Day 1
We're off and running.
Jim Murphy is telling us that "This is game on and we are going to fight from now until 10pm on polling day to re-elect Labour and stop the Tories winning back power."
Which shows that Labour's first priority is stopping the Tories from taking office. Once again, they're for winning, nothing more. They're against someone else winning, nothing more. And, worse still, they've emphasised the second. Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, and for the first time since 1997, a reason Labour gave for voting for them wasn't in actual fact a reason for not voting for someone else?
The Scottish Tories, meanwhile, have gone with this:
Barack Obama, it ain't. Yes, he wanted change, as do they. But he also wanted hope, and that's in short supply here.
The LibDems, on the other hand, have their Four Steps to a Fairer Britain, which includes this rather prominent feature:
So the key to fairness, apparently, is that there happen to be LibDem MPs in Parliament already, and they happen to be in second place in various constituencies. The key point here is, "If you can't stand Labour, vote for us". Which sort of undermines the rest of it. In any case, much of the content on that part of the Scottish site relates to devolved issues which aren't at stake in this election, so it might be four steps to a fairer Britain, but only half a step to a fairer Scotland. And incidentally, the "only we can get Labour out" claim has been undermined today by Chris Huhne, who'd be favourable to a deal with Labour, as long as Gordon Brown was no longer Prime Minister. Dire, dire, dire.
Compare all that with this:
"The SNP are going into this campaign with a clear message for Scottish voters: more votes means more Nats, and more Nats means less cuts. The Westminster system is discredited, and only SNP champions can protect and promote Scotland’s interests.
We can protect jobs, recovery and important local services and instead cut things like the £100,000 million replacement for Trident, identity cards, the House of Lords or the Scotland Office.”
"On polling day the people of Scotland can do more than just vote for a politician, they can elect a local champion with the SNP.”
A positive message, with a real reason to vote for the SNP, rather than against someone else. Already, the SNP stand out.
6 comments:
Brilliant post. While it's good to point out the shortcomings of the opposition, it is much much more important to tell people why they should vote for you!
I'm trying to get Tom Harris to see this. All did on his site is say how bad things were and would be under the Tories.
He gave not one positive reason for voting for Labour. Maybe becasue there isn't one.
But maybe we shouldn't point this out to them ... Don't want to give them any help...
Well said, and by the way nice re-design. Did the blog re-generate a-la the TARDIS?
Tris, you may as well point it out to them but they'll never take it on board. It would be like telling Sir Alex Ferguson to calm down! And getting Tom Harris to be positive when he spends his whole time sneering at other parties? Good luck with that...
Cheers for the feedback, Allan and I'm glad you like it - it wasn't so much a regeneration as a combination of the (then) impending decision and the day off work. And the realisation that I'd had the old setup for ages.
And besides, I'd never be seen dead in a bow tie... :)
You've got to love a Lib Dem bar chart that has a larger gap between 12 and 7 than it does between 39 and 12. Brilliant.
You've also got to love Nick Clegg bleating about how the General Election isn't a two-horse race, when the Scottish LibDems are trying to make out that it is...
But only, of course, where they're one of the horses.
Great post Will. Positive reasons to vote for the SNP.
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