The Labour Party's Manifestos

Gerry Hassan brings us A Tale of Two Labour Manifestos: ‘Choice’ and the Absence of England, well worth a read.

Voters in Scotland and Wales increasingly have a complex labyrinth to navigate working out whether an issue is Scottish/Welsh or British. Moreover, the wider democratic deficit in the entire process is actually England, for the supposed British Labour manifesto is in fact in many respects an English manifesto, with many of its proposals not travelling north to Scotland or west to Wales. However, it is an implicit English agenda, rather than an ashamedly explicit one, lacking the straightforwardness of being labelled as ‘English’ and lacking any sense of aiding and nurturing the development of an English voice and democratic space.

Previously the Times had informed us that Scottish Labour would ditch "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". But the BBC's at-a-glance guide to the Scottish Labour manifesto includes a plethora of promises on health and education.

For example:

• Make hospitals cleaner and safer.
• Placing literacy and numeracy at the centre of the primary curriculum

So, what gives?

Labour have decided that the Scottish public should have the right to decide on devolved matters even in a General Election that elects the legislature that deals with reserved matters; as Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, tells us in his introduction to the Scottish Labour Manifesto, "The fact we are in opposition in the Scottish Parliament will not deter us from voting our values into laws".

And under Labour's twisted logic, everything English is British, rather than explicitly English, so it makes perfect sense for Scots to take devolved issues - which may be matters for the Scottish parliament, or matters that by rights should be decided by English MPs on behalf of the English public - into consideration at the General Election.

Shouldn't the Electoral Commission take a stance on this manifesto muddlement?

UPDATE

From the Scotsman:

In Motherwell, on the site of the former Ravenscraig steel works, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy revealed the party's Scottish manifesto, stuffed with pledges on devolved issues that Labour cannot deliver even in the event of a general election victory.

In doing so, the party fired the starting gun for the 2011 Holyrood poll, pledging to push for the enaction of policies on health, education and justice in opposition in Scotland, before using them as the basis of its Scottish election fight.