Ending Poverty In Scotland?

According to the BBC News:

Independence will give Scotland the powers it needs to get rid of poverty and deprivation, deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon will say later. Scotland's deputy first minister will attack "heartless" UK government welfare reforms at her party's spring conference, in Glasgow.
She will say the changes are punishing the elderly and vulnerable. Ms Sturgeon will seek to contrast the policy with an SNP vision to get people off benefits for the "right reasons".

The Westminster government says its UK-wide welfare reforms will save billions of pounds, by replacing disability living allowance with a personal independence payment and bringing in a single, universal credit. Ms Sturgeon, also Scotland's health secretary, will tell the last day of the SNP conference that the Holyrood government has shown what can be achieved with the current devolved powers.

"... if we are to use all of the resources, skills and talent we have as a nation to build an even better Scotland, we need independence," she will say.
"Only independence can stop Westminster governments squandering energy wealth, while our older folk struggle to pay their heating bills.
"Only independence will put a stop to heartless Tory welfare reforms that punish the vulnerable and the disabled.
"And only independence will give us the powers we need to rid Scotland of the poverty and deprivation that still scars our nation."

Ms Sturgeon is kind of right, but she needs to substitute the word 'independence' for 'socialism' to be truly accurate. Currently the SNP can offer nothing more than a sticky-plaster solution to a gaping wound problem in Scotland.

Time and again this blog has pointed out that capitalism in any form is incapable and unwilling to solve poverty and its cancerous effects. This is true irrespective of the nation state and whether that nation is independent of other rule- it will always be slave to the whims and effects of capital and market forces. The problem is not defined by national borders but by money. Therefore, true freedom, true independence and true relief from the poverty and misery of the system that cause it, lies only in it complete removal and replacement with a fairer, moneyless society.

SussexSocialist