e have arguably become over-accustomed to telegenic, managerial slickness in election campaigns. Hooray, then, for the 2024 iteration of the Conservative party, whose campaign so far – with its drowned-rat Downing Street launch, eye-rolling audiences, photographs next to Exit signs, callbacks to the sinking of the Titanic and general air of hapless slapstick – seems determined to ignore the conventions of modern electioneering in favour of reanimating politics as pure cringe comedy.
Presenter Julie Etchingham finds herself standing on a set that looks as if it’s been repurposed very quickly from the debate’s supporting act, Beat the Chasers. She will have her work cut out. It’s seemed clear from recent editions of Prime Minister’s Questions that these two men genuinely don’t like each other.