30 May 2024, 15:17

By Andrew Marr

So, after the first week of election campaigning, have we learned anything?

Absolutely: apart from the fact that the Labour polling lead seems remarkably strong and the Tories are struggling to dent ii with eye-catching policies designed for older voters, there are other interesting lessons.

Election campaigns are just normal politics on steroids, and sometimes on acid.

Although this election timing was a huge surprise, all the main parties had their plans already in place - nice, controlled, photogenic events to persuade voters about their seriousness and their interesting ideas – and in every case, these plans have been derailed, indeed whacked sideways, by events.

For the Tories, it was, of course, the - completely unpredictable - arrival of spring rain, drenching Rishi Sunak as he launched the election; then pratfalls in pubs and at the birthplace of the Titanic.........

© LBC