´óÏó´«Ã½

for the image of sunshine over a wheatfield on the big screen behind Gordon Brown at a press conference:

"If I'm kind, I would say that it looked like a shampoo commercial; others might judge that it seemed more like an advert for Dignitas."

that Mr Brown is a man of many smiles:

"Brown sat next to his wife. He smiled at her. It was a quite normal smile. Clearly he has one for family, and another for best - the one that resembles a vampire who has just seen dawn breaking."

At the Tories' manifesto launch, by the hairstyles:

"There was a lot of public-school hair on display - young men who needed a trip to the barber - and toothpastey optimism. Pretty youths mingled alongside Shadow Cabinet members. Sir George Young, Bart., looked a bit baffled, his few strands of hair untidy like a pineapple's top-knot."

that David Cameron's manifesto "invitation" to the electorate is evidence that times have changed:

"In the old days, an invitation might consist of a stiff card bearing the words 'At Home', but nowadays it is the done thing to send out a hardback book of 118 pages."

But that the occasion itself lived up to much:

"[T]here is something about the Tories. They just don't do excitement. The audience - media on one side, party members on the other - were up for inspiration. What they got was the shadow cabinet."

by the Lib Dems' choice of venue for their manifesto launch:

"If I were to be kind, I would say this event was at the cutting edge of austerity chic and that it had a sort of Quaker-like simplicity. But actually it was just flat. No razzmatazz, no music, no sense of excitement, just a few MPs sitting at the front of the aquarium, looking doleful, with bubbles coming out of their mouths."

there is a danger of Vince Cable's role being confused:

"He is playing the role of wife to Nick Clegg, since he is his constant companion, and like Sam and Sarah more popular than the chap they're with."

As Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg took to the floor for the first prime ministerial TV debate, by the whole experience:

"Each man had been stuffed full of telling lines and was bursting to deliver as many as possible of them in the allotted time. Just to watch them straining every sinew to do each other down was getting a bit fatiguing. There is a reason why Prime Minister's Questions lasts only half an hour, and boxing matches do not go on for ever."

the actual event, if not those taking part:

"Maybe Gordon Brown was a bit of a copy-cat, repeatedly grunting 'absolutely'. Maybe David Cameron's face was a bit too John West salmon a colour. Maybe that Clegg man gassed on too much, wiggling his head as though he was a breakdancer.
"But the whole thing was zestier than US presidential debates. Better TV."

how, towards the end of the debate, spin doctors were let loose on the journalists who were present in Manchester:

"There was a slight sense of sulphur in the air in the Manchester media room; surely the Iceland volcano couldn't have got here so quickly? No, it was Peter Mandelson gliding into the hall."