The vicious cycle

Nick Assinder wrote yesterday that "If it looks like an election campaign and sounds like an election campaign then it is understandable people believe it IS an election campaign", an he is right, it is an election campaign but he misses a very important point. This is the permanent election campaign, it began as soon as Blair's timetable for leaving began. Why? Because the media have talked up an election campaign since that point also, every reporting of the polls is used to suggest when an election will take place and who will win. Hence Brown and Cameron are both engaged in a permanent campaign for public support as any shift in the poll is reported as an indictment of them as leaders and future prime ministers.

I describe this simply, as per the above diagram, the problem is that this sort of reporting drives cynicism and boredom. Why do the public want an election, because every bored political editor is using this as the hook to make a political story exciting; and around the cycle goes!