Significantly, on Thursday and Friday, the broadsheets contained features complaining about the maleness of the election. Quoted Labour responded speedily. Magically, women were visible on Friday. At the morning press conference, Gordon Brown was flanked by Margaret Hodge and Estelle Morris, though symbolically and physically, he remained the central figure. But something had changed.
Few issues make the news.
Among missing issues were information technology and e-commerce, though this was supposed to be the first internet election. Throughout the campaign we have been analysing use of the net. More than a third of UK households can access the internet from home. The Labour party has set up the ruup4it.org.uk site to appeal to younger voters, replete with youth-friendly graphics, celebrities, and competitions, as well as tips on whom to vote for. Paradoxically, the parties have been hugely exercised about appearing close to ordinary voters and have made much of being out on the stump among real people.