Manifestos Struggle for Elbow Room

Jessica Mugaseth finds more similarities than differences in the four party manifestos for the May 2003 National Assembly election.

The priorities for all the party manifestos in the May 2003 election were all very similar in content, concentrating on health, education and the economy. In particular the centre left parties - Welsh Labour, the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru - all pledged increased public spending in these key policy areas. Their common objective was to improve public services to make Wales a safe, healthy and economically active place to live.

The Labour party concentrated on highlighting its achievements during the first term, in four years since 1999. Despite the ten election pledges, summarised in Table 1, the manifesto didn’t really propose anything revolutionary, preferring to emphasise a continuation of policies.

Table 1: Welsh Labour’s Top Ten Election Pledges

Health

On health, the parties were split between the Welsh Conservatives and the rest. Labour, Plaid and the Liberals all called for more staff and more services free at the point of use ranging from free dental treatment and prescriptions to eye tests for all. However, the Conservatives took a different perspective, pledging to diminish the role of the Assembly Government in hospital affairs and concentrating on improving performance through competition. In fact the Conservatives advocated the New Labour policy of establishing foundation hospitals funded through public-private partnerships to encourage competition. They also proposed establishing an all Wales health organisation to monitor the hospitals, therefore effectively taking the politicians out of day to day management of the service. All the other parties were keen to highlight the extra investment from the public purse they would make to improve services.

Following the failure of the Labour party to deliver its 1999 commitments on reducing waiting lists, it was no surprise that only the Conservatives dared to publish detailed commitments on waiting times although Labour pledged that no-one will wait more than 24 hours to see a member of primary care team.

All but one of the parties, Plaid Cymru, laid down targets for themselves in the amount of extra staff they would recruit. Plaid preferred to focus on the actual structure and long term commitments to overhauling the NHS and the benefits that that would bring to Wales. Their National Capacity Plan would provide short, medium and long term goals for more doctors, nurses, dentists and other health professionals as well as more beds. As part of their long term strategy Plaid also promised a package to encourage GPs to stay in deprived areas.

All the parties recognised the relationship between a good diet, increased exercise and improving health. The Liberal Democrats pledged free fruit for four to seven years olds; Plaid pledged free access to swimming pools and leisure centres for the young and disadvantaged; while Labour promised the headline grabbing free breakfasts for all primary school children. The Conservatives were the only party to resist such vote-grabbing policies.

Education

After health, education was the second priority for all the parties. All save the Conservatives, acknowledged the importance of continuing the development of Early Years initiatives with Labour pledging to introduce a new curriculum for three to seven year olds.

In line with its commitment to overhaul the public services Plaid Cymru pledged to begin a consultation on a National Curriculum for Wales as well reducing bureaucracy for teachers and boosting Welsh medium education, something the Liberal Democrats claim they would do by establishing a National Centre for Welsh Medium Education.

Tuition fees were a recurrent issue in all the manifestos. Labour ruled out the introduction of top-up fees for universities for the next Assembly term, while Plaid and the Liberal Democrats pledged their complete abolition in Wales. The Conservatives along with the other opposition parties, called for powers on tuition fees to be devolved to the Assembly.

In terms of manifesto commitments in education, Labour’s main policy was one of continuation of developing the consultations and pilot projects already in place, the early years centres, the Welsh Baccalaureate and the discussions over top-up fees. Plaid had a more radical notion of developing a National Curriculum for Wales whereas the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both pledged to introduce three year budgets for schools to enable them plan for the future.

As with the health policy, the Welsh Conservative ideas on education were remarkably similar to those of Blair’s Labour party in London. The Conservatives advocated the use of private finance for school building. This is a New Labour policy which Rhodri Morgan from which has distanced himself Labour’s manifesto claims that the party would invest £560 million in school buildings. The Conservatives also pledged to encourage both faith and specialist schools, another New Labour policy not followed by Welsh Labour.

Economy

All the manifestos aimed to encourage growth in the economy, wanting more jobs, more research and development and improved broadband infrastructure. There was broad agreement between Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru on the need for a more targeted approach to regional economic policy across Wales. Plaid’s National Economic Development strategy divides Wales in to seven regions each with its own strategy, with key priorities in infrastructure, communications and community regeneration to create new jobs, encourage investment and innovation in to each region.

The Conservatives’ focused on businesses and how it can benefit them, including introducing tax breaks in Objective One areas to encourage investment, limiting business rates to inflation or less and reducing business rates levied on rural shops, post offices and village pubs. They were also committed to reducing the amount of unnecessary red tape that affects business in Wales. The Liberal Democrats concentrated on the key themes of Innovation, enterprise and internationalisation with a specific focus on developing R&D for Wales.

Labour’s manifesto commitments for business concentrated on highlighting existing programmes such as the creation of Finance Wales and the broadband Wales project One departure was its innovative idea for creating a ‘Knowledge Bank’ for entrepreneurs.

Other Policies

All the parties committed to developing the arts in Wales, calling for some form of National Museum of Modern Art and a need to develop a network of museums and galleries across Wales. All recognised the importance that sport plays in developing communities. Transport policy was also a key theme, with all the parties calling for a development in air transport and increased participation for the Assembly in developing an integrated railway infrastructure.

The Liberal Democrats pledged to tackle hardship and poverty in Wales with a £125 million budget increase led by a new Minister for Social Justice. The Conservatives campaigned hard on their pledge to stop the building of the new National Assembly building, with the money saved to be invested in public services, notably a children’s hospital.

The Liberal Democrats took full advantage of their contribution in first term partnership government. The Conservatives generally adopted Blairite approach especially in health and education, while remaining distinctly unionist in their vision for the future of the Assembly. An overhaul of services was Plaid’s main answer to Wales’ political, economic and social problems. On the other hand Labour largely opted for a continuation of its existing policies. Generally speaking, however, the manifestos of all the parties shared more in common than distinguishing features (See Table 2).

Table 2: Manifesto Commitments Compared

Jessica Mugaseth is Research Officer of the IWA.

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