When is a commitment no longer a commitment?
I’D LIKE a show of hands here: anyone think that, in the last parliament, the Tories were somehow obliged to stick with their “patient’s passport” policy because it was in their 2005 election manifesto?
Well, what about Labour’s commitment to unilateralism in its 1987 manifesto? Were we somehow morally or democratically obliged to stick with it after it had been rejected by the electorate?
Anyone? No? Thought not.
So how can anyone argue that Labour must remain committed to any of its policies in our failed and rejected 2010 manifesto, specifically a referendum on AV?
Let the intellectual gymnastics commence…