Manifestly Rubbish

Not even tax cuts or conscripting teenagers can save the Tories now

The Tory manifesto launch at Silverstone achieved the impossible: it was duller than a Grand Prix. But as we reach half-way to polling day and the election campaign heads down the back straight, the Conservatives are in such dire straits that for them, a sterilised corporate function with zero public interest must feel like a win.

If there’s one thing you can say about Nigel Farage… it will be an expletive aimed at his appalling and inflammatory rhetoric. But if there’s another thing you can say about Nigel Farage, at least he is showing the courage to face actual members of the electorate as he makes his poisonous pitch. Indeed, he’s proving why other leaders don’t do walkabouts anymore, given the amount of anger and projectile-hurling that’s going on.