Grammatical choices
Elections are frequently tense affairs. But it is somewhat unusual for the tense in question to be grammatical.
However, the Tories are about to change that.
Today, in the Borders, they're . The UK stuff is all in there - including the promise to reverse the planned increase in National Insurance for most people.
But they also dwell upon devolved matters. With a subtle difference. The promises with regard to issues controlled by Holyrood are in the conditional tense, rather than the future.
Hence, the promise re NI is that "the Conservatives will scrap Labour's planned increase in National Insurance".
Glance a little further down the Executive Summary and you find that a promise with regard to schools is that the Tories "would give head teachers more say". (My emphasis.)
Will and would. Those words are scattered throughout the document. But not randomly. Far from randomly.
The choice is grammatical - but also political.
NHS 'protection'
This is the Tory attempt to solve the conundrum that many of the issues which the voters want to talk about are actually run by the Scottish Parliament, not Westminster.
The Tories say they are setting out what they "will" do, if elected to power at Westminster.
And what they "would" do if/when the other parties at Holyrood would/will listen to reason and act upon Tory suggestions.
There is one exception in the document. They say that the "Conservatives will protect the NHS budget".
Presumably, they felt that this particular pledge was so central to their message that the conditional tense would seem like an unacceptable dilution.
There are other elements of the manifesto which straddle the border. For example, the Tories are promising to support a high speed rail link between Scotland and London, "to be built in co-operation with the Scottish government".
Nothing conditional
And they say the "will repair the damage done" to the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster.
That is part of the "respect" agenda promoted by David Cameron with regard to the devolved Scottish government.
More particularly, they "will fight to ensure Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom". Nothing conditional about that.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Labour' Jim Murphy used , SNP deputy leader and deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon said her party would and former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell .
I'm 
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