Education was yesterday set out as the chosen battleground for the Labour Party, as the leadership published its manifesto for the May 6th election to the new Scottish Parliament.
The Labour leader in Scotland, Mr Donald Dewar, said the top priority for the Edinburgh legislature would be an Education for the Nation Bill, with targets set not only for teachers but for the Schools Minister as well.
"There will be a statutory duty on the Minister that targets set will be targets met," he said. "If the Education Minister doesn't make the grade, he or she won't be Education Minister any more."
The plan is also to create US-inspired Community Schools, with the full range of public services under one roof, including health and social work. The government wants to step up the use of information technology in classrooms and to expand nursery education to offer a place for all children aged three and four.
Scotland has a very different and more successful education system than England. Labour is pledging to increase spending on hospital and school buildings, by levering billions of pounds from the private sector in a controversial bid to get round public sector capital limits. Labour has also staked out the law and order agenda as its own, with the promise to make it easier to confiscate drug dealers' wealth, and doubling the number of anti-drug police officers. The Justice Minister has already been in talks with the Dublin government about anti-drugs co-ordination.
Rachel Donnelly reports:
Playing down its nationalist principles in the battle for election to the Welsh Assembly, Plaid Cymru launched its manifesto yesterday with a pledge that the question of full independence would not arise within the assembly's first four-year term.
The Plaid Cymru president, Mr Dafydd Wigley, denied his party had ever proposed independence. Instead he said the objective was to secure full self-government in Wales with more and more powers being given to the assembly.
Unveiling 80 policy proposals in the party's manifesto, "Working for the New Wales", Mr Wigley said: "The most important challenge is to get this assembly to work for all the people of Wales, whether they voted yes, no or abstained."
But in a counter-move aimed at stepping up the pressure on the nationalists ahead of elections on May 6th, Labour released figures showing that Wales would be bankrupted by independence because taxpayers would be forced to pay £6 billion - the difference between Government spending in Wales and the current Welsh tax bill - to fund the move.