As far as I can gather, Gordon Brown is claiming that Labour's "new proposals" for welfare devolution go further than The Vow. But he's also claiming that the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government watered down The Vow, and that Labour's proposals will restore it to its former glory. How can it be both?
Option 1 : The Smith Commission never proposed a general power to top-up any welfare benefit, and London party representatives such as Alistair Carmichael were lying through their teeth when they said it did. In this scenario, Labour HAVE proposed going further than Smith, but the Tory/Lib Dem coalition have NOT watered Smith down.
Option 2 : The London parties were telling the truth when they claimed that Smith had proposed a general power to top-up any welfare benefit. In this scenario, the Tory/Lib Dem coalition HAVE watered Smith down, but Labour have NOT proposed going further than Smith.
Which is it, Gordon?
All will be revealed tonight under intense questioning by Sarah Smith. Aye right!
ReplyDeleteThe vow is now in meltdown and will soon go supersonic before thermonuclear on the 6th of May.
ReplyDeleteDon't you get it? It's the new Labour Doublethink!
ReplyDelete- We are against nuclear weapons in principle so we will buy new ones.
- We want a moratorium on frack and by abstaining in the vote we support it.
- We hated the bedroom tax so much we introduced it to let everyone see how horrible it was.
- We are against terror so we exported it to the middle east.
- We are patriotic Scots who believe we should disempower the Scottish Parliament.
It's all so obvious when you think about it.
- SqueuedPerspective.
It appears to me that we have a blinder being played here by the SNP.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that the continued strength of the SNP in the polling and the corresponding weakness of Labour will force Scottish Labour into moving left and less unionist in order to try to salvage as many of the 41 seats as possible, they seem to be letting this happen without a major counter attack. This is causing some to question this strategy.
Contrary to the panic of some, I think this is a brilliant strategy. Let me offer my reasons why I state this.
Murphy et al try to make the move and the impact is marginal at best, and in some polling is seen negatively. Murphy can pick a few stooshies with Milliband and the result is minor movement and very little impact in England. By not responding, the SNP is betting on SLAB having to double down on the strategy. So in comes, the great clunking fist to up the volume and hopefully drive the feart back to the bosom of mother Labour.
Unfortanately, for this strategy to work, the volume must be loud in Scotland but muted south of the border. Hence now we have the critical failure in the strategy. There is no way that the Tories and the English media are going to allow Brown to push the "more to Scotland" button in silence. Within hours of his press conference, the Tory press are already in high gear telling the Southeast minions that the nasty Scots are at it again and this time LABOUR is the culprit.
Cue the usual anti-Scots rhetoric and Labour in England starts to shed vote, some to the Tories but also some to UKIP and the GREENS.
This is where the brilliance of the SNP strategy kicks in. As Milliband and the Westminster crowd start to see the votes shy away and their dream of Downing Street domicle fade, they have no choice but to reign in their Scottish branch office and show that they will not be dictated to by Holyrood or by Scottish Labour.
Unable to be both the voice of Scotland and the voice of Middle England, they choose the latter as it is the only path to Downing Street.
They slap down the Scots hard, counting on any losses in Scotland going SNP and thus not to the Tories, and hopefully offset by larger gains in England. All this while still knowing that the SNP will not support the Tories after the vote.
The SNP uses the slapdown of Scottish Labour to drive the final nail into the coffin and thus increase the magnitude of their victory on May 7th.
A brilliant strategy and one whose best part is that Labour is doing all the work.
Highly plausible but frustrating at the same time.
DeleteNeither. Brown's hilariously said 'The Vow' was merely a timetable on Scotland Tonight.
ReplyDeleteWhy get the leaders of the main parties to sign a timetable?
ReplyDelete