Blog: Like the Budget, election manifestos are leaked (or more accurately briefed) to such an extent nowadays that they cease to become “news” in the accepted sense of the word.

So by the time Gordon Brown got to his feet in Birmingham yesterday, newspapers and broadcasters had dissected the manifesto, and Labour’s political opponents had rubbished it.

The practice of pre-briefing means that when an “announcement” is made, just as much prominence is given to the responses as it is to the “news”.

As a consequence, there will be very little news during this election campaign unless a politician throws a punch at a protester or the Prime Minister is ambushed by a member of the public as Tony Blair was by Sharon Storer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in 2001. Mrs Storer’s unscripted complaint completely overshadowed Labour’s election campaign launch, but at least Blair stood there and took it instead of running away.

Labour chose to go to the new, not-yet-open QE Hospital to launch their manifesto. Mr Brown’s performance was steady, but hardly inspirational.

Where was the oomph?

I lost count of the number of times that Mr Brown said “we are in the future business”. The word “future” cropped up 17 times. Even more irritating was the cartoon which Labour has launched on YouTube in the hope that supporters will forward it to their friends. As far as I could see, the main message seemed to be “Save the Hedgehog”.

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Today it’s the Tories’ turn, and David Cameron was again pledging his personal commitment to the NHS, and promising to hand Power to the People.

What would John Lennon have said?

The Conservative choice of venue was Battersea power station, which has been nothing but a shell since the early Thatcher era.

But we’re still not sure what to call the Tory leader. Samantha and former Eton schoolmate Dominic West from The Wire call him Dave. Mr Cameron’s mother and William Hague call him David, but Mr Hague had a good line last night: “In a few weeks’ time I hope to be calling him Prime Minister.”

By John Hipwood