Jam today

Above: "The rule is jam yesterday or jam tomorrow, but never jam today" (Lewis Carroll).

This is the week that most political parties are publishing their manifestos. Labour have produced a "Blair-Plus" manifesto that emphasises their delivery of jam yesterday. The Conservatives are offering jam tomorrow. No-one is promising jam today.



Above: the front cover of today's Guardian.

Personally I am attracted to the Conservative programme. In particular their promises to devolve power down to local communities, including use of local referendums and election of local officials. Unsure whether they would extend these rights to Scottish communities (it would certainly pull the rug out from under the SNP - and the SNP could hardly oppose the principle of devolution).



Above: Kevin Maguire writing in today's Daily Mirror damns Gordon Brown with faint praise, giving him only an outside chance of winning. The campaign poses a problem for left-of-centre journalists. Although they want to encourage Labour's supporters they do not want to lose personal credibility by getting their predictions wrong.



Above: the Guardian is less hesitant. Not sure if Julian Glover wrote this headline himself. He very rarely gets things wrong.