I’ve got quite the collection now. One of them shows Anas Sarwar staring at something far off in the distance (could it be Keir?) Another shows John Swinney laughing (what’s so funny?) while another shows a SNP candidate in quirky colourful glasses (always a red flag – are you SNP or CBBC?). Then there’s the one with Nigel Farage on the front (yikes!) Interestingly, there’s been nothing from the Greens (how am I to know what Ross Greer is wrong about?) And in the end you wonder what difference it’ll make, all the pamphlets. Except that this time it might: 40% of us are still undecided.

If I was to choose the two or three themes that recur the most in the pamphlets, it would be the obvious ones: the NHS, cost of living and immigration, but I’m struck as well by the issues that have been largely avoided or deflected, especially the size and cost of government. So I thought it might be diverting to draw up a response to the flyers: policies that lots of voters like me might go for (and a few we definitely wouldn’t). “Voters like me” by the way means voters in what used to be called the centre of British politics (with, in my case, a list to the right in stormy weather). So here we are:

An alternative to university: You’ve got to be careful with this subject when you’re someone like me who benefited from free university education, but you can’t avoid the facts. More than 700,000 graduates are out of work and claiming benefits. Apprentices earn roughly double what graduates do at the start of their careers, and even when some graduates start earning more, they’re saddled with debt the apprentices don’t have. And of course there are key sectors like engineering and construction that can’t get the apprentices they need. And yet still the number of undergraduates increases and the number of apprentices falls.

Some of this is going to take time to turn around and it won’t happen until parents get over their obsession with university as the only option. But as the OECD pointed out in its report on the subject in 2022, the funding system in Scotland disproportionately favours higher education over apprenticeships and it needs fixing. Labour say they would create 9,000 new apprenticeship places and overhaul the system so any qualified candidate will be matched with sectors where workers are needed, which sounds like a good idea. And it has to be better than what the SNP’s been doing: failing to pass on millions from the UK’s apprenticeship levy.

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More trains: There was a poll the other day of people in Aberdeenshire and they were asked if they supported reopening the rail lines to Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Ellon and 78% said yes because of course they did: train lines attract investment, jobs, development and housing so more train lines means more investment, jobs, development and housing. The SNP say in their manifesto that they will “advance consideration” of restoring the lines, which is a way of using two words to not say anything.

The truth is the SNP has done some good work in other areas of the rail service: the reinstatement of the Borders Railway and part of the old Fife line out to Levenmouth; they’ve also put up £5m for a feasibility study into extending the Borders line to Carlisle. But instead of wasting money on projects like trying to shave a few minutes off services from Aberdeen to the central belt, they should be looking at extending the network further with more lines and more stations. And a station at Winchburgh on the Edinburgh/Glasgow line would be a good place to start: the business case suggests that for every £1 spent, £2 would come back in revenue over 60 years.

A system that works: I was at an event with Anas Sarwar the other night at which he was asked about immigration and he said this: two things can be right at the same time – immigration can be good for the country and the current system isn’t working. I agree with both of those things.

The anxiety lots of voters are feeling about the issue is driven largely by what’s happening in Glasgow: refugees make up nearly four in ten homelessness applications in the city and the bill is expected to be around £66m in 2026. It’s partly because of the ‘Boris wave’ of immigration and it’s partly because the SNP abolished the local connection rule which means Glasgow has a legal responsibility to house homeless refugees and it’s part of the reason public services are under strain and it’s part of the reason council tax is increasing. A restoration of the local connection rule would do a lot to redress the problem and might reassure voters that the effects on society, services, public spending and taxation are being taken seriously.

Does university funding need reformed? (Image: PA)

No such thing as free: Now for some of the policies that are harder to swallow for anyone concerned about the cost of government, starting with the Scottish Government’s favourite word: free! The Greens like the word too and support extending free buses for the under-22s and the over-60s to the over-22s and the under-60s i.e. everyone. But they’re proposing the universal free bus ticket when the cost of tickets is rising and there are fewer routes in the communities that rely on buses the most because that’s how universal free stuff works: millions goes on free prescriptions while the NHS struggles and millions goes on tuition fees while cuts are made to education. The policy suggestion: governments should support people who need help but shouldn’t support who don’t need it.

Fair fees: Some more on tuition fees. Ask anyone who works in the university sector about the state of the funding system and they’ll usually use a rude word starting with f, but let’s use the word unsustainable instead.

The problem is that universities are making cuts because the taxpayer-funded system does not cover the services they provide, so either you put more money in to cover the actual costs or you ask some students to contribute, paid for when they’re earning enough. As the Law Society has pointed out in relation to law students, there’s a finite amount of money and much of it is being spent on funding students whose families can afford to pay, meaning the current policy disproportionately benefits those from better-off backgrounds. The government could also look at whether most students really need to be doing four-year degrees.

The caps don’t work: Finally, a word on John Swinney’s pledge to compel big supermarkets to cap the price of some groceries. “It’s about helping people who are really struggling in our society today,” said Mr Swinney.

But I suggest the First Minister brushes up on his history of the 60s and 70s and what happened when the governments of Wilson then Heath tried to control wages and prices with statutory controls: the underlying inflationary pressures were merely postponed and exacerbated. You also have to worry what statutory cheap prices in supermarkets might do to smaller traders. I guess the only comfort is the one that applies to most of the promises in the little pile of pamphlets that’s been gathering on my desk: the promise will probably not be kept.

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