Bombproofing Your Proposal

This is a phrase I see coming to the fore as the UK General Election looms into view, sometime later this year.

Each party traditionally publishes its manifesto. I realise not all democracies exhibit such practice. It's a documented array of the policies that, if elected, they aim to enact.

It holds particular importance in the Westminster flavour of freedom. As anything contained within is - by dint of the gentlemen's agreement known as the [silent 'i'] Salisbury Convention - allowed passage through the unelected second ('upper') chamber that is the House of Lords.

The other side of the coin, is that it can often be a stick with which to beat an administration with when, as is inevitably the case, several pledges go unfulfilled.

I've blogged down the years [incl. 2015 & 2017] on the presentation style of these wonk favourites, and their tips we can apply for our Props and the like.

Bombproofing is said to be the preoccupation of the current Opposition, the odds-on bet to win. Testing each commitment against how it may or may not be defended during the white heat of the campaign proper.

We only need look back to the last hustings to see a disastrous list of claims. Whilst the same party's Brexit stance was an unsolvable riddle of ridiculously contorted, impossible to reconcile, contradictory positions, their other glaring error was to state theirs was a programme that was "fully costed". When it was absolutely nothing of the sort. A £250bn black hole now largely forgotten having been dwarfed by the borrowing wasted on Covid g(r)ifts.

Our Proposals need the same checks.

How solid are our proofs?

What resources are truly warranted?

Where's the touchable legacy?

Beyond these, is all we say believable, attractive and unique?

You can do this if selling solo. Or if in a team, dish out copies. Ask for highlighter pen over each 'point'. Get yourselves in a room. Thrash out where blast damage might strike. Shore up your defences.