3 ms·

Since when have party manifestos been used to hold political parties to account?

• arethuza 10y ago
  As far as I recall the only time manifestos come in play in the political process is during the passage of a bill through the House of Lords - they "will not oppose the second or third reading of any government legislation promised in its election manifesto": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Convention Note that this appears to be a "constitutional convention" rather than a hard and fast bit of law.
  • joosters 10y ago
    That's interesting, I had never heard of the convention before, thanks for mentioning it. However, it is specifically about the house of lords not blocking government manifesto promises. I was more thinking about the opposite, i.e. a government not going ahead with their manifesto promises.
    • arethuza 10y ago
      Do you really think any politician would introduce legislation requiring manifesto promises to be implemented? :-)
      • gpderetta 10y ago
        For what is worth, at least in Italy, MPs are constitutionally not bound by electoral manifesto.
• lmm 10y ago
  It's up to voters to do that. I've certainly had conversations with other voters on the extent to which a party delivered on its previous manifesto.