British general election (15): today’s the day and it couldn’t be closer
The front page article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper summarises the position this morning:
“Britain is heading for a second hung parliament in succession after the most drawn-out election campaign since the war appeared to be ending in near deadlock with Labour and the Conservatives tied at 35% each according to the preliminary results of the final Guardian/ICM campaign poll.
Ed Miliband’s party has pulled back three points on ICM’s previous campaign poll, published nine days ago, with the Conservatives remaining unchanged. Previous ICM surveys had reported Conservative leads, ranging from six to two points.
Labour’s recovery appears to have been helped by a last-week squeeze at the political fringe: Ukip and the Greens both slip back two points, to 11% and 3% respectively.
The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 9%, a buoyant Scottish National party climbs one to a Britain-wide score of 5%. Plaid Cymru are on 1%, and other minor parties are also on 1%.
The Conservatives are still predicting that their dominant message warning against a Miliband government dependent on the votes of the Scottish nationalists will sway the many undecided voters as they enter the polling booths on Thursday.
But on the basis of the ICM survey so far, the long-promised swing back to the Conservatives in the final 72 hours before the election, the central pillar of the strategy organised by Lynton Crosby, David Cameron’s campaign manager, has not materialised.”
If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to vote now …