As the debates draw near, all three of the so-called secret weapons are mounting a full frontal attack. The front cover of Private Eye, in a nice parody of Reader’s Wives, shows all three strutting their stuff, Saucy Sarah, Sexy Sam and The Other One.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Each has raised their game this week. A two pager in ES  magazine eulogising Sarah Brown describes her as ‘ the most formidable Prime Minister’s wife in living memory’. Not to be outdone ‘vampish GlamCam’ sprawls seductively across pages of the MoS, Mail and  Telegraph in a twelve year old fashion shoot conveniently ‘discovered’ in an attic.

Even the stylish Myriam Gonzalez, who backs her husband Clegg in a ‘middling sort of way’, has succumbed to appearing on television where she warns of the danger of a candidate’s wife putting together “a sugar-coated image of yourself , in the hope that it brings you votes.”

She makes a good point. But for the candidates there is a bigger danger. They are all making one of the commonest mistakes made in any presentation where the stakes are high. It’s the one where props created to aid communication become crutches that distract.  Often dubbed “vampire visuals”. 

Right now vampires in books, movies and television programmes are enjoying popularity our candidates can only dream of. The same goes for these political vampires.

And we know what vampires do to their mates………

 

 

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