Yesterday Tony Blair unveiled the Labour Party's pledges for the forthcoming (although as yet unscheduled) election.

By the time he reached Battersea he had slipped into his 'meet the people' accent, swapping Eton for Estuary, dropping opening h's and closing t's in exchange for the ubiquitous glottal stop. Maybe the next time we see Blair employ t and h will be following "May" and "5". Who knows?

Here is the pledge card for this time around





As one wag put it, they could have added:

7. Your language's verbs now redundant.

Is it just me, or are these commitments just a tiny bit on the vague side? With the exception of the commitment to reduce operation waiting times to no more than 18 weeks, there seems to be very little more headline grabbing promises beyond the soundbites. This marks a departure from previous Labour pre-election pledges. Compare the above with the card from 2001:-



Four out of five are specific and open to objective measurement. It's a shame that Labour are not confident enough to make such clear pledges this time around.

John Reid commented that the 2005 pledges are the result of the Big Conversation, Labour's year long consultation process to take the pulse of the British electorate to find out what they really want, and that the govenrnment's pledges reflect the findings.

Less charitable voices may see the election pledges this time around as an exercise in stating the bleeding obvious in such a nebulous way as to minimise the risk of accusations of clear failure in the future.

How about the following to finish off?

8. Your government's pledges specific enough for them to be held properly to account in the future