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Scottish election: SNP releases achievements list

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The SNP has published a list of its achievements in government, after rivals accused the party of dropping key pledges in the last parliament.

The Nationalists said they had achieved "84 of 94 headline commitments" from their 2007 election manifesto.

These included, said the SNP, freezing council tax, boosting police officers and scrapping student charges.

But Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems said the SNP had scrapped key pledges which had helped the party to victory.

Among the list of pledges not achieved by the minority SNP government included writing off student debt, cutting class sizes to 18 for P1-P3 pupils and replacing council tax with a local income tax.

Deputy SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "The SNP's 2007 manifesto made 94 headline commitments.

"Our achievements range from freezing the council tax, delivering 1,000 more police officers, introducing the small business bonus, and restoring free education, to pledges such as meeting the cancer waiting times target - which the previous administration failed to do - and passing world leading climate change legislation."

She added: "Of the other 10, some - such as the referendum on independence, and scrapping the Edinburgh Trams - were blocked by all the main opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament. Others were delivered in a different way, given changed economic circumstances and spending cuts from Westminster.

"And others are works in progress that, if re-elected, the SNP will continue to pursue in a second term."

The SNP published its list the day after the party launched its manifesto, ahead of the 5 May Scottish election.

After the SNP published its document, Labour made public its response - a document titled "100 SNP Broken Promises".

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said it had taken the SNP "weeks" to come up with the list, adding: "Some of those promises were big ones - like the promise to get rid of student debt for everybody in Scotland.

"That was a £2bn promise that Alex Salmond just walked away from when he came to power."

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, said: "They have broken pledges they got votes on at the last election - I think many people are very disappointed with that.

"The good things that were delivered were only delivered with Scottish Conservative votes."

And Liberal Democrat campaign manager, MEP George Lyon, argued: "The SNP aren't talking about dumping student debt, they're not talking about the reduction in class sizes, they're not talking about introducing their referendum on independence and they're not talking about the local income tax.

"All of these they promised to deliver over the last four years."

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