next year's budget by 3%. This will be repeated next year and the following year - compound. This is a direct result of the Concordat that meant a freeze in council tax.

It varies from authority to authority how councils are implementing the cuts but it is ranging from 1.7-3.5% in education this year. As the vast majority of the education budget in any authority is the pay roll of teaching staff the end result is a cut in teaching staff. The other costs like heating, rates, maintenance contracts are fixed and cannot be easily cut.

I certainly have read a number of articles on it in the press?

Scotsman even ran an editorial on it last month after an East Lothian heidie went to the papers about his school losing teachers and most likely not being able to run certain courses next year because of it.



Schools face next year with fewer teachers and bigger classes - The Scotsman

This is the most recent item I have seen - from yesterday's Scotsman refering specifically to Glasgow Council?

[TommyPreston]

Originally Posted by sKipper

Since Smurphy seems to have missed this one

I though it worth putting up in the interests of balance for our foreign based readership .

SNP 41%
Lab 25%
Con 19%
Lib 13%

YouGov poll out this morning and believe it or not it was for Westmister voting intentions ! Never thought I would ever see the day when the Nats would lead by 16% for Westminster.

Unfortunatley there was no Holyrood equivalent poll but the gap would probably be even larger.

Won't pan out over the seats, wee smug eck isn't half as smart as he thinks he is.

[SkyeHibs]

Originally Posted by SKII

Schools in our local authority have had to cut next year's budget by 3%. This will be repeated next year and the following year - compound. This is a direct result of the Concordat that meant a freeze in council tax.

It varies from authority to authority how councils are implementing the cuts but it is ranging from 1.7-3.5% in education this year. As the vast majority of the education budget in any authority is the pay roll of teaching staff the end result is a cut in teaching staff. The other costs like heating, rates, maintenance contracts are fixed and cannot be easily cut.

I certainly have read a number of articles on it in the press?

Scotsman even ran an editorial on it last month after an East Lothian heidie went to the papers about his school losing teachers and most likely not being able to run certain courses next year because of it.



Schools face next year with fewer teachers and bigger classes - The Scotsman

This is the most recent item I have seen - from yesterday's Scotsman refering specifically to Glasgow Council?

As the article in The Scotsman says SK11 council funding is inreasing by 13% over four years. It is up to each authority how they spend their funding but there are resources there. Education has been and remains a priority. Spending on education in Glasgow has risen by 25% over the last four years!

[SKII]

Originally Posted by SkyeHibs

As the article in The Scotsman says SK11 council funding is inreasing by 13% over four years. It is up to each authority how they spend their funding but there are resources there. Education has been and remains a priority. Spending on education in Glasgow has risen by 25% over the last four years!

Council funding per se may be increasing by 13% but education across the board is being cut - this is because the councils are being asked to make "efficiency savings" as part of the Concordat with the Executive and Children's Services are - by necessity -the biggest part of any council budget and most vulnerable to these cuts.

Much of the cuts in education are hidden by the convenient merging of Education departments with Social Work to create Children's Services departments where the overall pot of money is the top line councils tell the public - but due to the incredible pressures on Social Work these days some monies supposed in theory to go to Education end up in the Social Work part of the department. This is because ring fencing has also gone.

I am sure the EIS Survey will make clear the impact of the cut in education budgets (in terms of teaching jobs lost) in due course. They will have the full picture once all authorities know their staffing levels for next year (this finally should be known this month when the Executive tell each authority what probationers are being placed where).

[SkyeHibs]

Originally Posted by SKII

Council funding per se may be increasing by 13% but education across the board is being cut - this is because the councils are being asked to make "efficiency savings" as part of the Concordat with the Executive and Children's Services are - by necessity -the biggest part of any council budget and most vulnerable to these cuts.

Much of the cuts in education are hidden by the convenient merging of Education departments with Social Work to create Children's Services departments where the overall pot of money is the top line councils tell the public - but due to the incredible pressures on Social Work these days some monies supposed in theory to go to Education end up in the Social Work part of the department. This is because ring fencing has also gone.

I am sure the EIS Survey will make clear the impact of the cut in education budgets (in terms of teaching jobs lost) in due course. They will have the full picture once all authorities know their staffing levels for next year (this finally should be known this month when the Executive tell each authority what probationers are being placed where).

As you say SK11 ring fencing is dead and each council, rightly in my view, have much more freedom in terms of where they want to spend their money. For me I think one big issue here is public spending has risen dramatically since 1999 but often there was no thought to productivity nor that at some point that the economy would slow or go into reverse, funding would be squeezed and then painful choices would have to be made. We are now entering that phase. The fact that central government did not build a cushion for a rainy day gives little scope to increase spending without having to jack up tax.

[hattrick baker]

Originally Posted by TommyPreston

Won't pan out over the seats, wee smug eck isn't half as smart as he thinks he is.

Whats the options then?

David "the slime" Cameron

Gordon "the taxer" Brown. Or do you prefer sexy Wendy "i'll do the jokes" Alexander?

If Alex gets whats ours, ie,oil revenue. The only country in the EU who has oil but pay the most for it Do you think like the brainwashed, that we would be worse off?
This year alone thier is a £4billion surplus!
But we dont need that, do we?
Not with all the school cut backs etc.

I really fail to understand people who would rather be ruled by a parliament in England rather than looking after thier own countries situatuon and its own people.

Does it not bug you when we are constantly told we are too stupid to run our own country and we need England to help us
Look all over the world, health, education, science, economics, finance, politics, we have experts in all fields.

The poll tax, now lets use the jocks as guinea pigs for a year! Fishing rights, they completely sold us down the river and they knew they were!
Right now we'd be filthy rich with our oil, with the prices just now. Enough to take 5 pence off income rate and halve business rates. We would still have £2billion to put away in H/I accounts EVERY year! Although if prices were low, we would only be SURPLUS, EVERY year to the tune of just a few £100million,
What a nightmare eh, having billions of pounds making hundreds of millions of interest and it goes on and on.

Add on that Scotland will be soaring ahead with Hydro power and wind turbines, we are naturally blessed with the right compononts.
Tourism is also huge, or would they stop coming if we were Independant? Everyone would take their business elsewhere if you believe the scaremongerers. If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable.
Edinburgh is second only to London as a financial district, and third in Europe.
Whisky is Britains biggest export.
RBS is fifth biggest bank in the world!
So yeah, we're useless and stupid

[Colr]

The Tories used to do quite well in Scotland when they where a separate party from the UK machine. Maybe they need to go down this route again to revive interest in their policies.

Scots do seem to go for Scottish branding.

[egb_hibs]

Originally Posted by sKipper

Since Smurphy seems to have missed this one

I though it worth putting up in the interests of balance for our foreign based readership .

SNP 41%
Lab 25%
Con 19%
Lib 13%

YouGov poll out this morning and believe it or not it was for Westmister voting intentions ! Never thought I would ever see the day when the Nats would lead by 16% for Westminster.

Unfortunatley there was no Holyrood equivalent poll but the gap would probably be even larger.

wow. could it be that labour ends up below the tories even in scotland. still a good cushion there, but not one that couldn't disappear in two years.

[wester hailes]

Originally Posted by hattrick baker

Whats the options then?

David "the slime" Cameron

Gordon "the taxer" Brown. Or do you prefer sexy Wendy "i'll do the jokes" Alexander?

If Alex gets whats ours, ie,oil revenue. The only country in the EU who has oil but pay the most for it Do you think like the brainwashed, that we would be worse off?
This year alone thier is a £4billion surplus!
But we dont need that, do we?
Not with all the school cut backs etc.

I really fail to understand people who would rather be ruled by a parliament in England rather than looking after thier own countries situatuon and its own people.

Does it not bug you when we are constantly told we are too stupid to run our own country and we need England to help us
Look all over the world, health, education, science, economics, finance, politics, we have experts in all fields.

The poll tax, now lets use the jocks as guinea pigs for a year! Fishing rights, they completely sold us down the river and they knew they were!
Right now we'd be filthy rich with our oil, with the prices just now. Enough to take 5 pence off income rate and halve business rates. We would still have £2billion to put away in H/I accounts EVERY year! Although if prices were low, we would only be SURPLUS, EVERY year to the tune of just a few £100million,
What a nightmare eh, having billions of pounds making hundreds of millions of interest and it goes on and on.

Add on that Scotland will be soaring ahead with Hydro power and wind turbines, we are naturally blessed with the right compononts.
Tourism is also huge, or would they stop coming if we were Independant? Everyone would take their business elsewhere if you believe the scaremongerers. If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable.
Edinburgh is second only to London as a financial district, and third in Europe.
Whisky is Britains biggest export.
RBS is fifth biggest bank in the world!
So yeah, we're useless and stupid

well said that man

[Colr]

The Scottish Office requested that the Poll Tax be tried in Scotland first because they thought it would be popular and revive Tory fortunes. Scotland wasn't being used as a guinea pig - they were convinced it was a great policy.

[Stirlinghibee]

Scotland is now kinda entering uncharted waters. Labour and the Tories are unpopular here now. I can see the following happening.

1. Both the Labour and Tories Scottish wing demanding more control of their parties. This is not forthcoming resulting in more "Wendyrendum" moments. Labour continues to be a laughing stock.

2. Scotland realises that the Tories will win in 2010 , so votes SNP by even a larger margin than the opinion poll. Tories romp home at Westminster. Labour reduced to around 120 MP's.

3. Labour in Scotland now fractures along Unionist and Nationalist lines. 2011 Scottish election see's SNP now gain majority of Glasgow seats as the "Celtc" support deserts Labour. Strong Hun areas (Larkhall, Armadale etc) start voting Tory as old "economic" voting breaks down to give way to "Scotland vs UK".

I would give Scotland a 75% Nationalist / 25% Unionist split in this situation.

[Colr]

I think a Tory government now would be less like the Thatcher government and closer to those in the 50s. I'm not sure they would push Scotland away.