Day 10
Thursday 15 April
A cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland, which grounded all flights in and out of the UK, disrupted the election campaign. The Liberal Democrats called off a visit to Scotland by Vince Cable, although Mr Cable could have reached Edinburgh by train in just over four hours. Labour, likewise, cancelled a trip to Scotland by the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth. Later, the leaders of the three main UK parties somehow managed to get themselves to Manchester for a live television debate described in advance by one of the newspapers as ’90 minutes that could change Britain’. It didn’t.
Day 9
Wednesday 14 April
At the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto launch, Vince Cable called himself the elephant man for being prepared to confront the ‘elephant in the room’, the national debt. The party pledged to increase the personal tax allowance to £10,000, which it said could be paid for by a clampdown on tax avoidance and other measures, although the other parties said the sums didn’t add up. The Lib Dems also pledged to scrap ID cards, Trident, the compulsory retirement ages and the House of Lords, and to break up the banks. The number of MPs would be cut by 150 and PR would be introduced without a referendum.
Day 8
Tuesday 13 April
Straining for a metaphor, the Conservatives launched their manifesto in a derelict power station where a famous episode of ‘Dr Who’, featuring the Daleks, was once filmed. David Cameron pledged ‘people power’, which would enable parents in England and Wales to set up their own schools. He invited the electors to ‘join the government’, but when Jon Snow of Channel 4 News went out into the streets to road-test this radical proposal, few seemed interested. There was little in the manifesto about how to tackle the national debt. Gordon Brown said he had been too lax with the banks.
Day 7
Monday 12 April
Labour’s manifesto said there would be no increase in income tax, but made no commitment about VAT. When Gordon Brown was asked about this, he said that the party manifesto never mentioned VAT. Labour undertook to halve the deficit by 2014 through growth, ‘fair taxes’, and cuts to ‘lower priority spending’. Schools and hospitals in England and Wales were promised greater independence in a manifesto described as ‘Blairite’ for its emphasis on public sector reform. Its publication was overshadowed by the decision of a court to award legal aid to three former Labour MPs charged with expenses theft.
Day 6
Sunday 11 April
Alex Salmond, on his last day as an MP, deplored the decline in the reputation of parliament and of the quality of speeches there. The Green Party said it had ‘a real possibility’ of getting candidates elected and the party was said to be in front in Brighton Pavilion. A poll of marginal constituencies in the News of the World showed Labour slightly ahead of the Conservatives, against the average of national polls. Nick Clegg warned of ‘serious social strife’ should the winning party in the election try to introduce severe spending cuts. Details of the party manifestos began to leak out, including a Tory pledge for greater patient access to GPs.
Day 5
Saturday 10 April
The Conservatives’ plan to give four million married couples an annual ‘tax break’ worth £150 was described as ‘Edwardian’ by the Lib Dems. Vince Cable was scathing about business leaders who criticised the Government’s plan to raise NIC: ‘I find it utterly nauseating that all these chairmen and chief executives of FTSE companies being paid 100 times the pay of their average employees should lecture us on how we should run the country’. The mother of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon, who is threatened with extradition to the United States, said she would stand againt Jack Straw as a protest against the erosion of civil liberties.
Day 4
Friday 9 April
The two largest parties continued their row over public spending, the Conservatives claiming they could achieve savings of £12 billion by curbing IT projects and not filling vacancies, but Alistair Darling insisted that the Tory plans would mean thousands of job losses. Gordon Brown criticised the Conservatives’ commitment to remove the profile of innocent people from the DNA database after three years. Nick Clegg said the Lib Dems would stop excessive bank charges. The young Labour candidate for Moray was sacked by his party for cursing leading politicians on a social networking site and describing the elderly as coffin dodgers.
Day 3
Thursday 8 April
The Conservatives announced a voluntary ‘national citizen scheme’ for 16-year-olds. David Cameron, supported by Michael Caine, said the scheme would be ‘in the same spirit’ as the former National Service. The BBC’s chief political correspondent said: ‘The image of David Cameron alongside one of this country’s best-known and best-loved actors is something I’m sure Mr Cameron is delighted about.’ Caine was once arrested for non-payment of maintenance to his first wife and their daughter and recently threatened to leave Britain rather than pay more tax. Nick Clegg said the Tories were planing a ‘secret VAT bombshell’.
Day 2
Wednesday 7 April
In the last prime minister’s questions of the parliament, there were bad-tempered exchanges on the increase in NIC. David Cameron claimed it would ‘kill the recovery’, but Gordon Brown said that business leaders who supported the Tories’ alternative plans had been deceived. Because of the shortage of parliamentary time, cider drinkers will be spared a 10% rise in duty and teenagers will be spared compulsory sex education. Mr Brown promised to introduce fixed-term parliaments and to hold a referendum on PR. On a Conservative website, Mr Cameron is heard telling school-children that, when at Eton, he thought of becoming a lorry driver.
Day 1
Tuesday 6 April
Gordon Brown, after the Queen had ‘kindly’ agreed to the dissolution of parliament, was photographed with his cabinet outside 10 Downing Street. He said that he came from ‘an ordinary middle-class family’. He then went to a workers’ canteen where he laughed with unconvincing heartiness and said: ‘Very nice atmosphere, lovely people, thanks for having us here’. David Cameron, who made his opening statement on the banks of the Thames in the face of a stiff breeze, said he was fighting for ‘The Great Ignored’, a group which seems to include the rich. Nick Clegg was accompanied for his photo-call by Vince Cable, who was recognisably of the human race.
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16.04.10
Issue no 237
We are now
living in a
foreign land
Kenneth Roy
on the significance for
Scots of the first of the
leaders’ debates
[click here]
Confessions of a middle man
Reactions to SR editorials
on the NHS in Scotland: the
salaries being paid, the
consultants being hired
[click here]
A police suspect
at 83
Barbara Millar
on the remarkable life
of Libby Wilson
[click here]
Tedious
and Brief
The election campaign
in
100 words a day
every day
[click here]
Cheated and abandoned
Tessa Ransford
An indictment
of
broadcasting
in Scotland
[click here]
From Thursday’s edition:
Bob and Rose
Our Old Tory/Old Labour election diaries
[click here]
for R D Kernohan
[click here]
for Rose Galt