Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s Manifesto: The Shortest Abdication Note in History?

And so it begins. At last. The phoney war is over and now the grapeshot will be flying thick and fast. There will be casualties aplenty, decency, honesty and your patience amongst ’em. I’m sticking to my view, which is neither especially daring nor unconventional, that the Conservatives will win and finish with a majority of 30 or so seats. Sticking, I say, even though obviously I reserve the right to change my mind several times between now and polling day.

For ages now – or at least it feels like ages – I’ve been arguing that whatever doubts one may reasonably have about Cameron the Tories appear to have passed the important test of Not Seeming Grotesquely Ill-Prepared for Government. True, there’s a lack of depth and sometimes, one suspects, an absence of rigour on the Tory front bench and true too their performance during the phoney war has not always been especially reassuring. But what, on a national rather than local* level, is the alternative?

The Guardian have a copy, they say, of Labour’s manifesto. Lucky them. So what’s in it? According to the paper, this:

It is being stressed that the manifesto will offer progressive solutions for tough times, including reforms of public services that match Tony Blair at his boldest.

New proposals contained in the draft, obtained by the Guardian, include:

• Provisions for the management of inefficient police forces to be taken over by efficient forces. “Where service is not good enough, it will be taken over by the best,” the draft says.

• Simultaneous referendums on a new voting system for the Commons and a 100% elected second chamber.

• A national youth service alongside votes at 16.

• Rights for football supporters to take over football clubs.

• A living wage of £7.60 in Whitehall, funded by a cap on the salaries of the most highly paid public sector employees.

Really? Is that it? Surely there’s more to the Labour manifesto than this? Right? This, my fellow subjects, is being touted as the basis of a platform for “national renewal” no less and never mind the obvious thought that if the country really needs renewing then perhaps that task should be left to the party that wasn’t in power in the long years that led us to the sorry point at which Project National Renewal had to be launched.

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