During these last years, the number of political and moral scandals under the SNP government has increased at a rapid pace, though Nicola Sturgeon’s government carried on with a majority regardless. It’s sad to watch that the disgraced MSPs keep receiving their generous salaries from taxpayers’ pockets. The shameless politicians answer to no one. In this article, I will list some of these statistics and numbers.
In recent years, statistics are telling of the several shady financial deals that have cost the Scottish taxpayer tens or even hundreds of millions, from obtaining passenger ships that can’t sail, poorly equipped hospitals, under-regulated construction yards, to an airport without planes. The total cost of the government’s ineptitude is reaching a billion – so the question is, how many SNP ministers have paid a price for their failure? The answer is none.
Let’s go deeper into the dark world of drug abuse in Scotland. As of this year, our country has the highest rate of drug-related deaths for the whole continent – more than 12,600 deaths. More than 210 homeless people have died on the streets this year – a rate far worse than in the rest of the union; there are thirteen council areas in Scotland where life expectancy is falling each year: the rapidly increasing child poverty rate, old people poverty and relative poverty.
Two important notes on these statistics: First, they are all pre-pandemic (so expect new numbers to be more disastrous). Second, the blame for these stats lies directly with the first minister living a happy life in her official residence of Bute House, not with Westminster, Whitehall, or Downing Street. The rest of the union is functioning under the same laws and same funding formula, but attain better results. The common reason for all these poor numbers is the ineptitude of the SNP government under Nicola Sturgeon, which has been acting distracted from a long time ago, because their mouths are salivating for a second independence referendum.
After the failed first referendum of 2014, our people were in dire need of a majority government that would heal the wounds of divisions in the country. Instead, the first minister took the government again and distracted us from progress by working for another independence referendum – completely rejecting the democratic outcome of a referendum she had promised to honour.
Then, after Brexit happened, when there was yet more division created within the union, Nicola Sturgeon intentionally beat the drums of division – her SNP MPs infamously guaranteeing an amendment to maintain the EU Customs Union lost by 6 votes – and later, having created the deadlock, voted for a general election because it was in her party’s interest, not to the advantage of the Scottish people.
And finally, the most devastating statistic is the number of lost lives to the mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic. Managing the coronavirus pandemic was an existential challenge for Nicola Sturgeon’s government, just as it was for Boris Johnson’s, but why did the first minister carry on transferring untested elderly patients from hospitals into care homes when Johnson’s health secretary had stopped? This disaster was Sturgeon’s decision and the blame is only on her. The apparent need to act like a hippie and be different from the rest of the UK cost innocent lives. Numbers yet to be calculated – the tragic deaths that could be avoidable.
From the beginning of this opinion piece, I’ve tried to state facts and numbers, and I think I’ve shown quite a few that might make voters ponder more on their decision of who to vote for. If you found some of these statistics intolerable, irritating, or saddening, then surely you have to agree Sturgeon’s number must be up and vote accordingly.
