OpEd: Election 01-04-15

The commentators 01-04-15

...on the general election

Ed Miliband has been written off many times and he keeps writing himself back on again. He is nothing if not resilient, which suggests that a prolonged stare at Labour may not achieve everything the Tories need. The Miliband that people see may not tally with the monstrous caricature of Conservative creation. Then those who currently say they will vote Labour – and there are enough of them, on some measures, to unseat Cameron – could carry that intention all the way to the polling booth and not blink when they get there.
- Rafael Behr, The Guardian

The Tory campaign does need an optimistic element which stresses how a recovering economy will work for the many not the few — jobs, housing, tax cuts. No Ed Miliband, a better economy and, above all, one that works for you. That’s how to get to Yes, Yes, Yes.
- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

Sadly the Hampstead Left remains amazingly powerful. The subsidised arts have been almost completely colonised by them. The broadcasters dance to their flutes. Whitehall, tamed by the Human Rights Act and equalities legislation, is full of their proselytisers. The Law, likewise, is in the grip of Lady Bakewell’s neighbours. If Mr Miliband’s Labour gets in, he will try to Hampsteadise the whole of Britain — except don’t expect the great unwashed to live in such spacious houses - Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

Ed Miliband may fancy he can see predators on the High Street, in the City and on the industrial estates. But for most people the real predator would be a Labour government which taxed them to the hilt and regulated businesses to the point of destroying jobs.
- Peter Hill, Daily Express

Nigel Farage’s campaign against immigration yesterday took him to the white cliffs of Dover. The wonder is that the mainstream parties appear ready to acquiesce in the inflammatory rhetoric of this ostensibly affable lightweight.
- Oliver Kamm, The Times

Out of the window went every ounce of compassion and thoughtfulness and in came the clichés, the crazed maniac theories.
Oh come on, I hear people say, he had to have a screw loose to fly a plane into a mountain.
To which the answer is: there had to be something very wrong to make him do that. But being depressed or losing your girlfriend or suffering burn-out six years ago doesn't cut it. Anyone with an ounce of sense must realise that there has to be more behind this.
- Another chance to get it right, another chance taken to get it wrong

You can get daily updates from Editorial Intelligence by signing up here