Apparently They're Off....

So after the huge news frenzy today it is safe to say that we all know the election officially kicked off. A couple of news broadcasters, including the BBC officially started the race with the exhilarating headline, “And they're off!” Sadly I am not so sure that this will be the most exciting election of all time. The news reporters are desperately trying to Jazz it up with ideas that it is impossible to tell who will win at this stage. Fair play to them for this, forgetting that it is obviously great for their ratings if we do all think the election is exciting, at least it might get people to turn up. The fact is that we don’t know the outcome; it is yet to be decided whether the Tories will have a majority, or a slightly less majority. Of course, the slightly less will mean ‘hung parliament’ which we are all very excited about – especially Gordon Brown. To be honest the difference between a Tory Government and a slightly less Tory Government doesn’t infuse me with too much excitement, though I am sure the days after a hung election will be quite good TV.

The boredom that this election can potentially saturate us with is furthered when we look over the fighting ground. This election will not be run on ideology or values (if those silly ideas exist within either party), instead this election will be run on numbers. How much the deficit can be cut by? How much spending can be dropped? And how much will taxes be raised? Not only is this rather dull unless you happen to be an economist or statistician, but its not exactly an exhilarating battleground. Both parties will promise deficit cuts, both will promise to drop spending and both will raise taxes. The exhilarating battlegrounds we have to look forward to is by how much they will do these things…again, not infused.

The idea that a discussion over the restoration of faith in politics may take place is almost enough to gain my interest, but that is quickly taken away when I realize we are debating expenses. I understand that it needs to be solved and yes it needs to be solved openly so we can ‘trust’ them again. Who ever heard of trusting politicians anyway! What I don’t understand is what is left to debate? Yes, Cameron will clean up politics, yes so will Brown, I am sure Clegg will soon…hell even BNP will…not much of a debate there.

When it comes down to it “It’s the economy stupid…” is very true in this election, sadly we are not going to see the Keynes vs Smith debate we might hope for. Instead, we have Brown vs Cameron…debating deficits...I can hardly wait!