This is just about the most stilted and sterile election campaign in my life. I think I have been through seventeen and this is the eighteenth. While the minor parties have some distinctive ideas whether you approve or not, the two major parties are slogging at each other over details which turn everybody off concerning exactly when, by how much and whose fault. Ask any of them a simple question and it is impossible to get an answer. No wonder the polls are stuck neck and neck. Basically the choice is between the unctuous Cameron or geeky Milliband, austerity heavy or austerity light. It is all about management not about government.
It is therefore welcome that the somewhat discredited Tony Blair is going to enter the fray today with a powerful defence of our membership of the European Union. This is a timely upgrade to a campaign bogged down, which will significantly raise the stakes. For too long the only voices raised to challenge the quitters have been either muted or from the past. Just recently and to his credit Milliband has become more strident and this may explain his improvement in approval ratings. Blair looks set to give him a boost. The Tories will have to raise their game to keep in the frame. Meanwhile the only election communication I have received is from UKIP. That might be significant.