What are the parties trying to tell voters in their leaflets?

What’s the point of political leaflets, anyway? Many voters in target seats will be asking that very question on an almost daily basis, as they shovel the latest snowdrifts of election literature into their recycling bin. We have social media, party election broadcasts and phone banks to reach voters. Who needs leaflets?

There is a (I believe only half-serious) ‘test’ that some Liberal Democrat campaigners apply to the amount of information they think it is possible for a voter to absorb from a leaflet they’re carrying from the letterbox to the bin. Given the parties keep sending them, particularly in those marginal seats where it’s just not clear where the result is going to go, it’s worth having a look at what they think is going to appeal to voters as they trudge once more to the bin.

I’ve been asking voters all over the country to send me the election literature that comes through their letterbox over the past few weeks, and have been poring over the messages from the three main parties to find out what their version of passing the bin test would look like.