OpEd: Election 10-04-15

The commentators 10-04-15

...on the general election campaign

Family rivalry has produced compelling myths and great literature. So has the conflict between rival monarchs, dynasties and empires down the ages. But we no longer live in that pre-modern world, even if some Tories pretend not to have noticed. Whether we are talking about the Miliband brothers or anyone else, hereditary privilege has no place in modern political parties.
- Joan Smith, The Guardian

It may be that the power of the fratricide story is really just a symptom of Mr Miliband’s wider failure to give voters a more powerful narrative of himself. He hopes the campaign will change that; the Tories naturally are fighting to keep it front and centre. Either way, we are about to find out if brother-stabbing truly is politically fatal.
- Robert Shrimsley, Financial Times

Who would have thought the 1925 Administration of Estates Act would bring this sterile election campaign to life? This was the measure which abolished the presumption of primogeniture for the inheritance of land. The Labour party, however, if we take Michael Fallon at face value, appears still to be subject to the Act.
- Philip Collins, The Times

Ukip’s decline – on which so many Tory hopes were placed – is making almost no difference in the Conservative-Labour battleground seats. The race is as tight as ever. This may surprise those on the Left who see Farage as a swivel-eyed Right-winger, and those on the Right who see his success as an indictment of Cameron’s failure. But Ukip always has been a more sophisticated, more modern party than its critics have allowed
- Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph

Most papers had made up their minds long before MPs packed up their pencil cases for the end of term, and five weeks of hustings are unlikely to change any of their opinions. The Telegraph, Mail, Mirror and Sun seem to think their role is not to tell their readers what the politicians are saying, but to tell them what is wrong (or, occasionally, right) with what the politicians are saying.
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