Election weary voters face months of petty party posturing with Bottling Brown clinging on until the bitter end. The electorate is being forced to suffer months of meaningless drivel as Downing Street tries to brownbeat the public into submission.
The Orange Party has finally emerged with a monumental hangover after being stranded in a remote snow bound North Yorkshire Moors inn over New Year. Heaven.
Meanwhile, the country has emerged from a decade of disaster and failure, leaving behind a miserable legacy of a stagnant economy, grotesque national debt, horrendous job losses, big government, nanny state and a petty politically correct culture.
New Labour's deceitful con-trick of all style over substance has been exposed as a cheap stunt with has cost the nations dearly. The individual has been forced to play second fiddle to big government.
At last the public can boot out the demons. But not before being force-fed New Labour's last roll of a dirty, dodgy dice in the fog of a phoney war. It only takes a few 'events' to screw up the carefully-planned election grid.
The State and a New Labour government have become disgracefully intertwined. The government thinks it is the state. Through a mixture of arrogance and petulance Brown and his cronies will cling on because 'New Labour knows best'.
Cameron faces a monumental task to unravel the mess.
As Oborne points out: "The New Labour ruling class now has key placemen and women in the civil service, the voluntary sector, the legal profession, the arts world, the intelligence services, the BBC and the quango state which has passed outside democratic control and yet controls so much of our public life."
Cash-strapped New Labour goes into the campaign with the lead weight of Billy-no-mates Brown around their necks, dragging them down with every twist and turn.
The struggling Supreme Leader is left all on his lonesome with only cabinet couple Balls and Cooper for comfort. Labour loyalist, Barry Sheerman, summed up the mood of the Party, repeating his call for Bunkered Brown to quit. But does New Labour have a Plan B?
Polices, U-turns and rapid rebuttals are coming thick and fast with New Labour and Tories competing with publicity stunts and a relentless round of claims and counter claims. All the old favourites are there - expect MPs' sordid love affair with expenses.
Today the Tories focused on a focus group favourite of the NHS to gave the public a first glimpse of a manifesto.
Dreadful Darling set the tone for New Labour, trying to demolish Tory spending plans with what Tories claimed was a "dodgy dossier full of lies". A document drawn up by taxpayer-funded civil servants from FOI requests in Darling's own treasury. What a cheek. All a bit rich considering the vagueness of New Labour’s own spending plans.
Fortunately much of the media isn't buying into New Labour’s spinning line. As Forsyth has pointed out: "When Darling was challenged by the BBC's Nick Robinson to name a single department that would be exempt from cuts under a re-elected Labour government, Darling dodged the question."
In the final 150 or so days, the Orange Party will be looking for cracks and cover-ups. Will the Blairite plotters strike in the January window? When will Mandy stop sulking and come out of hiding? Will he stick in the knife? Will warmongering Blair hit the campaign trail or is he now a liability along with Bunkered Brown?
The Tories stand or fall on Cameron. An heir to Blair or son of Thatcher? Will a great asset in Cuddly Ken be used more, despite the glaring differences? Will Cameron have the guts to drop a couple of weakest links?
Opinion polls will now come into their own but should be treated with a dose of scepticism. Dodgy weightings smack of push polls to sway undecided voters.
If polls do show a consistent magic double digit Tory lead, then Cameron is home and dry. If not then a hung parliament may well be on the cards.
What's certain is that neither Cameron nor Clegg would stomach more of the same old New Labour. And that means whatever the outcome, Brown and his side kick Balls have only a few months left in office.
New Labour's 1997 campaign was a masterstroke of political strategy to capture political power from a public drawn from all walks of life. But the politics of false hope and discredited optimism are over. The public wants a trusted, pragmatic, no nonsense, small government, devoid of spin over substance.
The brutal fact is New Labour has been in office for far too long and run out of steam. After 13 years of misery they have achieving nothing and destroyed a lot. What reasonable person would possibly vote New Labour back in for more?
The country cannot go on like this for much longer. It's time for change. The longer the fag-end government and Beleaguered Brown draw out the electioneering, the more bitter, angry and frustrated the electorate will become.
Top picture: Private Eye
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