Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Monday, 5 March 2007

Business pledges by some political parties ahead of Scottish Parliament elections

Ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May some of the political parties (the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives) have been telling us what they are offering to Scottish business, specially smaller firms. Naturally the Labour Party 'pooh-poohs' the SNP proposals; it appears to deem the offering from the Tories as not worthy of comment.

My conclusion - posturing by all concerned. I doubt that most voters in Scotland will even know about this, far less be equipped to make a rational choice based on this mish-mash of partisan information. More detail of the Scottish Conservative proposals is here and the offering from the SNP is here. The Scottish Labour Party, predictably, badmouths the SNP offering, but doesn't, it seems to me, say anything specific - merely that it would have a negative effect on Scotland, without offering any reasons why; perhaps the real reasons are that it is mere rhetoric, or indeed that it doesn't deign to discuss such matters with the voters. It is notable that the Scottish Labour Party 'Policy' page carries information (at the time of writing) only relating to the last Scottish Parliament election campaign in 2003 and the last Westminster election campaign in 2005; presumably the governing Party will issue a manifesto before polling day in May? Or is the Scottish electorate expected to place blind confidence in the Labour Party? The LibDem website gives no indication that the May 2007 Scottish Parliament election has even come up on their radar yet, where the latest entry in the 'Scottish Parliament' section is dated 23 June 2006! The LibDem 'News' page does not seem to have any information relevant to the Scottish Parliament elections either; with a bit of a search one can find here (in the Scottish Liberal Democrats homepage) a link to 'Bright Future - A vision for Scotland', a pre-manifesto issued in Autumn 2006!

I really have no other comment that I can make whilst still following my own rules for this blog concerning the prohibition of profanity.

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