The BBC reports party leaders in final poll push
. Is it me, or has this election been focussed almost exclusively on party leaders? I’m sure it never used to be this bad. Gordon Brown popped up a few times, but he is heir to the throne anyway now that Tony Blair said he was going to stand down before the next next election. I suppose it’s a lot simpler for the simple voter to understand, especially when a fair amount of people will vote on personalities. Given which, it makes sense for the Liberal Democrats, as no-one knows anyone else, and to a certain extent for the Conservatives, for the same reason, although Michael Howard is hardly the most beloved of party leaders. What does surprise me is the reliance of Labour on Toby Blair when he’s supposed to be so much of a liability.
What does disappoint me is a perhaps understandable trend towards openly targetting marginals and not bothering to campaign elsewhere. This has always happened of course, but seems more pronounced this time round: my constituency is not likely to change hands and you can tell by the absolute paucity of election bumf that is coming through the door. I notice these things as I am a sucker for it normally. I’ve lived in safe Conservative seats before and you normally get more than this. Perhaps I notice it more this time because I’ve started watching United States presidential elections: it’s harder to sneer at the electoral college system that means only Ohio and Florida count for anything when my journey to the local school on Thursday is like voting Democrat in Texas (unless I do vote “Republican” which I won’t). The presidential feel of the campaign (see first paragraph) doesn’t help.