Andrew Whitaker: Targeting high earners could be a vote winner

THE policy of curbing top public-sector pay was easily the most striking policy to emerge from the Liberal Democrats' pre-manifesto launch yesterday.

Senior Lib Dem figures such as Tavish Scott and the party's widely respected finance spokesman at Holyrood Jeremy Purvis have been plugging away on the issue for the best part of two years, with regular freedom of information requests on excessive pay and constant parliamentary interventions.

Mr Scott's decision to highlight what he said was the need for action over "high pay and bonuses" suggests the party intends to make the issue a key plank of Lib Dem policy in the run-up to next year's Holyrood elections.

Although differing from the policy of newly elected Labour leader Ed Miliband who wants to set up a commission to look into high pay in the private sector, Mr Scott clearly hopes to tap into the discontent about so called fat cats among hard-pressed households struggling during the lean economic times.

Despite the inevitable backlash the Lib Dems are likely to face in next May's poll for the party's coalition deal at Westminster with the Tories, the policy over high pay could yet be a vote winner for the Lib Dems in Scotland.

It's hard to see the other policies such as setting-up regional development banks adding to Mr Scott's poll rating though.

However, concern over excessive executive pay can help net electoral success as the Labour Party found in opposition in the mid to late 1990s when the party successfully mounted a popular campaign about the pay awards handed to the chairmen of the privatised utilities.