Sunday 25 April 2010

Why buy one manifesto?

I bought my manifestos a few days ago. I went to a bookshop in Lancaster and asked for them and I was told that even though they had been published a week earlier the shop had not received them yet. I went to another bookshop and they had them. The person behind the counter said "which would you like?" I don't know what you think of this question but why would anyone want one manifesto? So that they could attack the policies of that particular party? Highly unlikely. So that they could confirm their beliefs in their favoured party? More likely but this isn't a sensible way of doing things because the only way you confirm your favoured party is by knowing the policies of the other parties.

I asked for all three and then asked if they have any others. The answer was no. I felt particularly sorry for the Green Party as I understand that Lancaster is it's second strongest constituency and you can't buy the manifesto here. I am sure that I could get a copy online but that's not the way I buy my manifestos, and I am sure it will put a lot of people off who may have bought them from the local shop. After all they are not the sort of book that you will want to buy after the election unless the party forms a government.

Change the world

4 comments:

  1. In all fairness, I'm sure a lot of activists buy the manifesto so that they can answer questions on the doorstep.

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  2. They're all around as .pdfs. I especially recommend the SNP one; they have slightly different variants of some of our policies and wild spending promises COMPLETELY without any explanation of how they plan to afford them save for a threat/promise to secure matched spending for the London Olympics for Scotland (how, when they're guaranteed to be the minority party? They don't say.) Uncommon for a Scottish LibDem I've normally got a lot of time for the Nats, but it's weird to see a party /in government, no less/ releasing a manifesto that's up there with RESPECT and the BNP as far as the achieve-ability of their policies is concerned.

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  3. I fully understand you wanting to buy them from a bookshop. Online shopping is fine, but going in person for a specific item helps keeps shops open, not just bookshops.

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  4. Thanks for all three comments. It is a good answer to think that activists want to get a deeper knowledge of party policy but I would still want to know why my policy was better.

    I will get round to looking at other manifestos but it is going to be a busy few weeks. It is nice to know what others are promising even if it is not achievable.

    We are gradually moving away from using shops, some would say rapidly moving away but there are some great advantages to going to the shops.

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