Are the Tories finished before they start?

[Gavin Scott]

you've got to love the labour government though, haven't you: i was amazed by the pledge today to scrap car parking charges at hospitals for inpatients.

But inpatients are now kept in for the absolute minimum of time possible, so their bed can be handed on to another patient soonest.

No help with charges for the never ending outpatient appointments which always precede and follow the inpatient stay. Still no help (in England) with a minimum charge of £2.50 every morning when you have to go back for five minutes of radiotherapy every day for 35 days.

Free at the point of delivery my arsehole!

There's a swiping aside at this subject in Comment at midnight tonight. It was written last weekend, before the announcement, and hasn't been edited since.

Hospital car park charging has now been banned in Scotland. One of the SNP policies made good.

Made one hell of a difference when my pater had a stroke last year.

[barcode]

Hospital car park charging has now been banned in Scotland. One of the SNP policies made good.

Made one hell of a difference when my pater had a stroke last year.

Expect for the 3 PFI hospital as
* Glasgow royal,
* Edinburgh Royal and of course
* Ninewells at dundee

which are in the hands of companies.

on the note of the Scottish sun there never back the tories because there know there be backing a loser up here, who could there turn to? SNP lib dems? Green?

[Gavin Scott]

Hospital car park charging has now been banned in Scotland. One of the SNP policies made good.

Made one hell of a difference when my pater had a stroke last year.

Expect for the 3 PFI hospital as
* Glasgow royal,
* Edinburgh Royal and of course
* Ninewells at dundee

which are in the hands of companies.

on the note of the Scottish sun there never back the tories because there know there be backing a loser up here, who could there turn to? SNP lib dems? Green?

Yes, I omitted those in error. Dad was at St John's in Livvy.

Its a waiting game with regards the Scottish Sun. As Alexia said, its purely about backing the winning team - and in Scotland its questionable if they'll go with SNP as they did last time.

Salmond says and does some very good things (free healthcare for the elderly, free prescriptions), but also says things that make me mortified that he's my First Minister - the "State run SBC" being the latest.

Not a good thing.

[barcode]

Yes, I omitted those in error. Dad was at St John's in Livvy.

Its a waiting game with regards the Scottish Sun. As Alexia said, its purely about backing the winning team - and in Scotland its questionable if they'll go with SNP as they did last time.

Salmond says and does some very good things (free healthcare for the elderly, free prescriptions), but also says things that make me mortified that he's my First Minister - the "State run SBC" being the latest.

Not a good thing.

St Johns! I;m surprised you got a space there.

* free healthcare for the elderly : labour did that first so not sure why wee alex is on about there
* free prescriptions: SSP said that first,
There are few other things I don't like coming out of his mouth,

I still think an indepent vote will happen next year and IF a Tory government appears then bye bye union!

[Chie]

Mr Dinsmore said: "The big question is, 'what is David Cameron going to do for Scotland?

Kick it out of the union.

you've got to love the labour government though, haven't you: i was amazed by the pledge today to scrap car parking charges at hospitals for inpatients... wtf, most of these obscene hospital parking charges came in under a labour government. feckwits. even if the tories are the worst of both worlds, nobody can deny that labour are now completely bankrupt of ideas.

Anything's got to be better than this shower of bellends :roll:

[barcode]

Mr Dinsmore said: "The big question is, 'what is David Cameron going to do for Scotland?

Kick it out of the union.

Hooray no more Bad debts, No chance of stupid cuts,

[Gavin Scott]

* free healthcare for the elderly : labour did that first so not sure why wee alex is on about there

It was the SNP who carried Lord Sutherland's report through to actual policy. The Parliament voted on it originally in 2002 - its taken a long time to materialise, and like it or not it was on Salmond's watch.

* free prescriptions: SSP said that first,

What's that got to do with the price of fish?

The SSP haven't delivered anything - they're not in a position to do so.

Don't know how I feel about independence - but we're a resource rich nation. Uranium (I'm told), gold, not to mention the oil. The re-developed Magnus field has the same amount of oil left that we've already pulled out over the last 30 years - the new techniques coming out of Aberdeen are phenomenal.

I'm open to discussion about the idea.

[Sput]

I don't follow this at all so will ask a dumb question: Is there a sense the scotland is worse economically for having the union?

[Pete]

I certainly don't think so. I honestly, apart from the chest beating of some, cannot see any real benefits.

Despite what people with Saltires drawn on their faces could have you believe, Scottish and English folk are practically identical culturally when compared to europeans / americans / australians. Not least the fact that they're excellent at moaning about everything.

I voted SNP last time in the hollyrood elections as I (rightly) suspected they'd get a minority government where they could cause trouble for Labour/Conservatives without actually getting their way on crap like independance.

Frankly barcode, I don't think a Tory victory down south would suddenly cause the majority of people to suddenly back independance. Nor, would I expect it to suddenly absolve Scotland of problems. Remind me again which bank it is that has the largest bailout and where is that bank headquartered? Do you honeslty think an English parliament would just grudgingly accept that sort of debt?

[Gavin Scott]

I don't follow this at all so will ask a dumb question: Is there a sense the scotland is worse economically for having the union?

No, on balance I don't believe we're worse off at all. The benefits of the union are many, over and above per-head spending and such. There's no doubt that we do have more spent per-head in our sparsely populated areas - but the Exchequer doesn't make it easy to find out how much revenue is generated by Scottish resources. Because of course while we're in the Union they are UK resources.

But I don't think that is the crux for the call for independence.

I think its come to the fore again because of the upcoming election. Its very difficult to adequately express the feeling of frustration in Scotland that, even if we don't return a single tory mp to Westminster in our country, they may win the election. It a cyclical mood, and despite the SNP gaining a slim majority in the Scottish Parliament, I'm not sure there has been a strong call for it in the last 10 years.

But I think it may come - stronger than before - post-election.

[iSon]

I personally wouldn't like to see Scotland become independent and breakaway from the union. I believe we're stronger together - but like Gav I would be interested in seeing exactly how much Scotland contributes and perhaps great recognition of this contribution. As the downturn in manufacturing in the UK is once again in the spotlight, I think we should be celebrating any success stories whether they happen to be in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland.

Taking Gav's point about a Tory government in Westminster when Scotland isn't voting that way reminds me of past cases where Scottish MPs have voted on (sometimes controversial) legislation for England and Wales that has no impact on Scotland due to devolution. I'm sure many in the past have accused those MPs of doing it to merely frustrate the opposition but I would not be so narrow minded as to take that as gospel.

There are many things that aren't perfect with our electoral system and if for nothing else, I should be interested in hearing more about Gordon Brown's proposals to hold a referendum on electoral reform.