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Tuesday 10 February 2015

Election Campaigning (Labour-style)

1. Guilt-trip the electorate
'Vote SNP, get Tories'.  Somewhat undermined by the 'Vote SNP, get Labour' meme that the Tories are touting.  Also undermined by the fact that Scotland voted Labour last time and still got Tories. 

2. Anything they can do, we can do better
Famously tried when Jim Murphy said that Labour would provide 1,000 more nurses than whatever the SNP provided.  Of course, this pledge can't be implemented unless Labour win the Scottish General Election, since the claim is actually that Labour will provide 1,000 more nurses than the number they inherit from the SNP.  So this is actually irrelevant to the current General Election campaign.

3. Assume that anything to do with getting money from the English will be popular
See the 1,000 additional nurses above, to be funded from the proposed Mansion Tax, which is thought will mainly affect homes in the south-east of England.  See also the proposal to tax banker's bonuses to help get young unemployed Scots into work, a tax which again mainly affects the south-east of England.  After all, the Yes voters were all about sticking it to the English, weren't they?

4. Ride that bandwagon
For example, opposing the building of a women's super-prison (don't mention that it has long been campaigned for by Women for Indy and the Howard League) and calling for a commitment to ensuring that major sporting events are shown on terrestrial TV (not mentioning that the SNP have campaigned for same for the last 7 years).

5. Develop some policies that people will want to vote for
I've taken it too far, haven't I?

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