Are the Tories Getting There?

Nick Clegg is worried enough to call David Cameron's arrogance 'breathtaking' - by which he means he is very concerned that Cameron might be able to get into No.10 without him. David Cameron's campaigning is getting more and more frenetic, with a 24 hour slot being promised tomorrow, although I have no idea who he thinks he's going to be campaigning to at 3 in the morning. Maybe he'll be in some red light district trying to make up for his candidates' moralistic tendency.

The latest poll has Cameron's Tories gaining a 7% swing in 57 key marginals, which would, so the polling statisticians assure us, put them into a 2 seat majority. Hmmm. Not substantial - he might be advised to check out some private medical insurance for the more elderly returned MPs of which, thankfully for his sanity, there are remarkably few following the expenses clear-out. What does seem to be happening is a gradual - very gradual - shift towards Cameron, occasioned in part by the inevitable momentum that accompanies a likely winner, and also by the stubborn failure of the 'Clegg Bounce' to materialise into anything too substantial. Seems that first debate was simply a reminder of Clegg's existence, and not the harbinger of a new British political wunderkind after all. And Cameron does seem to enjoy campaigning, in contrast to Brown who loathes it, and Clegg who is determinedly wooden and humourless. At least, I think he's humourless, but he did call earlier today for "an end to Lord Ashdown", which might have been intended as an amusing comment on his predecessor. Or he might just have mis-pronounced Ashcroft.