I voted Yes in the referendum – but that doesn't mean I'm going to vote for the Tory-esque SNP

What people don't seem to realise is that the SNP has done very little to help Scotland's poorest and most vulnerable individuals

Nicola Sturgeon and her former boss Alex Salmond (Reuters)

Last year I voted Yes in the Scottish referendum, with the belief that independence was crucial to improving people’s lives in Scotland. The Yes campaign reached out to me, campaigning passionately on the platform of social justice, equality and the end of austerity. They had a vision of a fairer society, one where publicly controlled, accessible healthcare and education were the cornerstones of our communities.

Meanwhile, the Better Together campaign centred on big business and the super rich; fear mongering propped up by empty promises. As a socialist, I saw a Yes vote as a way to achieve many of the things I care about most.

However, voting Yes back then didn’t mean a vote for the SNP, and it doesn't mean that now either. It’s a view that many people share, even if we’re the minority. As far as I’m concerned, the only reason people are voting SNP on 7 May is because they’re annoyed.

They’re annoyed that they didn't get to see that fairer, independent society the Yes campaign promised. And they’re annoyed that the parties that campaigned for a No vote are now, despite their promises, continuing to ignore them.

People feel betrayed, and want a progressive, left-wing party to invest in. But the SNP isn’t the answer. I can almost hear people shouting at me now: “What about free education in Scotland?” It's true, the SNP did give Scottish domiciled students free education at colleges and universities. But it’s been executed with an absolute neglect for widening access.

I work in a college, with some of Scotland’s least well off students, and have seen how the SNP’s policy has been implemented. Their cuts on higher education led to 100,000 fewer students enrolling between 2009-13. And instead of creating an education system to be proud of, they’ve continued to lock out those from further and higher education who need access to it the most. The number of young people accessing our colleges from the most deprived backgrounds has plummeted (in some of Scotland's least affluent areas, the number of further education awards decreased has even halved since 2009).

“But what about their plans to cut council tax?” I’m sure someone else will say. What about it? The Scottish Parliament has devolved powers in this area, and could have already taken a stand against it. But they haven’t, instead slashing local authority budgets, hitting the poorest in our communities the hardest, and avoiding the opportunity to design a more progressive system where the wealthiest contribute their fair share.

The SNP say they're anti-austerity, and that they want to make poorer people better off, but it simply doesn't stand up against their record. As David Clark recalled in a piece for the New Statesman last month: "When Sturgeon was asked at her manifesto launch to name a redistributive policy enacted by the SNP in Holyrood, she was unable to cite a single example."

What’s more, the party has been caught cosying up to Rupert Murdoch and have subsequently been endorsed by the Scottish Sun – is that really the sort of “anti-Establishment” party you can trust?

Rupert Murdoch had previously referred to Alex Salmond as ‘the most brilliant politician in the UK’ (PA)

The SNP just aren't listening. That's why I'll be voting Labour come election day, however begrudgingly this might be. Since the referendum, Scottish Labour has realised it needs to change, that they need to listen to those who’ve had enough of the politics they symbolised for too long. And they’ve moved in the right direction. Not only have they committed themselves to free education, but one of their manifesto pledges is to increase the bursaries of Scotland’s poorest students, and protect the NHS.

I don't think that every Labour party policy should be celebrated, or that racist mugs should be peddled by a supposedly progressive party. But what they're proposing is a start, and they're actually listening to the people they previously let down. Meanwhile, the SNP are charging ahead with all their policies, no matter how damaging they may be, because poll after poll is telling them they don't need to listen to anyone – and why would you want to vote for anyone who does that?