Scottish Labour Party

For a long time it's really annoyed me that the Labour Party have campaigned in Scotland at the General Election on devolved issues, encouraging voters in Scotland to vote on issues that should be voted on at elections to the Scottish Parliament rather than the UK Parliament. I blogged about it here and on numerous occasions on the old CEP blog.

Now, thanks to this article in the Times, I learn how Labour justified this tactic:

Scottish Labour has ditched guarantees to voters on health and education being made in the rest of the UK and will fight the general election instead on key pledges on knife crime and apprenticeships, The Times has learnt.

Voters will miss out on legally binding guarantees, including personal tuition for pupils falling behind at school and a legal right to private health care if you have not been treated on the NHS within 18 weeks.

The decision comes as Labour fights for the first time a UK general election as the main opposition party in Scotland. Senior strategists ruled out making promises on devolved areas such as health and education ahead of the 2011 Holyrood election because it would give opponents too much time to attack Labour’s plans.

Previously Labour sought to persuade the Scots to vote for them in a general election on the strength of manifesto pledges concerning devolved or English domestic policy, and they did this on the basis of the fact that they governed both England and Scotland and could theoretically seek to implement the same policy in both nations, or could make general election promises to Scotland that they could implement as the Government of Scotland. The fact that Scotland now has a nationalist government means that Labour can no longer do that, so it is thanks to the SNP that we may for the first time see a general election campaign that recognises the fact of devolution.

A senior Labour source said: “Not being in government in Scotland has given us a problem in that we can’t promise health and education policies but ... we will be replacing reserved policies with ideas we know have a resonance with the public and strong attack lines on the SNP.”

Ed Miliband is working on Labour's UK manifesto. Given that the UK manifesto will be substantially different from the Scottish manifesto, both in terms of scope and policy, it will be fascinating to see how it is worded. Will it mention England or will it still pretend the be a 'UK manifesto'?

I find it absolutely hilarious that Labour will be fighting the General Election in Scotland on the issues of knife crime and apprenticeships, for fear of divulging future Scottish Labour policy to the SNP. Alex Salmond must be praying that the Times article is true.

It’s taken seven months from petition end but finally the Prime Minister has gotten around to replying to my ‘Say England’ petition. Since it’s been a while I will remind you of the details of the petition:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop saying ‘Our country’ or ‘This country’ when he is talking in relation to devolved issues such as health, education and housing. If Mr Brown is talking about English matters then he should say ‘England’, even if it is politically inconvenient for him to do so.”

Details of Petition:

There is a tendency amongst politicians of all hues to conflate England and the UK as if devolution had never happened. It’s less complicated that way. But devolution has happened and referring to England as ‘our country’ is confusing to a public that is not always aware that Mr Brown may be talking about policy areas that do not have a direct affect on his own constituents (to whom he is democratically accountable) because in Scotland those areas are the responsibility of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament and Government.

Gordon Brown (Andrew Marr interview, 6 Oct 07): “But what I want to do is show people the vision that we have for the future of this country in housing and health and education and I want the chance, in the next phase of my premiership, to develop and show people the policies that are going to make a huge difference and show the change in the country itself.”

Gordon Brown (PMQs, 10 Oct 07): “We will govern in the interests of the people, and what matters to the people is the health service, education, housing, and we will govern to make education, health and housing better in this country.”

The Government's response:

The Prime Minister has been elected by the people of Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath to represent them in the UK Parliament. As Prime Minister he heads the UK Government. It is in this capacity that he speaks when articulating his vision for the future of the country.

This is stating the obvious. We are all aware that Gordon Brown, the member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has been elected to represent his constituents and therefore legitimately holds a seat in the UK Parliament. However, England and the UK are two different entities, and even though Labour has no manifesto for England we are reasonably entitled to know which territory – which nation - Gordon brown is referring to when he outlines his policy and vision. Not just we in England, but also we across the United Kingdom, not least Brown's own constituents in Scotland.

The Prime Minister’s intent is clear. Not only will England be denied national political expression as England, but she will also be denied mention, lest mention of her name raises awkward questions about Gordon’s own mandate.

If a tree falls in the woods, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a noise?

If no one mentions England, does England exist?

In his capacity as an English MP, elected by Scots to vote on English Health and Education but not on the concomitant areas in Scotland, Brown’s democratic legitimacy rests on English polity being presented as UK polity; English interests and UK interests presented as indivisible from one another, and therefore the legitimate concern of Scots like himself and his constituents.

It’s a con-trick. Played not just on the English but on the Scots too, as quick look at the 2005 Labour Party's Scottish Manifesto will show. For the 2005 General Election, to Westminster, Labour’s Scottish Manifesto took credit for measures that have gone through the Scottish Parliament, and made promises to Scotland over policy areas that were the responsibility of the Scottish Executive:

• "Investing in schools"
• "Action to reduce long NHS waits"
• "In Scotland, we have abolished up-front tuition fees and introduced access payments of up to £2,000, targeted at students from lower income families, funded by the Graduate Endowment."
• "Labour has already delivered free local off-peak bus travel for Scottish pensioners."
• "We are providing the public with more convenient access to much better information about health and health services through the National Waiting Times Database." (Curiously the National Waiting Times Database is not mentioned in Labour's UK Manifesto.)
• "We will modernise Scotland’s licensing laws." (Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, an Act of the Scottish Parliament.)
• "In Scotland, pensioners will continue to benefit from our free central heating and home insulation programme."
• "As we continue investment and reform, we will drive for ambitious, excellent secondary schools across Scotland."
• "We have also turned around Scotland’s tourism industry."
• We are completing the gaps in the road network and will make major investment to complete the M74,upgrade the A8 and A80,and build the second Kincardine Bridge and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

Even the BBC now understands the reality of devolution. Why then is it so very difficult for Gordon Brown and the Labour Party, who introduced devolution, to understand that it is no longer possible to speak of "this country", or even "Britain" or the "United Kingdom", when talking about things like Health policy? Why won't Gordon Brown refer to England when it is England of which he speaks?

Alfie has a typically entertaining post entitled 'Scottish MPs - what do they actually do?' over at Waking Hereward. Well worth a read.

First stop is to the website of Gavin Strang (Labour, Edinburgh East). We are at Gav’s site first because he has provided a useful ‘MP or MSP’ button on his website. This will presumably stop all those embarrassing episodes at his surgery when he has to tell a constituent that he will have to take up the matter with the MSP Organ Grinder and not with him, the MP oily rag....

According to his site, Strang is responsible for - The Constitution, Defence, Foreign affairs, Electricity, coal, oil & gas, Nuclear energy, Employment, Financial and economic matters, Social security...

As the Ministry of Justice made abundantly clear in their letter to me last week, Scottish MPs are elected on an equal footing to represent their constituents in the UK Parliament, even if their constituents actually elected someone else - a Member of the Scottish Parliament - to another place, and in another election, to represent them on the majority of business that occupies the UK Parliament.

Gordon Brown, the member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has been elected to represent his constituents and therefore legitimately holds a seat in the UK Parliament.

The question is, in what matters did Brown's constituents actually elect him to represent them?

If one compares the 2005 Labour Party UK Manifesto with the 2005 Scottish Labour Party Manifesto, which were both issued prior to the UK General Eelection, confusion reigns. The Scottish manifesto takes credit for measures that have gone through the Scottish Parliament, and makes promises to Scotland over policy areas that are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive:

• Investing in schools
• Action to reduce long NHS waits
• We have also turned around Scotland’s tourism industry
• We are completing the gaps in the road network and will make major investment to complete the M74,upgrade the A8 and A80,and build the second Kincardine Bridge and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.
• As we continue investment and reform, we will drive for ambitious, excellent secondary schools across Scotland.
• In Scotland, we have abolished up-front tuition fees and introduced access payments of up to £2,000, targeted at students from lower income families, funded by the Graduate Endowment.
• We will deal with the challenge of MRSA.
• In Scotland, pensioners will continue to benefit from our free central heating and home insulation programme.
• Labour has already delivered free local off-peak bus travel for Scottish pensioners.
• We are improving Scotland’s unique Children’s Hearing System.
• In Scotland, Labour aims to improve nursery provision for three-and four-year-olds.
• We are providing the public with more convenient access to much better information about health and health services through the National Waiting Times Database.*
• We will modernise Scotland’s licensing laws. **

* Curiously the National Waiting Times Database is not mentioned in the UK Manifesto.

** Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

Basically the manifesto is a load of old bollocks, a confusing mix of devolved boasts and reserved promises. Considering this, given that Gavin Strang was elected on this hybrid Scottish-UK manifesto, if I were his constituent I would absolutely insist that he raised my concerns pertaining to devolved matters in the UK Parliament. After all, they were part of the manifesto on which he was elected.