Week three of the campaign and the parties have finally published their manifestos, the promises on which voters will decide who should run the country for the next five years.
Any thought of balance from our national papers in their overall coverage of the campaign vanished on day one. But SubScribe clung to the wistful hope that when it came to manifesto time, they might at least focus on the policies - even if they then proceeded to rubbish them. Dream on.
Excluding the FT, the only papers that came close to offering their readers the information they needed were the Independent, its little sister the i, and - to a lesser extent - the Guardian and the Times. The others have been little more than propaganda sheets.
We're not talking here about the gamesmanship of leaking the right-to-buy element of the Tory package on the day of the Labour manifesto launch, of an editor's right (and duty) to lead on the story he or she thinks will be of most interest to their readers in preference to the political set-piece. But surely we have a history of offering in some detail the way the parties are selling themselves to the electorate.
Over the past three days, the five main parties that cover the whole of the UK have published their manifestos. The cuttings below speak for themselves, so there is little point in my commenting on what you can see - save to say that this is simply the collection of pages devoted to the manifestos. Some papers will have given further space on the front and inside to other campaign stories, polls, diaries, sketches, leaders, OpEds etc.
Stephen Glover's piece in today's Mail, for example, is headlined "There's hardly a word I disagree with in the Ukip manifesto..." but the paper shares few of those words with its readers on the many news pages devoted to the campaign.
The Express, by contrast, is far more concerned about its latest wheeze to keep its dying readership alive (gardening) and the weather, restricting its election coverage to a page or two.
In some instances, as with the first example from the Express, I am showing the whole spread to put the manifesto coverage in context.
Here goes. Prepared to be depressed:
Tuesday: Labour
Any thought of balance from our national papers in their overall coverage of the campaign vanished on day one. But SubScribe clung to the wistful hope that when it came to manifesto time, they might at least focus on the policies - even if they then proceeded to rubbish them. Dream on.
Excluding the FT, the only papers that came close to offering their readers the information they needed were the Independent, its little sister the i, and - to a lesser extent - the Guardian and the Times. The others have been little more than propaganda sheets.
We're not talking here about the gamesmanship of leaking the right-to-buy element of the Tory package on the day of the Labour manifesto launch, of an editor's right (and duty) to lead on the story he or she thinks will be of most interest to their readers in preference to the political set-piece. But surely we have a history of offering in some detail the way the parties are selling themselves to the electorate.
Over the past three days, the five main parties that cover the whole of the UK have published their manifestos. The cuttings below speak for themselves, so there is little point in my commenting on what you can see - save to say that this is simply the collection of pages devoted to the manifestos. Some papers will have given further space on the front and inside to other campaign stories, polls, diaries, sketches, leaders, OpEds etc.
Stephen Glover's piece in today's Mail, for example, is headlined "There's hardly a word I disagree with in the Ukip manifesto..." but the paper shares few of those words with its readers on the many news pages devoted to the campaign.
The Express, by contrast, is far more concerned about its latest wheeze to keep its dying readership alive (gardening) and the weather, restricting its election coverage to a page or two.
In some instances, as with the first example from the Express, I am showing the whole spread to put the manifesto coverage in context.
Here goes. Prepared to be depressed:
Tuesday: Labour
Daily Express, pages 4-5. Splash: Right to buy
Guardian, pages 6-7. Splash: fossil fuels. Front page: right to buy
Daily Telegraph, pages 4-5. Splash: "We are the true party of working people" (the Conservatives)
Independent, pages 8-9. Splash: right to buy
Daily Mail, pages 8-9. Splash: right to buy
The Times, pages 6-7. Splash: right to buy
The Sun, pages 8-9. Splash: Sterling's hippy crack
Daily Mirror, pages 6-7. Splash: Nurses don't have time to feed patients
Wednesday: Conservatives and Greens
Daily Express, pages 4-5. Splash: drug to beat Alzheimer's. No Green coverage
Guardian, pages 6-7. Splash: Clegg "won't sell out in coalition talks"
Independent, pages 6-7. Splash: Alzheimer's
Daily Mail, pages 6-7. Splash: Housing fat cats' hypocrisy
The Telegraph, pages 4-5, Splash: Return of the good life
The Times, pages 6-5. Splash: Brussels vows to block Cameron on EU treaty
Daily Mirror, pages 6-7. Splash: Sue Perkins Top Gear trolls. No Green coverage
The Sun, pages 4-5. Splash: Tory manifesto (Happy ever grafter). No Green coverage
 The Guardian, page 8 |  The Times, page 8  Daily Mail, page 8 |
 Telegraph, page 6 |  Independent, page 8 |
Today: Liberal Democrats and Ukip
 Daily Express, page 7. Splash: Gardening the key to longer life |  The Sun, page 2. Splash: Downton Eddie |
Guardian, pages 6-7. Splash: Bradford fire
Independent, pages 8-9. Splash: troops stricken by anti-malarial drug
Daily Mail, pages 8-9. Splash: Labour's queen of hypocrisy
 Telegraph, page 8. Splash: Scramble for houses as market shrinks |  Daily Mail, page 7 |
Times, pages 8-9. Splash: Law chief drops abuse case against peer
Daily Mirror, pages 6-7. Splash: Cam's bribe will cost every family £1,439 a year
 The Guardian, page 8 |  Independent, page 10 |
The Times, pages 10-11
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