Labour's Wafer-Thin Manifesto for Scotland

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.