Campaigning is now warming up nicely. Forget all the bollocks about ‘new politics’; the name of the game, as it always has been, is to trash your opponents’ “radical ideas” and then throw in the requisite epithets & insults whilst deploring how electioneering has become so personalised.
Tactically speaking it’s all very straightforward. If you’re Labour, the election is about ‘sending a message’ to Cameron & Clegg. If you’re anyone else then it’s about kicking the shit out of Labour and mentioning Wales as often as you can.
Absorbing as this skirmishing must be for the protagonists – and the symbiotic souls within the political press – electors are almost certain to remain the same old stick-in-the-muds who just can’t get excited at the possibility of a significant percentage swing one way or another. One pollster is suggesting that turnout could actually be down on the last Assembly election. It’s a prospect which might add some spice to one or two marginal contests but this increasing popular disengagement should be a serious concern for anyone who wants to see greater democratic participation.
Ah well, we can always rely on the likes of BBC Radio Wales to liven up things up. This morning’s live patronising political broadcast from Mold which included the mandatory scientific survey using different coloured ‘sweetie jars’ will surely be remembered as a classic.
Somehow we don’t think the same will be said about this election.
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