Overshadowed by the Chilean earthquake, both Labour and the Conservatives have ramped up rhetoric in the face of political fatigue and public indifference. The electorate are tired of the campaign. Both of the parties have adopted strikingly similar stances: presenting the election as a choice between their ruination and what has been achieved/what could be achieved* (please delete as appropriate) I suspect that whatever choice the electors make, a short-term outcome will be ruin.
There was, for a while, a perception of shallow difference between the two parties, as we faced a battle of “cuts versus investments” or “investments versus cuts”. This has fizzled out: replaced by a greater danger for the Conservatives. Despite the damage Brown has caused, and the deceits that he daily airs, the electorate have gifted him a cloak of authenticity; whereas Cameron, who genuinely believes in some principled politics, has been damaged by a biased media carping on about slick salesmanship. Not helped by the asinine idiocy of his 2010 campaign, he faces a fearful outcome: that Brand Cameron is too tainted to provide that poll uplift for the Tories.
So, just before the starting gun occurs (and it may be tomorrow to drown out Cameron's speech), we face a political and moral inversion: where he who is false is considered a truthteller, and he who is principled, becomes tainted by unscrupulous scandal, and hos own unforced errors.