Let’s hope gloves come off for a clanger-laden campaign

EVERY general election is billed as the most crucial in the history of the nation.

We are already being told by the party leaders the outcome of the campaign will have a tumultuous effect on the nation like nothing we have seen.

It will, they say, either make or break Britain, depending which side of the fence you occupy.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has described it as a “huge, huge” election, Tory chief David Cameron said it was “the most important election for a generation” while the Prime Minister claimed a Tory victory would worsen, and not improve, Britain’s economic problems.

Routine stuff this, as political grandees, with the crack of the starter’s pistol still echoing round their heads, gallop off to the four corners of the land to spread their message.

So far, so tame — and predictable.

But my prediction is that as the campaign develops it will deteriorate into a grubby slanging match, that could well go down in the annals as one of the ugliest political confrontations Britain has seen for decades.

Some people have even suggested it could rival the scandalous goings-on at the notorious Eatans will election in Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers.

I think that is possibly overstating the case a little, but there are distinct signs, nevertheless, that we are looking forward to a campaign where character-bashing will take precedence over policy issues.

The poster campaign, already under way, is more concerned with the personalities of Brown and Cameron than with the issues they are pursuing. Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, is already complaining that “if you want charisma, buy a ticket for the cinema”.

I think he is backing a loser. However much the politicians try to deny it, the great bulk of the voting public is far more interested in the characters of our potential leaders and in seedy gossip and scandal, gaffes and embarrassments than in, for example, education league tables and decent pay for carers — regrettable though that might be.

Just think back to past events.

One of the few things people remember about the 1992 general election is when Kinnock, as Labour leader, allegedly blew it for his party by his ham performance at the notorious Sheffield Wednesday rally at the end of that campaign.

And who could forget the occasion when Tory Oliver Letwin was effectively hidden away after getting it wrong over the Conservatives’ public spending plans?

The recent TV debate involving chancellor Alistair Darling, his shadow George Osborne, and Libe Dem Vince Cable, was tedious because they were all frightened of making a mistake.

We can only hope the forthcoming TV show of the three party leaders will be bolder, brasher and more daring than that.

It would be a pity if this campaign progressed without anyone dropping a serious clanger.

Indeed, it would be more than a pity. It would be unique.