On and on goes the UK's General Election excuse for a campaign. None of those old fashioned town hall meetings to out candidates on the spot and in some cases (Labour notably) to be evicted if too challenging. No political PR person could possibly allow such hazardous things and God forbid that the unwashed should be allowed to get anywhere near the precious objects surrounded by a phalanx of security people movig at as high a speed as possible. Walkabouts are nearly all stage managed as are interminable meetings requiring the backdrop of factories (ideally in high vis jackets and hard hats), building sites (ditto) or schools or (hard pressed or smiling depending on party) hospitals.
This week sees the publication of manifestos. Labour go first on Monday,then the Tories and then on through the ranks. These are mean to explain the philosophy, beliefs, core values and priorities of the partys and then of course all the actual policies flow simply and logically from these, giving the voters clear and honest choices.
Some hope.
Are we going to see Labour up front with "We believe that we should return to the socialism of the 1950s, that the government will make most decisions as to what the people get (schools, hospitals), spend whatever the unions dictate and ensure that individual effort, risk taking and private enterprise receive as few rewards as possible. We really are only interested in what we think used to be the working class,-we call them "working people,-" who should be treated and rewarded "fairly",- ie be told what to do and be taxed as heavily as possible if they get ideas above their station. Wealth , power and choice really are only for the Party elite,- as you electorate would of course wish.
Are the Tories going to say "We've rather lost our way actually. We don't have a philosophy but we are quite nice chaps and unlike most of the others we don't hate anyone. We'd like to build a lot more houses ,but not where we live. We didn't get to grips with the current account defeceit, rethink and redesign what the state is all about and really drive through all the reforms we should have done straight out of the traps in 2010 but then we don't have business people who've ever actually run anything or lived in the real world so it's been a steep learning curve. There are a lot of things we don't understand like the difference between immigrants we need, students who shouldn't be regarded as immigrants at all and people we don't need at all. We think we've more or less sussed it all though so give us another go. After all the other lot brought us to the edge of every imaginable abyss so you'd be wasting your time with them. Think Gordon Brown reborn".
Then there are the Lib Dems. As in 2010 Nick has actually fought a good campaign but he has been drowned out by most others so remains looking rather forlorn. Is he going to carry on saying "We are the middle way"? We offer a bit of this and a bit of that. More tax from seemingly endless supply of "the rich", bankers, non doms and any other figures of public hate who pay the bulk of Britain's taxes anyway. He could hold some ground but certainly not gain any.
UKIP, Greens, SNP we will skip over and leave for another time.
Our verdict on the past week? Cameron is flagging a bit but probably doesn't know why. Where would he get real feedback if he doesn't seem to have any network among real people? Slagging Miliband off simply lifts his opponent's stature. So did a press report that Ed may have been a bit of a lad back in uni days, knocking them over with his conversations about economics and so on. For some reason the female vote always seems to perk up at stories of falling trousers, even if years old. Remember John Major? The gut feel on Miliband is that he actually did quite well. His suits and features look better pressed and he doesn't look quite as much as if he needs a day off as Cameron who just isn't coming off the battlebus bouncing. Ed's big presentational plus is that he looks and sounds like a man with a mission and political conviction . And he is one,- devastatingly awful though the path he wishes to follow may be. Nick Clegg keeps beavering away and could come up with a better result (losing less seats) than has been assumed. Over the border Nicola Sturgeon continues to forge ahead . She looks on track to almost wipe out Labour's Westminster seats but she does risk overdoing it to the extent that some voters fear giving her too much power and scuttle back to the old old rustbucket Labour that has served Scotland so badly for decades.
More next week if you or we can stand it. Meanwhile the feeling in much of the south appears to be "Please let it all be over soon".
This week sees the publication of manifestos. Labour go first on Monday,then the Tories and then on through the ranks. These are mean to explain the philosophy, beliefs, core values and priorities of the partys and then of course all the actual policies flow simply and logically from these, giving the voters clear and honest choices.
Some hope.
Are we going to see Labour up front with "We believe that we should return to the socialism of the 1950s, that the government will make most decisions as to what the people get (schools, hospitals), spend whatever the unions dictate and ensure that individual effort, risk taking and private enterprise receive as few rewards as possible. We really are only interested in what we think used to be the working class,-we call them "working people,-" who should be treated and rewarded "fairly",- ie be told what to do and be taxed as heavily as possible if they get ideas above their station. Wealth , power and choice really are only for the Party elite,- as you electorate would of course wish.
Are the Tories going to say "We've rather lost our way actually. We don't have a philosophy but we are quite nice chaps and unlike most of the others we don't hate anyone. We'd like to build a lot more houses ,but not where we live. We didn't get to grips with the current account defeceit, rethink and redesign what the state is all about and really drive through all the reforms we should have done straight out of the traps in 2010 but then we don't have business people who've ever actually run anything or lived in the real world so it's been a steep learning curve. There are a lot of things we don't understand like the difference between immigrants we need, students who shouldn't be regarded as immigrants at all and people we don't need at all. We think we've more or less sussed it all though so give us another go. After all the other lot brought us to the edge of every imaginable abyss so you'd be wasting your time with them. Think Gordon Brown reborn".
Then there are the Lib Dems. As in 2010 Nick has actually fought a good campaign but he has been drowned out by most others so remains looking rather forlorn. Is he going to carry on saying "We are the middle way"? We offer a bit of this and a bit of that. More tax from seemingly endless supply of "the rich", bankers, non doms and any other figures of public hate who pay the bulk of Britain's taxes anyway. He could hold some ground but certainly not gain any.
UKIP, Greens, SNP we will skip over and leave for another time.
Our verdict on the past week? Cameron is flagging a bit but probably doesn't know why. Where would he get real feedback if he doesn't seem to have any network among real people? Slagging Miliband off simply lifts his opponent's stature. So did a press report that Ed may have been a bit of a lad back in uni days, knocking them over with his conversations about economics and so on. For some reason the female vote always seems to perk up at stories of falling trousers, even if years old. Remember John Major? The gut feel on Miliband is that he actually did quite well. His suits and features look better pressed and he doesn't look quite as much as if he needs a day off as Cameron who just isn't coming off the battlebus bouncing. Ed's big presentational plus is that he looks and sounds like a man with a mission and political conviction . And he is one,- devastatingly awful though the path he wishes to follow may be. Nick Clegg keeps beavering away and could come up with a better result (losing less seats) than has been assumed. Over the border Nicola Sturgeon continues to forge ahead . She looks on track to almost wipe out Labour's Westminster seats but she does risk overdoing it to the extent that some voters fear giving her too much power and scuttle back to the old old rustbucket Labour that has served Scotland so badly for decades.
More next week if you or we can stand it. Meanwhile the feeling in much of the south appears to be "Please let it all be over soon".
