Scottish independence: the SNP has so far made £32 billion of independence spending pledges, there are no details, no one knows how it will be paid for; Alex Salmond is like a kid in a pie shop wanting to ‘grab the goodies’, Scots to pay the bill later!

Dear All

The SNP Government is so desperate for a vote that they have so far made £32 billion of spending pledges for an independent Scotland.

However, despite promising the Earth, they aren’t saying how they would be paid for and sustainable funding although terribly untrendy is a hard fact of life that Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon can’t escape from.

The new pledges yet again are a clear marker that the Scottish independence campaign is bogus!

It is one massive political fraud that is being attempted to be fostered on the Scottish people.

There is no detail.

Do you want a herd of camels?

Stick around some fool will promise you it eventually in the SNP.

The reality that we all live in there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’, someone somewhere is paying for it.

The SNP is making "extravagant" promises because they know that they won’t deliver on them, like the Lib Dems, they have drawn up a wish list, and will sell it for votes, but just as the Lib Dems sold out the people so will Salmond.

One of the country’s most senior pension experts has said that the latest SNP pledge to examine lowering the retirement age would require “big cuts” to public services.

I have stated and stated and stated, that public sector reform was the task of the second SNP term, it never happened.

So, George Laird right again, but also ahead of the curve.

Better Together is going through the SNP wish list that has released 17 spending commitments for an independent Scotland made by the SNP.

These covering areas such as pensions and defence, and the commitments look very shaky indeed.

The total of £32.1 billion includes an estimated £6 billion which is the  cost of reversing the UK Government’s plan to increase the state pension age to 67.

That latest Nationalist suggestion was unveiled at the weekend and should never have been made, it is sheer tripe.

This Yes Campaign is looking more and more bizarre, it shows up Salmond and Sturgeon as a pair of buffoons, renationalising the Royal Mail and higher annual increases in the state pension!

Does the Scottish Government realize how inept such nonsense looks to ordinary people?

Salmond opens his mouth and roars out un-costed promises as if he was a ‘wean’ in a sweet shop.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is on the case and warned Scotland faces making £5.9 billion of tax increases and spending cuts immediately after independence.

This is need because if not, nothing would be able to stabilise its finances, then Scotland would slide down hill so fast that we would be like Greece, except they have better weather and life expectancy.

Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor and leader of Better Together has condemned Alex Salmond for making “false promises.”

He said:

“Experts have repeatedly warned of the costs of independence as oil revenues decline and our population ages more rapidly than the rest of the UK. Yet the nationalists continue to make extraordinary promises without telling us how they would pay for them.”

Darling added:

“Over the next few weeks, to try to get his struggling campaign back on track, Alex Salmond will make ever more extravagant claims. He is either making false promises he cannot pay for or he is planning big tax rises.”

On the pensions report SNP ministers have provided no calculations for how much this would costed.

With the continuous neverendum of false promises, John Swinney is looking helpless as his reputation is dragged through the gutter by Salmond and Sturgeon.

Ronnie Bowie, a senior partner with pension consultancy Hymans Robertson, said the “burden on the public purse will increase substantially if nothing is done” to reform the state pension.

That means cuts to services, huge cuts, we would see the poor and vulnerable driven over the edge; poverty and hardship beyond belief all provided by your friendly neighbourhood ‘fat man’, Alex Salmond.

Bowie added:

    

“Those are big numbers and if the Scottish Government chose to keep the current state pension age, it’s going to have to be paid for. It’s not going to be paid through tinkering around the edges – something big is going to have to be cut to pay for it.”

SNP ministers have pointed out that life expectancy is lower north of the Border.

So calculations based on hoping people die quick?

Is that how the SNP think they will balance the books, hope and aspiration of you dying early?

If you want to know how bad the SNP campaign is looking at this point, Alex Salmond suddenly promised to renationalise the Royal Mail, just hours before his Finance Minister John Swinney said it was “impossible” to predict if this would happen after independence is a corker.

I would suggest to you that something stinks to high heaven.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University