D minus 36 and counting… A campaign diary

They don’t tell you where you’re going on the Big-Blue-Battle-Bus until the night before, and even then they don’t tell you why.

So when they said Wolverhampton and Leeds, to Marston’s brewery and a Britvic soft-drinks factory respectively, I wondered what on earth was the theme? Refreshing the parts other parties can’t reach? Lipsmackingthirstquenching...etc...Tories!

It all became clear with the morning papers. There on the front page of the Daily Telegraph was a letter signed by 103 businessmen endorsing Conservative economic plans, and among the signatories were the bosses of...you guessed it, Marston’s brewery and Britvic soft drinks. That is how campaigning works.

The Tories could hardly contain themselves, especially the bit where five big name business supporters of New Labour had switched sides, among them Duncan Bannatyne, the shouty Scottish one off Dragon’s Den.

Labour yawned loudly, and said ‘of course they’re all Tories’, but in the battle for the morning headlines across radio and TV they had definitely lost out.

So we watched the Prime Minister and Chancellor do their thing with a lot of big beer barrels, and were given a chance to grill them on what this all meant. Well, not grill exactly: one question each for the correspondents of the three big networks and that was our lot. Imagine if Jeremy Paxman had to work under these conditions.

Watch the full report from the campaign trail here:

Mr Cameron hasn’t yet had a ride in the bus. George Osborne came aboard this afternoon for the trip up North and was suitable impressed at the comfort of it all.

But then he gets to ride in a sealed off bubble in the back with a single black leather seat that wraps - private-jet style - around the whole of the rear-end. He and his team know nothing of the struggles up front, the daily battle fought by a BBC correspondent with a hot-drinks machine that won’t supply hot-water for a herbal tea. It’s tough on the road.

Debate day tomorrow, so the bus is working short-hours only. Not that I can tell you where we’re going, of course. Nor even where the debate is happening, a closely guarded secret until 10pm tonight. Need to know basis, and all that. Don’t ask me why.