#SP11 Manifestos: Scottish Conservatives

The manifestos for the Scottish elections are beginning to appear, and as I did last year I'm going to look at each one and pick out the green commitments that the parties are making. First out of the starting blocks are the Scottish Conservatives.

Manifesto items are in red, my comments are in black:

TRANSPORT

We will oppose re-regulation of bus services

we will promote sponsored bike schemes for our towns and cities to encourage greater participation in cycling.

We will introduce by November 2011 an updated Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) [which] will prioritise resources on projects assessed to be of greatest economic benefit

Scottish Conservatives believe that the replacement Forth Crossing is Scotland’s top transport priority.

we rank the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Scotland’s second most important road project.

We will also pilot the introduction of hard shoulder-running

It's not surprising that the Tories are pro-car and anti-public transport. They consistently equate car use with economic prosperity, for no good reason that I can see. Surely business folk on public transport can get work done whereas they can't when they're stuck in a car in a huge traffic jam? So what do they promise for Rail?

we will continue the Edinburgh-Glasgow Rail Improvement Programme.

we will make the Scotrail franchise available for an extended period of 10 years, making clear that we expect savings in subsidy or improved investment in rolling stock or better services in exchange

So, they want to squeeze more bang for their buck from Scotrail. Incidentally, franchises have been getting longer anyway throughout the UK so there's no real difference in offering Scotrail for 10 years.

We will retain existing lifeline ferry services but will make savings in the Scottish Government’s ferry subsidy, partly by tendering the CALMAC and Northlink contracts in smaller bundles

If I'm reading this correctly, they want to break up CalMac and Northlink in much the same way as they privatised the railways - smaller companies running different routes.

We will...not provide any more central government grant funding for Edinburgh trams

We will abolish Regional Transport Partnerships, with the exception of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which will return to its previous state as solely a provider of services rather than a co-ordination body

Because why pay to co-ordinate services to ensure vital routes remain when we can have a free-for-all?

We will protect concessionary bus passes fares for all current users, by raising the qualifying age for new recipients to 65

Hmm. Protecting a service by removing it for some people? I'm sure that makes sense to someone.

ENVIRONMENT

we will introduce national strategic planning guidance for onshore wind to prevent inappropriately sited or sized windfarms

Because obviously, local people who know the area are the last people you want making planning decisions!

We will also aim for a sensible and sustainable increase in new productive softwoods promote themed days throughout the year to encourage environmental volunteering, such as beach clean ups.

Ah, the Big Society. Have volunteers do the government's job for them.

we will seek to improve the uptake of [the green council tax discount] through a public information campaign

We will retain Home Energy Reports...and consolidate the various energy efficiency schemes into one system, with residential and non-residential schemes

We will require Local Authorities to publish “heat maps”

Actually, I like this one! 25 pages in and I've found a commitment I like! Showing people where the heat leaks out of their homes and businesses should encourage them to do something about it. Of course the government should follow up with doing that "something about it" themselves, but that's a step too far for the Tories.

we will require all public bodies to publish details of their energy consumption and commit to a target to reduce it

I thought they already had to have building certificates on public display, and report yearly on their energy and emissions? Or is that just the Scottish Government?

We will take up, in full, the UK Government’s offer of additional funding through the Green Investment Bank and we will campaign for the bank to be headquartered in Scotland

we want Britain to lead the world in Carbon Capture and Storage

Can anyone claim to "lead the world" in a technology that doesn't work? Maybe I'll claim to lead the world in the manufacture of chocolate teapots.

we will end the policy of current Scottish Government of refusing to consider replacement of existing nuclear power-generating capacity.

we will amend National Planning Framework 2 in order to designate the replacement of existing nuclear power generating capacity as National Developments

Yes, nuclear power is clearly a vote-winner at the moment. What's that you say? A sop to big business? Surely not!

FOOD

we are determined to do all we can to secure serious reform of the Common Fisheries Policy

We must make the reduction of discards a high priority, while securing improved management of fish stocks and the prosperity of our fishing industry

I notice they're not offering to improve fish stocks, just the management of fish stocks.

We will also encourage and support aquaculture in appropriately sited developments

More fish-farms! Just what we need!

We will legislate to ensure honesty in geographical labelling for food

So no more labelling meat as Scottish because it was in the country for the last 3 hours of it's life.

we will introduce a right to request disused publicly-owned land be put into use as allotments. We will also provide Civil Service support to create a new Social Enterprise, “Growing Scotland”, to run an online matching service for people seeking to form gardening co-operatives or to share/borrow plots

This sounds good, but it's a pity they haven't also committed to a right to request using disused privately-owned land as well.

OVERALL

There's no commitments in the manifesto on how the Tories will be reducing Scotland's carbon emissions, beyond new nuclear power stations and Carbon Capture and Storage. It's obviously not a priority for them despite the new opportunities for industry that would arise. That's not common sense in my book, despite the title of the manifesto.