Political noise of the week: the high-pitched screech-crunch of the gearbox in the Tory campaign failing to get into a high gear having pulled away from the starting grid with surprising vigour. First, there was the claim that senior Conservatives are anxious about the prominence given to anti-immigration rhetoric. Now we are starting to hear rumblings that Michael Howard is hogging the limelight. A risky strategy given that his personal popularity ratings are even lower than Blair's.
Of course a 'campaign falters' story gathers its own momentum because reporters go to press conferences armed with 'is it true that ..?' questions, to which an impassioned denial is still a story. More fun than writing about pensions.
But there must be only limited appetite for Michael Howard's strident fringe-whinge, and the 'Bruschetta war' being waged in the comment pages of the Guardian and our own organ, and on left-leaning blogs, is caught in a feedback loop.
What we now want to read is a robust, articulate, moderate case for Conservative government. Perhaps by a senior Tory. Norman Lamont makes a start in today's FT attacking Labour's management of the public finances, a veiled plea perhaps to his own party to fight on something other than immigration. But if there are any other sensible, non-xenophobic arguments for voting Conservative out there we're happy to listen. To get some balance, and to spice things up a bit.
But no reference to the manifesto please. We've already made our feelings about that known.
