If you go to a pantomime in this country you will have expectations of seeing a certain amount of set-pieces. 'Oh no we won't' cry the people and 'he's behind you'. It must be as strange to outsiders as, say, Japanese kabuki theatre was to me on the one occasion I experienced it.
We could at this stage bring out an election-campaign bingo card:
- Baby kissed
- Audience of factory hands
- Unveiling slogan
- Launching manifesto
- Leaders' TV debate
You get the idea. Yesterday, Sir Keir launched the Angela Rayner 'Change' battlebus and Rishi the 'Clear plan, bold action, secure future' one which he will be flying above in his helicopter. Rishi's slogan is less memorable but has the advantage that swapping the adjectives makes very little difference. The LibDems bus has been on the road for a while now but it did prompt Sir Keir to do the best joke, 'You wait ages for a battlebus and then three come along at once.'
It prompted me to wonder if the six week campaign is just a pantomime full of expected set-pieces and whether there is another way.
Why not stop campaigning a full 24 hours before the polls open and give the country a day off politics?
Why do we count through the night? Would getting the exit poll at 10.00p.m. followed by the real results throughout the next day be so bad? get some rest before forming a government. Maybe, you know, think a bit first.
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