"Better" is not enough

 Happy New Year.

The question I address tonight is, on the face of it, a simple one. Why dp Parties win elections?

On 6th May there will be a Scottish General Election and, at the moment, nobody knows its outcome. 

There is a general consensus in the, very few, polls there have been that the SNP will remain the largest Party but beyond that little agreement with my own Party coming everywhere between 2nd and 4th, Reform UK 2nd or 3rd and the Greens 3rd, 4th or 5th. 

But there is, I think, an appreciation that if any Party other than the SNP is to form a five year administration beyond 7th May it will still be us. So, given the widespread dissatisfaction with the latter's performance in Government, we should have something to play for. And highlighting that reality is clearly Anas's strategy. 

But it is not enough. It is all very well to suggest that the vote has nothing to do with the future of Keir Starmer as Prime Minister or indeed to distance us from the mis-steps of his administration. Even if that strategy succeeds, people still need a reason to vote FOR US, rather than one of the various other opposition forces on the ballot. And that is where we are currently falling over. For beyond suggesting in some always unexplained way that the NHS or education, or transport or any number of areas will be "better" under us, we never explain how we propose to make that so. Indeed what exactly are the changes from the status quo in all, indeed any, of these areas we propose to implement? Silence is the answer. 

This has to change and change urgently. The same policies carried through "better" will convince nobody.

Now, I am no policy expert in any of these areas but I might make a few suggestions. The Angela Constance matter became a story of interest to virtually nobody beyond the Holyrood bubble but the underlying issue is one with much wider resonance. We should be committing to a public inquiry into grooming gangs started within 3 months of us coming to office. Our silence on the current FWS case against the Scottish Government over men in women's prisons needs to be ended. These proceedings will almost certainly not have come to an end by May 6th but we should be clear that they will end there. A Labour Administration will concede the matter in Court and undertake that within one month of us coming to power there will be no men in Scottish women's prisons. It is difficult to see the argument with which Swinney could counter either proposal while remaining remotely onside with Scottish public opinion.

We should be committing to a purge of funding to "charities" and quangos whereby the Nationalists have maintained their grip over "Civic Scotland". To be completed within one year.

We should also be committed to changing the voting system for Holyrood to STV before the 2031 poll to remove the absurdity of Parties only bidding for your "second" vote.

We should further be ending the devolved benefits system which has achieved little or nothing but renaming UK benefits at, as shown in today's Scotland on Sunday, vast administrative expense. 

None of the above will alone get us back in the game but they would at least put to bed the idea that all a Scottish Labour Government would be is the same but "better". And that would be a good start.