| Topic: IPPR Scotland — Rebuilding Scotland`s “New Politics”: a constructive parliament to build trust in Scottish politic |
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| 1. Author: Indiapar1 Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 11:35 Press report stated: “Scottish Parliament is not working” The report appears to summarise the following: Poor quality scrutiny Party politics overriding committee independence MSP`s are developing insufficient subject expertise. The median tenure on a committee was 1.5 to 2 years. Committee discussions have become less interactive Legilslative scrutiny is ocurring too late. Legislation being loaded with late amendments partly to generate party political headlines. Public confidence in the Scotish Government has slipped from 63% in 2021 to 45% in 2023. Approximately 3/4 of the public believe the Scottish government needs improvement. Not having any personal experience of the Scottish Parliament system is it that individually some MSPs are poor performers. The more worrying interpretation could be that the institutional system rewards behaviours that make good MSPs less effective? G Wardrope Post Edited (Tue 08 Sep 18:09) Reply |
| 2. Author: LochgellyAlbert Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 15:32 How about changing rules regarding the "list" MSP`s that have never won a raffle in their life!🤔 Reply |
| 3. Author: jake89 Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 18:06 Over 2/3s of people in the UK don`t think Westminster works and more than half don`t trust it. Will we see a rebuilding of that too? Holyrood is a bit of a farce with these list seats but I`d rather we focussed on Westminster first. Chuck the Lords, chuck all the expenses, chuck all the knobby historic customs. Reply |
| 4. Author: Buspasspar Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 19:28 Add the Royal Family to yer list jake We are forever shaped by the Children we once were Reply |
| 5. Author: NMCmassive Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 19:32 Genuinely, if we want independence we need to improve Holyrood. The list votes are a joke. We look like fools to the outside world because of it. I’d make it a priority. As long as Holyrood looks as bad as or worse than Westminster, independence will be more difficult to achieve. I’ve got to be honest though I have zero confidence in Holyrood whatsoever. COYP Reply |
| 6. Author: wee eck Date: Tue 8th Sep 2026. 20:59 Who do you think devised the voting system for Holyrood and who can change it? It was done that way so no one party was likely to gain an outright majority and they got a hell of a fright when the SNP managed it one election. Reply |
| 7. Author: LochgellyAlbert Date: Wed 9th Sep 2026. 00:42 And yet the Falklands "will have the democratic right to decide their own future " according to Burnham! Reply |
| 8. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 15:13 Well, did Burnham `misspeak` in the HoC yesterday when he said Scotland was in a similar position to N Ireland re a referendum on independence? It at least gave Swinney the chance to keep the pot boiling by wririting to him about it. I find it quite amusing that, since Burnham became PM, Labour have adopterd a few policies that already apply up here eg taking part of the rail network back into public ownership, extending free bus travel and now the possible introduction of a tourist tax by mayors! Nationalising all the water companies might prove too expensive. Our esteemed Scottish media don`t seem to have noticed. Reply |
| 9. Author: Indiapar1 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 16:07 wee eck, Tue 8 Sept 20:59 Wee Eck - my understanding of was that it made the political party more representative of the electoral vote allocation. Was that the case? G Wardrope Reply |
| 10. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 16:24 Well it gives the smaller parties a fairer representation in terms of seats than they would have had under `first past the post`. The down side is that none of these `List` MSPs has been voted in directly and I think some electors resent this. They are simply nominated by their parties in order of precedence and some have almost become permanent fixtures in the Parliament without being elected by or accountable to a particular constituency. Reply |
| 11. Author: Indiapar1 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 16:31 The performance of the SNP since coming to power has been a really mixed picture, howver this may not be substantially different to the UK government. In Scotland; NHS - The NHS has unquestionably been affected by COVID, an ageing population, inflation, workforce shortages and pressures also affecting England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Those are legitimate mitigating factors. But they do not entirely explain the scale of the problem because many capacity and waiting-time difficulties pre-date the pandemic. EDUCATION - There are areas of strength. Scotland still performs relatively well internationally in reading. In PISA 2022 Scotland scored 493 in reading against an OECD average of 476. The problem is that the government`s headline claim of "closing the attainment gap" can obscure the distinction between destination statistics and actual academic attainment. Scotland has made social-equity gains, but international evidence suggests deterioration in some core educational competencies. POLICE AND CRIME - In the year ending June 2026 Scotland recorded 323,531 crimes, 7% higher than the previous year and 13% higher than 2022. Non-sexual violent crime rose by 7% year-on-year and dishonesty offences by 10%. This is a change in the trajectory that has been on a downward trend. LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Over many years, councils have faced increasing demand from social care, additional-support-needs education, homelessness and statutory duties while simultaneously trying to protect politically prominent national commitments. The result has increasingly been visible in: 1. Road and pavement maintenance 2. libraries and community facilities; 3. Cleansing; l4. Leisure facilities; 5. School estates; 6. Planning departments 7. Parks 8. Preventative maintenance This matters because cuts to apparently discretionary preventative services eventually become asset-management liabilities. Delaying road resurfacing, roof maintenance or planned maintenance rarely removes the expenditure; it usually converts planned expenditure into more expensive reactive expenditure. HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS - Scotland has created strong entitlements, but the supply of social and affordable housing has not consistently been sufficient to fulfil them. FERRIES AND MAJOR PROJECTS - The Ferguson Marine ferries episode has become particularly damaging because it demonstrates failures extending beyond one late construction contract. SUMMARY - After 19 years of continuous SNP government, the argument that inherited problems are responsible becomes progressively less persuasive. COVID, Brexit, UK fiscal policy and demographic change clearly matter, but a government in office for nearly two decades also owns the resilience—or lack of resilience—of the systems it governs. It would be useful to draw a comparison with the UK overall. G Wardrope Reply |
| 12. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 17:48 In Scotland in the last 19 years the electorate has not been sufficiently impressed by any of the alternative parties to vote them into government. It`s quite an indictment to accuse the government of such incompetence but be unable to convince voters that they can do any better. Maybe voters look south and decide that maybe things aren`t so bad after all. Reply |
| 13. Author: Indiapar1 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 18:18 wee eck, Thu 10 Sept 17:48 I don`t think I am accusing anyone of incompetence wee eck. I think it would be useful to draw a comparison with the UK government at have obviously been run by both Labour and Tories over the last 19 years. I`m not drawn either way and thus for me I would want to know the facts rather than the rhetoric that seems to be in the public domain. It will perhaps become really important and relevant to understand the pro`s and con`s of any fututre debate given that the independence card has been turned over again and seems to be back on the table. G Wardrope Reply |
| 14. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 18:40 I was referring to the opposition parties calling the Scottish government `incompetent`, Indiapar. Anyway, to no one`s surprise, Burnham has spurned Swinney`s advances and we`re back where we started. Reply |
| 15. Author: NMCmassive Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 19:27 Tbf incompetence has been proven time and again by the Scottish government COYP Reply |
| 16. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 19:46 OK, for sake of argument, let`s accept the Scottish government is incompetent. Why then have they been in power for 19 years? Reply |
| 17. Author: Indiapar1 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 20:35 Looking at the factors to consider in any independence debate: Creating the machinery of state is technically achievable. Scotland already possesses the NHS, education system, police, fire service, courts, prosecution service, prisons, local government and much of the welfare administration. The large additions would be sovereign functions: Treasury capability, a central bank, full tax collection, customs and immigration, passports, foreign affairs, defence, intelligence, debt management and several national regulators. Scotland`s justice system is already substantially self-contained. The harder institutional programmes would be HMRC replacement, customs, benefits and pensions, financial stability, defence/intelligence and border systems. These are large interconnected IT and operational systems where poor commissioning could directly affect tax collection, pension payments, imports and exports. The most significant economic exposure is the UK relationship. The latest Scottish export statistics estimate that 60% of Scottish exports went to the rest of the UK, worth £55.4bn in 2023. EU membership could remove barriers between Scotland and the EU but would necessarily create some customs and regulatory formalities for goods moving between Scotland and UK. The Common Travel Area could preserve largely frictionless movement of people, but it does not eliminate a customs border for goods. A lot of challenges to consider. G Wardrope Reply |
| 18. Author: Tenruh Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 21:28 wee eck, Thu 10 Sept 19:46 Because the unionist vote is split 4 ways Reply |
| 19. Author: Dave_1885 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 21:45 Tenruh, Thu 10 Sep 21:28 But the SNP as a party still get more votes than the other parties…..so surely if they were that bad, people just wouldn’t the for them? You know, like when the Tories were ousted 2 years ago? Reply |
| 20. Author: jake89 Date: Thu 10th Sep 2026. 22:00 Dave_1885, Thu 10 Sept 21:45 It doesn`t. It gets more votes than each individually but not all added up. Reply |