Starmer advances on the Tory countryside with his flag of

Labour’s clockwork campaigning may not light wavering voters’ fires but the attack-style symbolism was unmistakable

The meta we now take for granted. Events that take place purely because people expect events to take place. Hours of planning for each one. A venue to be booked. Activists to be bussed in to provide local colour. All of whom will become part of the background so we could be almost anywhere. The meta tipping into the surreal. Events that will be forgotten even before they are over. Unlikely to make much more than a 20-second clip on the rolling news channels.

But elections abhor a vacuum. Without a daily stream of events, the politicians would be lost. Lose their sense of purpose. Just imagine if none of the broadcasters turned up. It would throw everyone into a deeper than usual existential crisis. The crumbling of the fragile ego. Was anyone really here? Did it even happen? The metaphysical world would be in chaos.

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