Hang on lads, I’ve got an idea

Just like that bus, the election could still go either way.

Thank God it’s not Friday

It’s early days yet, but it looks today as if the revolutionaries who have been quietly threatening to do away with one of the nation’s most sacred institutions have been vanquished. Yes, Returning Officers up and down the land are beating a hasty retreat in the face of ‘new guidance’ from our own indomitable Electoral Commission. For a while it had seemed as if Election Night this year would be but a pale shadow of the former bygone glory years, with Returning Officers outrageously refusing to work throughout the night and instead start counting on Friday morning. Clearly this could be allowed to pass – imagine the prospect of live coverage of Peter Snow reduced to having a nap waiting for a ‘Portillo moment’ scheduled for 9.30am. No, far better to have him wandering about his little studio of virtual graphics and suddenly cutting away to something interesting. Just 30 constituencies are still holding out – is there a slimmed down sequel to 300 in the making here?

Elsewhere, today saw the first celebrity endorsement of the campaign, with Sir Michael Caine weighing in behind the Tories, as their supply of business leaders to plug their stance on the National Insurance increase began to dry up – just 13 new ones today.

Labour mounted something of a fightback on National Insurance this morning, wheeling out the big guns (Brown, Darling and Mandelson to you) to counter Tory claims. But their press conference seemed to amount to “don’t believe them lot”, which may not be quite enough to persuade the electorate.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

"In our society, the closest thing to a rite of passage is getting drunk on your 18th birthday."

– David Cameron during the launch of his National Citizen Service plans. Is he speaking from experience?


THE GREASY POLL

Lab 30, Con 38, LibDem 20 (UKPR polling average)