Friday, April 06, 2012

Less than 4-weeks to go - but even fewer manifestos?

Good Friday today, and less than 4-weeks to go until Polling Day on Thursday 3rd May ...

... and I'm astounded that, this close to the election, so few of the local Political Parties have produced their local manifesto?

As regular readers will know, Edinburgh Labour have made a huge effort to publish draft plans; engage with the wider Edinburgh community; take feedback; publish a re-drafted document; take more feedback; and incorporate it all into our final manifesto which was launched at the start of the campaign.

And, we have had really positive feedback - not just about the content of the document, but about the process we undertook (follow those links in the paragraph above!) in producing the final version.

To be fair, at least the Conservatives have also now produced a local manifesto, which you can access/read here.

But, as of today, with less than 4-weeks to go ... there is no publicly available set of ideas from either of the two Parties who have run this city for the last 5-years: the local SNP and the Lib-Dems?

And when they do publish - assuming they do soon?! - I wonder just what 'outward-facing' process will have been undertaken to ensure their ideas are fully considered and duly reflect local concerns?

Frankly, I've seen no hint of any public consultation, on any draft document/s, from any of the other Parties.

Its all quite a contrast.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand that the Lib Dem manifesto will be published next week, just as soon as their Easter Eggs go down. The Greens have obviously trailed many policies in the media but I think the full document will be published next week too. I've no idea what the SNP's plans are.

Dan

Liberalsellout.wordpress.com

Andrew said...

Dan

Thanks - I do look forward to reading them all, in due course.

Hope they are all pressed on what consultation has been undertaken that's led them to the publication of their final proposals?

Andrew