Admit it — none of the parties is offering you what you want at this election | thearticle

It was something of a contest as to who had the worse time last week, the Labour Party or the BBC. The correct answer is probably the Lib Dems. Jeremy Corbyn had a “car crash” interview with

Andrew Neil, and shortly after that it was revealed that Boris Johnson didn’t want to face the same forensic grilling. He turned up on the Andrew Marr show instead, where the interviewer

did his best, but it was nothing like the Neil interview. I’m a big supporter of the BBC. But they have had a terrible election so far and they will need to have a real think about why that

is. We desperately need well-rooted, unbiased political coverage and, when it gets it right, the BBC is brilliant at this. Electioncast has been one of my go-to sources of election news. But

elsewhere the Beeb has been unable to cope with a party as willing to behave as badly as the Tories. This has not been a good election for anyone. The voters don’t seem to be so much

enthused as bored, tired, cynical and desperate for all politicians to just go away. You can see why. No party is covering itself in glory. The Lib Dem campaign has gone backwards faster

than its pledge to cut tuition fees. Jo Swinson has made the same mistake as Theresa May. By putting a big picture of her on a bus and personalising the campaign, it makes it a lot harder if

voters then decide they don’t really like you. Labour has a huge raft of policies in its manifesto, but that amounts to nothing if the voters don’t trust you. In Corbyn they have a

phenomenally unpopular leader who, unlike in 2017, hasn’t managed to change the electorate’s mind about him. Labour is dogged by stories of anti-Semitism and Cobyn’s failure to get anything

resembling a grip on it. Labour also seems to have lost the optimism of its last campaign. Back then, the focus was on messages that would help the many, whereas here the focus has been much

more on punishing the few. It fires up their activists, but it doesn’t feel like it will have the same effect on the electorate. The truth is, despite the fact that none of these campaigns

really deserve to win, no party deserves to lose as much as the Tories. People think that all politicians lie, but it’s actually not true. Sure they will always find the best gloss to put on

any situation or policy, but they don’t generally flat out lie. But with this campaign, the Tories have taken the voters and the media for mugs. Constantly. The Prime Minister is an

inveterate liar. He has a relationship with the truth comparable to his relationship with women. He has no respect for either. And this week he’s standing alongside Donald Trump, with whom

he is frequently compared, and it gives a strong visual cue for voters as to what Johnson really is. Nato summits used to make Prime Ministers look statesmanlike. But that was when the UK

and US were led by statesmen. Now — well, just look at them. The Tories have almost no policies in their slimmed-down manifesto, but base their messaging solely on the insistence that they

will “Get Brexit done”. Brexit won’t be done by the time of the next election, and no amount of posturing about it will make the more complex part of negotiating a trade deal any easier. As

the polls tighten, the electorate seems to be clear that none of the parties have given them enough reason to vote for them. The Lib Dems have been squeezed out of the conversation. The

Tories and Labour are not trusted. It may well be that we will go into Christmas with a Parliament that looks remarkably like the one the election was meant to change.