This has, I think we can all agree, been the most stage-managed election ever. Nobody on a soap box, no punches thrown, no bigoted women. Just a seamless marathon of national messaging that starts with the Today programme and ends with Newsnight.
It is the regional media, however, that feels the iron grip of the parties’ media machines the most. We work where voters actually live. So how we are treated during political visits can be revealing. And Labour, most regional reporters seem to agree, seem to have chilled out.
Ed Miliband and other senior Labour figures are freely giving up their time. We do get asked what sort of thing we might ask, but often only just beforehand – and if we lob in a curveball it is calmly batted back, without a frantic press officer shouting us down. They’ll even do it while being filmed.
Of all the leaders so far, Miliband has come closest to meeting real people in a real setting here: earlier this week he did a long question and answer session with students at Manchester Metropolitan University, with only a handful of Labour room-meat packed in alongside.
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