Blog: You have to wonder about the strategies followed by the major parties during the election campaign, writes John Hipwood.

Gordon Brown, for instance, has been banging on virtually non-stop about child tax credits and what those nasty Tories and Liberal Democrats would do to them.

But what about the grey vote, those people at the other end of the age scale who, according to the National Pensioners Convention, have been largely ignored over the past four weeks?

Ignoring 11 million older voters would seem to be a bit barmy especially as they are the one sector of society who reliably turn up at polling stations on election day.

Dot Gibson, general secretary of the NPC, reckons that the needs of older voters are ignored because politicians believe they are set in their voting patterns and can’t be classed among the floaters who will decide the result on Thursday. “Politicians often take the so-called ‘grey vote’ for granted,” said Mrs Gibson. “If older people never change their allegiances then the major parties don’t feel obliged to offer them anything in return.”

So the pensioners’ champion has a simple message for Britain’s oldies: “For real political power they have got to be prepared to back those candidates that support substantially higher state pensions, free care and an end to fuel poverty.”

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Talking of the grey vote, one of the most glamorous politicians in the land, former Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd, has made a very interesting foray into the campaign by declaring that the case for electoral reform is now “unanswerable”.

The former Labour MP for West Bromwich West, who, in keeping with tradition, sits as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords, is concerned that, with the opinion polls still pointing to a hung parliament, a party with perhaps only one third of the nation’s support could end up running the country.

“Many millions of votes, perhaps more than ever before in living memory, may count for nothing on Thursday and the result will not reflect the nation’s will,” she said.

“The next Government, whatever its composition, will have to make difficult decisions to overcome our economic difficulties and carry the country with it. A grossly unrepresentative Parliament will make that task much harder.

“The 21st century has no place for a system in which millions of voters are ignored because our elections are stacked against them. Such unfairness fosters disillusion and invites anarchy.”

Baroness Boothroyd said there must be no return to “business as usual” at Westminster after the election.

“The last Parliament disgraced itself and betrayed the country’s trust by its behaviour. The nation will not tolerate a repetition,” she added.

Nick Clegg will be rubbing his hands over her comments.

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Ross Kemp will be hammering home Labour’s final “Stop Cameron” election message on television this evening — not in EastEnders but in an election broadcast.

“Ultimately, this election is about who is the person to look after you and your family for the next five years, not who you would like to go for a pint with,” says the actor.

Who can he be thinking of?