Capitalist democracy at its worst

The only moments in the current election that have produced any excitement or interest have been the debates between the party leaders. It was the one moment that the party campaign managers couldn't finely control.

What has been remarkable about this election is how the major party leaders have avoided contact with the general public. They have been determined to avoid Gordon Brown's Gillian Duffy moment when Brown described a voter as a "bigot". Time was when Harold Wilson relished putting down hecklers. Today a heckler wouldn't get within a mile of Cameron, Clegg or Miliband.

During the debates, the three anti-austerity candidates - Leanne Wood, of Plaid Cymru; Natalie Bennett, of the Green Party; and Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP - wiped the floor with the leaders of the establishment parties. By the end, a sizeable proportion of English voters wanted to know if they could vote for the SNP.

We now have the absurd situation of those who proclaim their devotion to the United Kingdom doing their best to delegitimise one section of it. The SNP represent more than 40% of the Scottish population and to pretend they have no place in the UK's government is a recipe for independence.

Nicola Sturgeon was the clear winner of the debates as she promised to make an honest man of Miliband. Never was it truer that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Politics has been reduced to eliminating the deficit, even though taxes for the rich will be cut (Cameron, Clegg). Miliband has decided to blunt the Tory attack by getting his surrender in first. He accepts that everything should be costed first (as if government is simply a matter of a train with a fixed timetable).

I wonder what Clement Attlee, perhaps our least-charismatic prime minister would have done, if he had been expected to cost his proposals. Britain was bankrupt after the Second World War. It was forced to go cap in hand to the United States for a $3 billion loan and it had been forced to accept, in the days of the sterling pool, the convertability of sterling with other currencies (which, in 1947, led to a run on the pound before being withdrawn).