OK, we're down to the wire: with 55 hours until the polls close, it's about warnings and exhortations, not policy wranglings. But it's still disappointing to see the parties turn to celebrity endorsements as they try to win over the last undecideds.
The Conservatives persuaded Coronation Street stalwart William Roache to endorse them yesterday, the Lib Dems have paraded Greg Dyke and Claire Rayner at their press conferences, and Labour's final election broadcast tonight urges viewers to take Melinda Messenger's views on childcare into account when deciding how to vote. David Tennant, Beverley Knight, Richard Wilson and Patrick Stewart are drafted in to repeat the party's "If you value it, vote for it," slogan.
If celebrities think they can encourage the bored and idle to vote - well, good for them. It's arguably only when you've resolved to vote that you start taking the choice seriously. But a politician's role at election time is to persuade voters of the merits of their policies and their ability to carry them out. When they delegate it to actors and agony aunts, they weaken the vital link between the promises made in campaigning and the job done in government. It's a cop-out.
