Labour's disappointing wish-list

These are bold proposals, and no-one can fault the First Minister for wanting to make Scotland a better place. However, the very mass of detail in Labour's manifesto hides a distinct lack of reference as how these many splendid targets will be achieved. The manifesto remains silent on how Scotland's universities will cope with the financial gap that has opened up between them and their more prosperous English rivals, now that universities south of the Border have top-up fees. As for setting new waiting times, the Executive is still struggling to meet its old ones. And just exactly what is a "carbon free" house?

Labour's persistent lag in the opinion polls over recent weeks suggests that the electorate thinks there is a gap between Labour's ambitious rhetoric and its underwhelming record in office over the past eight years. Labour's problem is not setting targets, but in having too many of them. In that sense, offering the voters an ever-expanding menu of promises might not do the trick.

This is not to say that Scotland has fared badly in the past eight years. Labour's manifesto rightly points to a record level of labour-force participation, serious improvements in mortality from cancer and heart disease, and a significant rise in the numbers of people with advanced academic and technical qualifications. And it is true the opposition parties have the unfair advantage that they can criticise from the sidelines without having to set priorities.

Yet, the fact that Labour has been in power for two parliaments implies that it should be better at offering professional solutions. Instead, the Labour manifesto is a wish-list from which few genuine priorities emerge. At the manifesto launch, Mr McConnell suggested that education would be the only area to receive extra funding beyond inflation levels, but this only confuses matters. Why single out education over, say, climate change or health? And his fumbling of the proposals to cut water rates for the elderly - which he was forced to admit would require primary legislation - suggests that some of the manifesto has not been properly thought through.

Mr McConnell's manifesto shows that he has not run out of ambition. But it probably still lacks the big idea needed to grab voters' attention.

The haves and the have-nots

FROM one perspective, the latest review of social trends from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) merely confirms changes in British life with which we are all familiar. The number of single-parent families and people living on their own is still increasing - only 37 per cent of us now live in the classic nuclear family of mum, dad and the kids. But the ONS data also reveals something new: this splintering of the nuclear family is leading to the emergence of a yawning wealth divide as a result of rising house prices.

House prices faced by first-time buyers have gone up more than 200 per cent in the past decade, but the average income of those first-time buyers has risen by only 92 per cent. As a result, two-thirds of single-parent families live in rented accommodation, with little hope of getting on to the property ladder. Others are similarly disadvantaged by rising house prices: today, six in ten young adult men are living with their parents, compared with only half a mere 15 years ago.

The annual ONS study on social trends is usually good for a headline or two before being forgotten. In reality, this latest study should be a call to action to reform the housing market. For if these trends continue, Britain will become divided into haves and have-nots, based on who owns property and who is forced to rent.

Scottish tourism's new wave

THOSE in the know say it is the best right-hander in Europe, although you have to watch out for the huge seals. We are talking surfing here, but the waves concerned - some of the fastest barrelling waves to be found anywhere on Earth - are not around sunny Hawaii. Instead, they are off Thurso, on the extreme north coast of Scotland, where top professional surfers will gather this month for the sport's biggest international competition ever held in the UK, with cash prizes of more than 60,000.

At 58 degrees north, this is the furthest from the Equator that professional surfers are prepared to venture, prize money or no prize money. Then there is the little matter of frigid water temperatures around Caithness, which average 8-10 degrees centigrade. But all this is made up for by the unique local waves, to which surfers have already given individual names. There is Thurso East, the legendary Brimms, Point of Ness and not forgetting Skirza, a cobblestone point left-hander, located south of John o' Groats - just in case you ever need to bluff your way through a pub quiz in Caithness.

The Scottish tourist industry must view the growth of surfing off Thurso with some satisfaction - in the expectancy that global warming can only improve things.