Very occasionally in politics things turn out to be as they seem. This may prove true of Britain’s election campaign. The players are waiting anxiously for something to happen — for the tide to break right for David Cameron’s Conservatives or left for Ed Miliband’s Labour. The voters are looking ever more stubborn in a determination not to confer governing authority on either of the UK’s two big parties.
There is still time enough for what Donald Rumsfeld famously called unknown unknowns to disturb the ground, but the cement is hardening. The ballot paper for May 7 does not include a box marked “hung parliament” or “coalition” but the polls, resolutely flat for months, suggest stalemate is the settled choice of the nation. I cannot recall when voters last showed such studied indifference to the clamour and clatter of an election campaign.
Yet there have been some things to learn from the past few weeks. The goal of modern political campaigning is to shut out real people while conveying precisely the opposite impression on the television news. Everything is controlled and choreographed, with loyal activists dressed down as “floating voters”. And yet, for all this process of sterilisation, something of the character of the players finds a way through. Remember Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama in the 2008 US presidential primaries?