It was Lincoln that said "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Did the SNP nearly pull off the last part of that quote?

In my opinion No, because you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can wake them up and make them take a peek behind the curtain to see that the wizard is a fraud.

Where the UK politicians have failed is in their inability in showing the SNP up for what they really are and pointing out how they have fooled some of the people most of the time. These politicians should have been highlighting the SNP policies that have kept the poorest in our society poor as they go out and vote "Yes" to the SNP's independence plan.

Let's look behind the SNP curtain and firstly the SVR Scottish Variable Rate, the tax raising power the SNP let lapse, at a time when Scotland had its highest rate of unemployed 16 - 24 year olds since Mrs Thatcher. Figures the Scottish Government published recently claim to have reduced unemployment in that age range by 6000, give or take, although this Daily Record article tells us it's actually some 64,000.

Now considering the tax power, a variable of 3p in the pound, Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney let lapse (which he apologised in Parliament for) could have done so much for poverty and youth jobs yet we let that one go. So it seems Mr Swinney had a tool to vary tax and improve the lives of many in Scotland but failed to use it, with no mainstream media or political buzz on why he did not. So, inevitably it is Westminster's fault.

Now let's examine the so-called SNP triumph that is the "Council Tax freeze" and look behind that curtain. We find some 40,000 job cuts along with a £154 Million black hole in services in Glasgow alone yet, again, the SNP policy of forcing councils to carry out these cuts is not questioned nor is it highlighted by political opponents or the media.

I shall try and explain this carefully as I get confused sometimes thinking about it. You see, the SNP perform a great trick in this area by simply allowing the shortfall in Glasgow to transfer to local Housing Association's and I would urge any tax payer to ask their local Hosing Association which jobs they cover now, my association does a youth cafe, helps with food for lunch days for the elderly, and day care etc. etc. You get the idea.

My biggest gripe in my area is the Housing Association also do part or whole "bulk uplift" which as you know should be carried out by the council. You put your stuff out and the council guys uplift and dump it for you. Again you may ask "What's the point?" Well 40,000 forced job losses to start with! Those salaried refuse collectors on a decent rate of pay have been losing their jobs while my Housing Association is hiring and paying minimum wage to guys to do the same work! (The very same minimum wage the SNP never voted for).

So we have employees laid off by the council who are now out looking for work while we have Housing Associations doing the work, hiring and paying (mostly under 21s) a minimum wage. This has also lead to rent increases annually on average of about 4% per annum (Which is another story in itself).

http://leftfootforward.org/snp-fail-to-address-affordability-of-council-tax-freeze

Now, the biggest trick the SNP pulled off is that although Housing itself may be devolved, the Housing Benefit payment is not, so all those services which are now transferred get paid by UK taxpayers and do not affect the Scottish budget, yet those who work and pay income tax to contribute to the poor are now seeing that money go to separate benefits (council tax and housing benefit) to pay and run the same services.

This basically means that your contributions are paying for the same service twice e.g. you are paying money to help with someone's housing benefit with that money also being used to do work that the council tax payment should cover, yet you are also paying money toward council tax payments which should be doing that work! Why is this a worry? Well surely it's a waste of tax payers money paying twice for two groups to do the work that only one group should do, it is also not supposed to happen, there was a guarantee from the SNP it would not affect services.

Returning to that £154 million black hole in Glasgow. This stops the Council from hiring new staff and of course create any new opportunities due to trying to keep services running rather than help with youth unemployment.

The only thing we can do is to convince people that all of this is the fault wholly of the SNP and their policies. Policies which keep people poor, especially the youth, and expose their blame game for what it is.