Another Day, Another Leaflet

Another leaflet has arrived, this one from the Liberal Democrats and addressed to me personally - a courtesy which did not occur to UKIP or the modern Conservative party, perhaps because the concept of an electoral register is a bit too trendy and twentieth-century for them. How far Labour's campaign can be personalised will doubtless depend on which databases have been lost on whose laptops this month. (The Liberal Democrat candidate is also, predictably, the only one who has bothered replying to an email inquiry about support for constitutional reform.) The leaflet mentions Labour only once, on the back page, and then only to say that the Liberal Democrats got more votes at the last elections; intentional or not, the implication behind this - that Labour are so hopeless that attacking their record would be a waste of energy, like kicking a dead rat or debating the BNP - is really rather cheering. The Conservatives' commitment to the NHS is highlighted with a few judiciously quoted headlines about Daveybloke meeting privatisation campaigners, Andrew Lansley accepting donations from a private contractor, and the ever-brilliant Daniel Hannan, underlined with the question "What else aren't the Conservatives telling you?" Like the Conservatives, the Lib Dems promise to protect frontline NHS services, invest in schools, put more police on the beat, lower my tax bill and balance the country's books; unlike the Conservatives, they also promise to put solar panels on public buildings and to put a stop to Conservative plans to scrap the sheltered housing warden service. I am also informed that the Lib Dems "run many of our biggest cities including Liverpool, Sheffield and Bristol" where their conduct has doubtless been exemplary, although examples are not provided. Oddly enough, although the leaflet promises "real change across Britain today", there is no mention of constitutional or electoral reform and the only reference to Tony's wars is a pledge to give our boys a fairer deal.