Catherine MacLeod: SNP are not a progressive party

To date the polls have made grim reading for Labour in Scotland but interestingly the latest Panelbase poll, commissioned and paid for by the SNP, did not include any figures on the electorate's voting intentions.

There is a simple explanation. The poll did not ask Scottish voters how they intended to vote on May 7. Perhaps, and admittedly they wouldn't be the first, the SNP only sought answers designed to give succour to their troops.

The SNP are desperate to capture the Labour vote in Scotland. If they are not to be regarded mainly as the preferred alternative in Tory heartlands at general elections they need to park their tanks on Labour's lawns.

That may be a more difficult challenge than the recent polls suggest, and it may explain why the SNP's leadership is flagging up the possibility of an SNP coalition with the Labour party in the House of Commons to keep the Tories out of Government.

Vote SNP and we could support a Labour government, teases Stuart Hosie, the SNP's deputy leader and their main man (for now) at Westminster in comments he made earlier this week.

To me, this smacks of cynicism at least, and hardly an argument based on any driving political principle.

Since Labour will be the only alternative party able to form a government, and if you despise the Tories as the SNP would like us to believe they do, surely the mantra should be vote Labour to keep them out.

But that will not happen. The SNP consistently fight Labour because a fairer, more prosperous country is not their priority. Their priority is a border between Scotland and England. That is why the SNP exists.

The stakes are high at the next general election and every vote not for the Labour party in Scotland, or anywhere else in the UK, makes a Tory government more likely.

How can that possibly be Mr Hosie's government of choice?

Mr Hosie is right, the SNP could join a government coalition, and it would be up to the majority party to make sure the tail was not again wagging the dog.

Hopefully, at last, the powers-that-be in the mainstream parties will respond sensibly and sensitively to the political debate taking place beyond the hallowed corridors of Holyrood or Westminster.

Where he is not right is to suggest that the SNP would be a beacon of progressive politics in Westminster unless, of course, he is about to promise a change of political direction.

Mr Hosie cites Scotland's free university education as evidence of progressive politics.

It is not and though the myth is repeated constantly it is no truer for that. Progressive policies by almost every definition involve wealth redistribution in favour of the poorest.

Simply put, a universal policy like free university education, which benefits the better off to the same extent as helps the poorer, is not progressive.

Indeed it should be considered regressive since it is funded at the expense of around 140,000 further college places, often the preferred educational option for those less inclined to go to university, and often from less well off homes.

Mr Hosie is right too when he says the SNP have pursued popular policies. Indeed they have but universalism comes at great cost to those dependent on the services of hard-pressed local authorities, the elderly who cannot afford to supplement their home help provision, and the students deprived of college places.

That is the price to be paid for mistaking universalism for redistributive, progressive politics.

Mr Hosie wishes progressive policies for English people too. Even less reason then to risk leaving them to the mercy of a Tory government.

In September the overwhelming majority of Scots voted against the break-up of the UK because they understood the merits of staying together.

Even if the oil price recovers the risks of breaking up remain the same.

Every Scottish politician will say a fairer, more prosperous Scotland is their priority.

Progressive sounding rhetoric will not pay the bills. Only actions and outcomes matter. Roll on May 7.