Star comment: A slip can cost the keys to No 10

For the Conservative and Labour top brass, this is a time of fear – one slip, one false move, one word out of place, and they could blow it.

Or is it time to risk everything in the hope of getting an advantage and breaking the deadlock?

We have done our own online survey of Shropshire Star readers which is allowing us to assess the level of movement since we did a similar survey in February.

The results in surveys like this can never be definitive, but they are interesting and something to mull over. A huge proportion, 97 per cent, say they are going to vote.

So much for those claims that the electorate are not engaged any more and are consumed by apathy.

Looked at in the round, our survey results are better news for Labour than the Conservatives. If the Tories thought that Ed Miliband would implode during the campaign and lose all credibility, they have got it wrong, so far as our respondents are concerned.

Who is the most effective party leader? Miliband is up 10 points, David Cameron is down seven, compared to the responses to the same question in February. Nigel Farage is static.

Then we come to the issues which people think are most important. The Tories have been banging on in the campaign about the economy with a message which could be summarised as "don't let Labour mess it up." In our latest survey, there has been a slight drop in the proportion who see the economy as most important.

Yet when it comes to the NHS, the future of which has been a major weapon wielded by Labour, it is four points up as an important issue.

There has been no movement on what might be called the devolution question.

Shropshire is not the UK, but then again it is representative of something, and a strand of opinion. By and large Salopians are seeing, hearing, and reading about the General Election in much the same way as everybody else.

An interpretation of our survey which would be reasonable is that Labour has enjoyed the better campaign so far. And to misquote a famous political slogan, the Conservative campaign isn't working.