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How will you vote in the General Election?


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Taxes on oil - scary to be reliant on taxes from a depleting natural resource - and I presume the $113 is the baseline being used ? What happens when oil tanks to $65 a barrel - what then with the taxes on oil that have just dropped 35% ?

We All relocate to Bermuda, problem solved!! :D :D

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Ah the poor subsidising the middle class how quaint!

 

This is exactly it. The snp have helped the middle classes no end while talking about the poor and doing nothing for them.

 

It's a triumph of propaganda from them.

 

If you want to help the poor don't vote snp.

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See, that's the kind of unionist nonsense that has driven so many to join the SNP.

 

The Barnet formula is the division of money from the exchequer to the regions of the UK.

 

Scotland pays much more into the exchequer than we get out. We have been doing so for the past thirty years.

 

We absolutely do not.

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The council house in the mining town where I grew up and the 14th worst school in the country I went to were as working class as it gets. Fortunately, coming from a background that would be classified today as poverty stricken, didn't prevent me getting to Edinburgh University - why? Because there were no fees and education was then as it is today free for all in Scotland. So you can stick your snidey middle class remark.

 

And now your benefiting from the snp council tax freeze. If you pay council tax of course. A policy that helps the rich more than the poor.

 

What have the snp done for the poor?

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The council house in the mining town where I grew up and the 14th worst school in the country I went to were as working class as it gets. Fortunately, coming from a background that would be classified today as poverty stricken, didn't prevent me getting to Edinburgh University - why? Because there were no fees and education was then as it is today free for all in Scotland. So you can stick your snidey middle class remark.

 

I grew up firstly in a privately rented flat then a council flat then a council house in a fishing town, university was never an option as it simply could not have been afforded as my fathers occupation as a share fisherman meant grants were out of bounds.

 

Education isn't free, someone has to pay the price for it and under SNP it's potential students from a poorer background that are paying the price.

 

Alex Salmond should take his Education Minister with him when he steps down this month, Labour has said after challenging him over official figures it said laid bare his shameful record in office.

 

Jackie Baillie used First Minister’s Questions to demand Mike Russell’s head after asking whether the number of teachers, people attending college and youngsters from poor backgrounds attending university had increased or fallen since 2007.

 

When Mr Salmond dodged the questions, she disclosed there were 4,000 fewer teachers, 140,000 fewer people at college and 3,000 fewer children from deprived communities in higher education compared to when he took power.

 

The First Minister also rejected taking schools out of local authority control after the Tories challenged him over an article by Keir Bloomer, one of the architects of the new curriculum, warning Scottish pupils were falling behind their international competitors.

 

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, said Mr Bloomer had warned Scotland’s schools were doing “significantly worse” in reading, maths and science compared to 2000. Mr Salmond said his administration had arrested a decline in performance but admitted Scotland was still behind New Zealand.

 

Mike Russell has blamed education cuts on the No vote in the independence referendum

 

He faced questions over Scotland’s schools after an official report published this week found only 3.9 per cent of pupils in the poorest areas get three A grades in their Higher exams compared with 24.2 per cent in the wealthiest communities.

 

Although the report criticised universities for making only very small improvements in recruiting poor students, it admitted their efforts were hampered by "low levels of school attainment".

 

Ms Baillie told MSPs: "The truth is there are fewer teachers giving our children the education they need, there are fewer college places for people trying to get on in life and the poorest people are less likely to go on to university under this SNP Government.

"He (Salmond) should be ashamed. Isn't it the case that when the First Minister leaves Bute House for the last time he should perhaps consider taking the Education Secretary with him?"

Ms Baillie, who is standing in at First Minister’s Questions while Scottish Labour chooses a new leader, published figures showing there were 55,099 teachers when the SNP took power compared to 51,078 last year. This is a drop of 4,021.

Mr Salmond argued that class sizes have remained the same over the period, but this was contradicted by official statistics showing there are 16.5 primary pupils for every teacher compared to 15.8 in 2007. The figures for secondary schools were 12.2 and 11.6 respectively.

The number of people attending college has dropped from 379,223 to 238,805 over the same period. Labour said the SNP has cut the further education budget by £67 million to maintain spending on universities.

 

Meanwhile, the number of children from the 40 per cent most deprived communities who attend university has dropped from 21,851 to 18,702 between the 2009/10 and 2012/13 academic years.

 

The Tories this week published a book of articles, mostly by politically impartial authors, calling for urgent reform of the education system.

 

Mr Bloomer, the former director of education at Clackmannshire Council, warned Scotland was slipping down international league tables in maths, reading and science and “there is little sign of recovery”.

 

Ms Davidson highlighted his warning that SNP ministers’ penchant for “self-congratulation” was harming the prospect of improvement and urged Mr Salmond to end the “one-size-fits-all” system of local authority control.

 

But Mr Salmond said Scotland had closed the gap on New Zealand’s performance and would not be adopting the “disastrous disorganisation” of the English education system, where parents, charities and religious groups can run schools.

 

Speaking after their exchanges, Ms Davidson said the First Minister “would rather pat himself on the back and put his ego ahead of giving every child the same chance of a good education.”

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