Is A Labour Vote in the Assembly Election a Vote for Middle England?

Will Paterson has an interesting post that highlights the fact that there are evident similarities between the Labour Party's Election Broadcast for the Scottish Parliament, The English Counties and the National Assembly.

The PEB's are not the only things that are similar between the campaigns in the three countries.

The main thrust of debate from Labour in the three elections is that a vote for Labour is a means to protect the Local Authority / Scotland / Wales from Westminster cuts; which is nonsense of course. County Council have little ability to protect their constituents from Central Government cuts, and it is scarcely possible for the Scottish and Welsh Governments to protect their residents from the cuts either, without the fiscal powers to do so.

The Welsh Assembly Government's record of protecting Wales from the Westminster cuts so far has been an abysmal list of failure: S4C, The Passport Office, St Athan etc. etc. Not that I'm blaming the Labour/PC coalition Government in the Bay for these failures - the Assembly, as it is, just doesn't have the power to resist the central ConDem attacks on Wales. But it is a dirty rotten lie to build peoples hopes up by claiming that a vote for Labour in the Assembly Elections is going to change the situation!

The third thing that is similar in the three campaigns is the decision to treat the three elections as a mid-term referendum on the failures of the Westminster Government.

Labour in all three countries attacks the Hairy Arsed Tory Monster and the Ogre of Thatcherism (whilst forgetting to mention that Labour continued to pursue Thatcherite policies and even praised Mrs Thatcher during its recent term of British Government). They also try to link all of their opponents to the Tories.

Linking Liberal Democrats to The Beast is an obvious tactic. The policy of linking the SNP also makes some sense; many of the successes of the SNP minority government have derived from the support of the Conservative Party in Parliament (although many of their failures to pass measures derive from the fact that Labour voted with the Conservatives to defeat them). But to follow the same narrative in Wales is ridiculous.

Okay Plaid doesn't say No! No! Never! to a coalition with the Conservatives, but the majority of its spokesmen have said that it is highly unlikely! And which party has Plaid actually been propping up in Welsh Government for the past four years?

It is perfectly obvious that Labour is not campaigning in this series of elections in order to benefit any English County, nor in order to benefit Scotland nor to be of benefit to Wales.

The whole thrust of The Labour Campaign seems to be in the interest of the British Labour Party. The only purpose of a Labour Government in Wales will be to rehabilitate the UK Labour party at a Westminster level, not for the best governance of Wales for the benefit of Wales - a situation that is rotten enough in itself!

The frightening reality is, that if the main purpose of a Labour Government in the Bay is to restore some credulity to British Labour, it won't govern Wales in the interest of Wales - it will govern Wales in a way that appeals to those voters that Labour lost in Middle England in 2010, and that will be bad for Wales.