[spireitematt]

You make some fair points matt but you are just plain wrong about the SNP, they are by no means an "anti English" party. Please supply some evidence of this. Your points about education are distorted - English,welsh and NI students have their fees capped, less than they would pay elsewhere. Also English students can study anywhere in the EU. Maybe instead of trying to turn things into a Scotland v England conflict you should reflect on why Westminster wont offer free education for English students - unlike a nation that doesn't even have control of the full potential of its purse strings.

And comparing a progressive centre left party with UKIP is xxxx nuts, but I'm sure deep down you know that.

The SNP is a Nationalist party who want to leave the United Kingdom and I've heard 0762 and other SNP supporters on TV interviews and on social media go on about how they want to leave the "little Englanders" behind.

The fees are capped at £9,000 a year or £9,500 a year. If you are an EU citizen you don't have to pay tuition in Scotland but if you are English, Welsh or Northern Irish then you have to pay the £9,000 or £9,500 a year if you study in Scotland. In my opinion scrapping tuition fees isn't the answer but lowering them down to a suitable cost such as £3,500 would be better. At Universities nowadays there is too many mickey mouse courses and the standards of entry have dropped. University should be tough to get into but easier to get by while studying.

The problem with Westminister is they only care about the people inside the M25 and don't give a damn about anybody outside it. The whole system is archaic and needs to be brought into the 21st century.

Yes the SNP are a centre left party but they are Nationalist and want to dissolve the union. UKIP are a right wing party probably too right wing in some cases who are anti-EU and want to leave the EU but keep the Union together with Scotland/Wales and Northern Ireland. UKIP appeal to people by using Nationalist values and memories of days gone by of how things used to be. So when I say SNP and UKIP have a lot in common I mean Nationalism and using Nationalist values to further there agenda. There is nothing wrong with being patriotic about your country and being proud of where you are from but when Nationalism starts to creep in it becomes a sticky wicket because Nationalism eventually leads to racism.

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I agree with both matt and jim, but only in the first half of their posts. I don't agree that the SNP are a one trick pony (that's only the way they are portrayed in the national media) but I do agree they should be promoting their other successes more.

And I'm not a great believer in the descriptions of "free education", "free prescriptions", "free bus passes", etc. They're not free, they're only free to the recipient. Except in my case, I'm still paying for my "free" benefits. No wonder we as a country are hard-up, we're giving far too much money away in "freebies". In my opinion, these benefits should be means-tested in some way, so that the poorest get the benefit and the richest can pay their own way.

The reason why I say that the SNP are a one trick pony is because all they seem to say and go on about in Parliament is about leaving the UK and dissolving the Union, just like UKIP go on about leaving the EU.

I agree with you that free education, free prescriptions and free bus passes aren't free and that they are only free to the recipient, the thing is if you've paid tax and N.I contributions and paid into the system then you should be entitled to benefits when you become hard-up in life and use the welfare state as a safety net because that's what it is, a safety neat in times of need. There are people who have worked all their life and paid into the system and when they become unemployed or hard-up through no fault of their own they are refused benefits and are made to feel like scroungers by the right wing media and politicians and certain people in society believe that people who are struggling or down on their luck are scroungers. The right wing media do the same to migrants and refugees by demeaning them all layabouts and work shy which is just not true, you might get the odd migrant or two who want to live off the welfare state but they are a minority and not the majority. The majority of migrants and refugees contribute more to the UK economy than they take out, they work in our NHS and public services and without them we would struggle.

The welfare state needs reform, as does our NHS, as does our political system and how things are done.