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Governments should keep their promises. Since last year's election, Labour ministers have stressed their determination not to copy the Tories, who broke faith with voters by raising taxes when they had said they would not. On the whole, Labour ministers have kept their word - even if they have sometimes had to resort to the small print of their manifesto to do so. This makes the story this week of one clear broken promise so worrying. For once the Government has been caught red-handed. One of the seats that Labour needed to capture last year was the Forest of Dean. Many local residents opposed Gloucestershire County Council's plans to permit giant limestone quarries in the forest. Labour's parliamentary candidate, Diana Organ, promised to fight them. She enlisted the support of Frank Dobson, then Labour's environment spokesman. Mr Dobson promised that an incoming Blair Government would "offer special planning protection to the Forest of Dean". Labour, he said, would go beyond "any of the existing special categories of protection. We propose instead to offer the Forest of Dean a new 'custom-built' special status appropriate to its unique character and status." That commitment was repeated in an official Labour Party press release; it featured prominently in Ms Organ's election address; she went on to win the seat with a 6,343 majority. Without Mr Dobson's commitment, she might not have won the seat at all.
However, Labour has failed to honour it. Mr Dobson is now Health Secretary; the relevant ministers today are John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Meacher, Minister for Environmental Protection, and Richard Caborn, the Planning Minister. According to departmental officials, they have ruled out any kind of special protection. They should think again. Perhaps Mr Dobson was unwise to make his promise; perhaps Britain's larger economic interests would be served by the proposed quarries. The point, however, is that a firm commitment was made. If it is not now kept, then Labour risks being exposed as being no better than the Tories. Well-run private companies dare not break firm promises to their customers: they could be sued if they did. Well-run governments cannot afford to work to any lower standard in their dealings with voters. |
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