 | 'In a healthy democracy, the relationship between journalist and politician should be that between dog and lamp-post. In modern Scotland it is closer to the one between tongue and posterior.' Tim Luckhurst in the Herald, 30 th October 2000. |  |
| 'In a healthy democracy, the relationship between journalist and politician should be that between dog and lamp-post. In modern Scotland it is closer to the one between tongue and posterior.' Tim Luckhurst in the Herald, 30 th October 2000. | |
Normally, each party would be shouting its message from the rooftops. This time, however, they have one message for Westminster and another for Holyrood. Two messages cannot be shouted with one voice. This creates a spin doctor's nightmare - and perhaps explains why the battle is so low-key.
The Scottish Parliament turned the Westminster power structure on its head, sparing only Labour. The Tories are buried, the Liberal Democrats are in coalition government and the Scottish National Party is the official opposition. This has had an astonishing impact on their election promises.
The Tories in Scotland, facing several decades of opposition, are now calling for all manner of riches to be showered on the Scots. In England, where the Tories recently beat Labour in the polls, William Hague is becoming more circumspect as the scent of power grows stronger.
The Tartan Tories have reinvented themselves as the students' champions, demanding free tuition fees without a £2,000 "endowment fund" bill hidden in the small print. Tory (Holyrood) can visit the several students living in the area, saying that their party upholds the basic principle of free education while Labour creates universities for the rich.
A doorstep visit from Tory (Westminster) would caution students against believing such utopian nonsense could apply to the UK. Every country has a choice: free education, or mass education. William Hague has clearly chosen the second option.
The overall Tory message? The underlying philosophy woven through Burke, Disraeli, Balfour, Hayek, Friedman and Thatcher? There isn't one.
Labour (Holyrood) dare not boast about abolishing student fees. Tony Blair, still the official leader of Scottish Labour, believes this policy is unworkable and would cost £4 billion.
Only the Liberal Democrats have promised to kill tuition fees both sides south of the border. Their manifesto made no mention of the £2,000 "graduate endowment" bill Scottish students will be sent instead.
Students can, however, be avoided in Glasgow Anniesland. Pensioners cannot. It has the highest concentration of pensioners in Scotland - many wondering who will care for them in the years to come.
LibDem (Westminster) is promising full and free healthcare for the elderly ÷ including limitless home visits. In short, the Lib Dems would implement the full proposals of the Sutherland Report.
Tory (Holyrood) can honestly say that the party has been pushing for the full Sutherland reforms. It came within an ace of pushing it through the Scottish parliament had it not been for joint opposition from Labour and . . . Lib Dem (Holyrood).
Labour (Holyrood) may, however, have some comforting words for these pensioners. Henry McLeish, its new leader, is quietly changing his mind on Sutherland Report - encouraged by his wife, a social worker.
Not a word of this, however, to Labour (Westminster). Mr Blair believes such gimmicks violate his "irreducable core" ÷ to borrow the language of his sweaty conference speechs.
All of this is a blessing to the Scottish National Party. It has identical messages for both parliaments. Student grants? Home care for the elderly? Both "come free" with an independent Scotland.
Its message was simple: independence ÷ well, this was its message at the last general election. Now, it has tweaked its battlecry: a referendum on independence for Scotland.
Luckily for the rest of Scotland this one-party, two-candidate by- election fracas is unlikely to happen again.
The late Donald Dewar was one of the 15 Westminster MPs elected to Holyrood. The rest will resign their Westminster seat next year.
Soon no MP will hold two seats, and the Westminster and Holyrood elections will have years between them.
So this week, for the first and last time, Glasgow Anniesland voters can hear the difference between promises (power) and promises (no power) - and see what a difference a parliament makes.
Return to home page