Consultation GuRU’s Election Quiz: Whose manifesto commitment is this?

This is Blog no 72

or .....

how to anticipate forthcoming consultations.

Can you guess which Parties made the following manifesto commitments? 

(Answers found at the bottom of this Blog).

1. To abolish all diversity and inclusion roles and regulations …
2. To appoint a Cabinet Minister for Children and Young people
3. To create a tough new passenger watchdog, focused on driving up standards.
4. To create private residential tenancy boards to provide an informal, cheap and speedy forum for resolving disputes before they reach a tribunal.
5. To cut waste and bureaucracy in the NHS, reducing the number of Managers by 5,500 …
6. To develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty
7. To ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes
8. To exempt NHS and care staff from the £1000-a-year Immigration Skills charge
9. To extend the £2 bus fare cap In England for the entirety of the next Parliament
10. To increase the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000 …
11. To make a £5bn investment to support community sports, arts and culture.
12. To modernise, simplify and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law …
13. To officially recognise the independent state of Palestine with immediate effect
14. To outlaw the creation of 20mph zones
15. To provide 69,000 new high-quality jobs in Scotland’s clean energy industries
16. To provide access to workers from across the EU, enabling many of our industries to grow
17. To raise a carbon tax to drive fossil fuels out of our economy
18. To review the arms export control system, and a clear statement of intent to withdraw from the international arms supply trade.
19. To support the abolition of the undemocratic House of Lords
20. To treble our offshore wind capability

Look at them closely; what we have here is a mixture of undertakings about processes, inputs and outcomes. They cover a range of situations which mask different realities.

• In some cases, the party is, in effect, saying it has a funded plan ready to execute.
• In others, there is a numerical target or an administrative initiative that can be taken.
• Some are more tentative – more a direction of travel, or just a statement of principle.
• Quite a lot of Manifesto ‘promises’ amount to no more than “We actually haven’t got a clue what to do about this problem, but we will certainly look it.”
• Or “We will consult and then create a strategy.”

Manifesto authors are right to be cautious. Think of the potential consequences, especially for the winning party. A few misplaced words, or an error in the promised number of whatevers, and the commitment will be recalled and played back by opponents and critics for years to come. Those who prepare these documents have to be skilled with words, and have courage in spades.

A new Government has also to consider the implications for its plans for legislation. There is a convention that where there has been an explicit commitment in a Manifesto, the House of Lords will accept a provision it does not approve on the principle of the democratic mandate. Where, however a Commons majority seeks to pursue something not contained in its Manifesto, Peers are emboldened to resist more strenuously – through the famous ‘ping-pong’, and many exasperated Ministers have given up rather than die in a Parliamentary ditch!  The wording of the Manifesto can matter quite a  lot.

For those of us interested in the public voice on public policy, here are three implications arising from a month of political promises

Stakeholder consultation is inevitably necessary to convert political ideas from slogans to practical proosals. No doubt, the bigger parties will have developed their ideas in dialogue with some key ‘advisers’, academics, think-tanks and of course, party members. But of course, that is not the same as canvassing the views – and seeking the help of those likely to be affected. The Civil service, in many ways is built for this task – or rather, it WAS built for it – before successive management de-layering and outsourcing reduced its capacity. Hundreds of them will have spent recent weeks planning for a new administration, and for this Election – as in some others in recent years, there is only one Manifesto they have to worry about.

Public consultation will be necessary when matters of genuine controversy needs a degree of political legitimacy. Issues of conscience, social reforms, changes to cherished institutions or proposals that affect major geographical areas or communities of interest. Some of these are signalled by the parties in their own Manifestos – and it’s not always a good sign. Beware of those situations where asking the public is a substitute for knowing their own minds. A promise to ‘develop a strategy’ is a surefire predictor of a forthcoming consultation.

The perils of pre-determination have to be considered. History shows that Ministers entering government with firm plans can come to grief if challenged in the Courts. Famously, Michael Gove sought to implement the Coalition’s promise to cancel the Labour Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. Six Councils took the matter to the High Court and won a famous victory, as there had been a legitimate expectation that those affected should have been properly consulted!  How many commitments in the current Labour Manifesto hold the potential to derail an over-enthusiastic Minister? Someone (Maybe The Consultation Institute?) may need to be on hand to explain that they should only consult on those matters where they still have an open mind.

So why not focus entirely just on the most likely winner of the General Election.

Why should we pay the slightest attention to the others?

The answer is that policy develops in a crab-like manner, forwards, sideways  upwards and backwards over years, and clever politicians know that good ideas can germinate in all manner of unlikely soils. Other parties also hold power and influence in local government and other institutions and the wise always spend time understanding what others are thinking and doing.  Every few years, a General Election forces those with opinions to crystallise them into firm plans and proposals. As our relatively random list shows, they find it difficult, hedging around wicked issues and carefully asking themselves how they pay for what they promise.

For those of us interested in what will be under debate, how to do it and whether the benefits of a consultative culture will shine through, it is a moment to savour …

Now for the answers:

1. (…diversity) Reform UK
2. ( …Cabinet Minister) Liberal Democrat
3. ( …Passenger watchdog) Labour
4. (…Tenancy Boards) Green
5. ( …NHS waste) Conservative
6. (…child poverty) Labour
7. ( …cigarettes) Labour
8. (…Skills charge) Liberal Democrat
9. (…bus fares) Conservative
10. ( …GPs) Labour

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11. (…arts & sport) Green

12. (…gender recognition) Labour

13. (…Palestine) Liberal Democrat

14. (…20mph) Reform UK

15. ( …green jobs) Scottish Labour

16. ( …EU workers) Scottish National Party

17. (…carbon tax) Green

18. (…arms exports) Plaid Cymru

19. (…House of Lords) Scottish National Party

20  (…offshore wind) Conservative