Would Scotland be better if government was run from Edinburgh rather than London? This is the SNP’s central proposition, but it’s not hypothetical. For 16 years now, public services have been run from Edinburgh – and so, if Nicola Sturgeon’s premise is correct, Scotland’s schools and hospitals should be pulling ahead of England’s under superior localised management. In fact, the reverse is true. Scotland on Sunday today has a powerful editorial about the problems of NHS Scotland but this morning, Andrew Marr interviewed Nicola Sturgeon to ask her about education – specifically the way in which the poorest are suffering most under the SNP.
He started by asking her why the poorest are twice as likely to go to university in England than in Scotland.
The numbers are not directly comparable, she said – which is true, but doesn’t explain the gap, or why it’s growing.
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