By John Knox
“What does Christopher Robin think about it all, that’s the point,” said Rabbit. All the animals at Pooh Corner were looking to Christopher Robin to rule on whether Eeyore had jumped into the river or whether he had been “bounced” by Tigger.
“Well,” said Christopher Robin, not quite sure what it was all about, “ I think …… I think we all ought to play Pooh sticks.” So everyone watched their sticks racing under the bridge.
To me, that delightful little scene neatly sums up where we are now, six weeks away from the Scottish elections on 5 May. We’ve been “bounced” into this race – by the inexorable force of the calendar – and we are watching our various party sticks floating down the river, wondering what the outcome will be. And no one is quite sure what it is all about.
We’ve had the chancellor’s budget statement, with its cut in petrol prices and its message of “reform and recovery”. We’ve had Labour saying “It’s hurting but it’s not working.” And we’ve had the SNP saying “Give us four more years to protect Scotland from the cuts.”
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But no one is being very specific. In fact, it’s hard to tell the difference between the Pooh sticks, except for their colours. We may get more detail in the party manifestos, but I’m preparing myself for disappointment. Labour have copied the SNP by promising a continued freeze in the council tax, no student fees, and free prescriptions. The Conservatives say they would introduce a graduate “contribution”, though they haven’t worked out how much that might be. The Liberal Democrats have hinted they would limit free bus travel to pay for continued free university and college education – but, again, they haven't worked out the details. These seem to be the battle-lines in the forthcoming campaign. Everything else is, more or less, agreed. There should be no increase in taxes… but, with no sense of contradiction, there should be more money for the health service, more investment in renewable energy, more help for small businesses, more apprenticeships, a new Forth Bridge, more powers for the Scottish parliament. There is a vague acceptance that cuts have to be made in the public sector workforce and there is an equally vague hope that this will be compensated for by a growth in private sector employment. The livelihoods of thousands of people are thus in the balance – the 18,000 public sector workers who lost their jobs last year and the 10,000 council workers who are expected to lose their jobs in the coming year. There is blithe talk of efficiencies and reforms in the public services and always promises of less bureaucracy and less “red tape”. None of this is spelt out, of course. The SNP have managed to come up with one distinctive policy: a minimum price for alcohol to tackle Scotland’s booze culture. Oh, and there is “independence,” but that is a distant dream, way beyond the scope of this election. Or is it? No one quite knows the scope of this election. We all assume it will be about the economy. But it could involve all sorts of issues. That’s the mystery of an election. Voters could be influenced by the military campaign in Libya, or the failure to reform the banks and the bonus culture, or by the patriotic hullabaloo over the Royal Wedding just days before the election itself. And then there is the referendum taking place on the same busy day. Voters have to decide whether they want a proportional parliament at Westminster and the likelihood of permanent coalition or minority government. The Scottish experience has shown that both can work, but it is a very different form of democracy. Power lies more in parliament than in party leaders and the country edges forward by slow consensus rather than by great strides to the left and right. Christopher Robin would certainly find it confusing. We all find it confusing. It is tempting just to back away from it all and stare over the parapet of the bridge and watch the river flowing endlessly by. What difference will it make who wins? Not a great deal, for none of the main parties are offering anything radical or even significantly different. This is not altogether a bad thing. It must mean we all agree on fundamentals, like freedom, equality, fraternity etc. We are all aiming for a peaceful, prosperous country where everyone can get on with their lives and be happy. A good friend once told me he preferred his politicians to be boring. His name wasn’t Christopher Robin, but it could have been. Exciting politicians tend to be disastrous, he explained. It’s better, he said, to have politicians who went with the flow and only tried, little by little, to change things. That’s the other disconcerting thing about elections. They happen overnight but the changes they bring, if any, happen over a long time. But just because it is slow doesn’t mean change isn’t happening. It is, however, quite hard to detect and the wait can be boring and debilitating. All of which might lead us to expect a low turnout on 5 May. It was only 52 per cent last time. And herein lies the danger of this democracy business. If people don’t participate it’s like a game of Pooh sticks with no one throwing their sticks into the river and no one urging them on. So the question I always ask those barstool non-voters with all the solutions is: what are you doing about it all?Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
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