Case of the missing Mail columnists

Sunday must have been a day of crashing disappointment for readers of The Mail on Sunday, when the regular column by Peter Hitchens failed to appear.

The Hitch is way out on the right of British politics. He is the sort of hard-line Tory who might rather see Conservatives go down to defeat than have David Cameron convert the party to hoodie-hugging. On the Sunday before the 2010 election, Hitchens exhorted true Conservatives not to vote Conservative. “I beg and plead with you not to fall for the shimmering, greasy, cynical fraud which is the Cameron project”.

His last column, on 26 April, accused Michael Gove and George Osborne of acting like “student politicians” engaging in “the tail-coated silly-clever struggles of the Oxford Union”. Then, suddenly, last Sunday’s edition appeared without the Hitch. If he had any final thoughts on “the most fraudulent general election I have ever experienced” they were not shared with his readers.

The Daily Mail also has a star columnist on its staff in Simon Heffer. He too is way out on the right and holds Cameron in fiery contempt. He has not had a word published during this election, so far as I can tell.

Surely the Mail and Mail on Sunday would not censor their own star columnists just to help Cameron’s re-election prospects. Or would they?

Video: What might happen after May 7?

Quote of the Day

“Always have someone to proof read your leaflet.”

Twitter advice from James Duddridge, Tory candidate in Rochford and Southend East, after one his leaflets carried the bold headline: “It’s Erection Day.”

Their biblical doppelgangers

I can’t think that any of the men who lead political parties will be happy with the outcome of a survey commissioned by the Bible Society. It asked 1,179 Christians to specify which biblical character each leader most resembled. You might think Ed Miliband would be Moses, after having his pledges carved in stone – but the respondents likened him to Jacob, the younger brother who usurped the birth right.

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Andrew Hawkins (ComRes) “The sclerotic, negative and risk-averse campaigns from the two main parties make it hard to see how much can alter. So, my prediction is the same – Tories get most votes, but Labour better placed to form a government. Then a long spell of political and perhaps constitutional chaos.” Andrew Hawkins In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Joe Twyman (YouGov) “‘The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.’ So begins the film version of Lord of the Rings. – which is, of course, the famous tale of an epic journey culminating in the final battle between good and evil. The world of British politics has certainly changed. “With a few days still to go I expect that more change could still occur, but it is likely to be minor and the national level and more concentrated on the ground in the key marginal constituencies where the Hold Your Nose or Cut It Off to Spite Your Face™ message pushes home. I expect the Conservatives to be the beneficiaries, but it will not be anything like enough to make a difference to the overall result.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Ben Page (Ipsos MORI) “As the only pollster to correctly predict a hung parliament last time – and then foolishly change my prediction when I saw ALL the others were saying a Conservative majority – I am going to say hung parliament again. With more Conservative than Labour seats. The SNP won’t wipe out the Labour Party completely in Scotland but will get them down to single figures. The Lib Dems will out perform their poll numbers and should get circa 26 seats – or more. Ukip will be delighted with four seats at most, probably fewer.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Rick Nye (Populus) “Tories largest party, comfortably.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Nick Moon (GfK) “SNP now 50, Ukip 2; Tories to be largest party in votes and seats, but still a Labour minority government.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Damian Lyons Lowe (Survation) “Conservatives – I’m upgrading my seats prediction to 270-280 from 260-280. Labour – downgrading again to 265-275, based on the SNPs’ continued surge and Conservatives doing better in our seat-voting question as the election draws near and views are localised: SNP 45; Lib Dems 30; Ukip 6; Green 1; Respect 1. Ed Miliband will be the next prime minister.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Michelle Harrison (TNS) “We enter the last few days of this campaign pretty much where we started. This election represents what happens when a country is not confident about its economic future, unsure of its place in the world, and fed up with the state of its politics. “The political stalemate at the centre, and the fragmentation of the traditional party system, has left us with a set of polls incapable of telling what will ultimately happen, when there are so many potential scenarios. What we can feel confident about though is that Thursday will be a seismic night for politics in Scotland. When the votes are counted, we expect the Tories to be the largest party, but that Labour should still have the greatest chance of forming a government. But how do we measure the advantage for the Conservatives of already being in No 10 in the days after the general election? The real drama will start on Friday.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 James Endersby (Opinium Research) “We saw some movement to the Tories, but the two big parties are back to being neck and neck with the Conservatives a hair’s breadth ahead. How this translates into seats or a coalition is unclear but based on our numbers we’d put the Conservatives ahead of Labour on vote share but the two parties within 10 seats of each other in the new House of Commons. The maths here gives Ed Miliband more options than David Cameron, so it might be sensible for voters to look up Ramsay MacDonald when trying to make sense of the result!” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Martin Boon (ICM) “The Tories appear to have developed a little momentum, which may or may not make any difference. I sense the now traditional herding of pollsters has begun, and the polls will coalesce around a Tory lead of between two and six points. I’ll guess at 36 per cent for the Tories and 32 per cent for Labour. The fight for third place could go either way. Beyond that I just don’t know what will happen and defer to the academics and gamblers when it comes to seat projections, and indeed when it comes to who on earth is going to form our next government. I’d like to apologise to Independent on Sunday readers for fence-sitting, but as I’ve said repeatedly of late: How should I know? I’m only a pollster.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Lord Ashcroft (Lord Ashcroft Polls) He refuses to make predictions. “My polls are snapshots, not predictions.” Rex

David Cameron was seen as King Saul, who was ousted by someone more dynamic. Nick Clegg was Judas Iscariot. And Nigel Farage was Herod, murderer of the first born.

Respondents were kinder to the women leaders. Nicola Sturgeon was Deborah, the warrior prophet, Leanne Wood was Esther, who rose to be queen of a foreign land, and Natalie Bennett was Eve.

Dodgy party lines

Last month, the Greens had to postpone the launch of their billboards because the contractor could not guarantee they would be in place on time. Yesterday, the phone lines at campaign HQ packed up. The next thing will be Natalie Bennett remembering what she was going to say on LBC. That will be the real disaster.

Decisions, decisions

“Ukip is a people’s party,” William Routley, a former Newport councillor, announced last December after his appearance at Ukip’s Welsh conference.

Routley was a Labour councillor who defected to the Tories, lost his seat, and defected to Ukip. Now he has defected back to the Conservatives. “I’m back with my political family,” he told the South Wales Argus.