A Question Time audience member has underlined the growing frustration with the sanitised election campaign, asking a Tory minister if he had caught the “repetitive cliche virus” from Theresa May.
The strict messaging of the Conservative Party’s campaign has involved focussing on pitting May versus Jeremy Corbyn, warning of a ‘coalition of chaos’ of Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems, and urging instead to back a ‘strong and stable’ Tory government.
The UK seemed to reach peak ‘strong and stable’ on Thursday afternoon.
The sentiment continued during the flagship BBC politics show, which came from Oxford. Addressing pensions minister Damian Green, who was on the panel, he said:
“Can we please have a grown-up election? I bet my wife 10 pounds that Damian Lewis (sic) would say ‘coalition of chaos’ and ‘strong and stable government’ as his first contribution.”
He added:
“Has he caught the repetitive cliche virus from his boss? Please let’s have a more grown-up debate where we use the language of Shakespeare with a bit more flexibility.”