A couple of days ago I published a list of Ten People Who Are Having a Good Election. So you won't be suprised if I now balance things up. These are ten people who perhaps haven't had the best of times over the last month...
Gordon Brown
Needs little explanation. He's headed a hapless and shambolic campaign, committed the biggest gaffe of the campaign and looks totally worn out despite there being five days to go.
Jeremy Paxman
Having suffered with a cold for the first part of the campaign he suffered the indignity of being beaten up live on air by a Plaid Cymru economist ("Do your homework, Jeremy!"). A week after failing to land a blow on David Cameron, he repeated the experience with a knackered looking Gordon Brown during an interview on BBC1 yesterday.
Harriet Harman
Suffereed the most embarrassing interview of the campaign at the hands of Radio 5 Live's Stephen Nolan. Not afraid to step up to the mark when the going gets tough, she then appeared on the Campaign Show after Gordon Brown's 'bigot' gaffe and looked close to tears, as well as totally knackered.
Kerry McCarthy
It was bound to end in tears for one of the seemingly thickest politicians in the House of Commons. Labour's self styled Twitter czar could end up in prison for revealing the details of a postal vote count in her own consituency. She's a government whip and a lawyer, yet seems completely ignorant of basic electoral law.
Lord Pearson
He's a lovely guy, but not cut out for the rough and tumble of being a party leader. After his buttock clenching interview with Jon Sopel - so bad Sopel repeated it - his 'make it up as you go along' policy of asking people to vote Conservative in some constituencies has angered many in his party.
Vince Cable
Cable's halo was well and truly dented by the combined might of Stephanie Flanders and Andrew Neil and has also been eclipsed by his leader. Who'd have thought it? Saint Vince has become a mere politician. Just like the others.
Peter Mandelson
His dream of being Foreign Secretary is disappearing as fast as the plum coloured dye in his hair. He's run the most incompetent Labour campaign since (and possibly including 1983) and will no doubt already be preparing a strategy of how to shift the blame onto others.
Ed Balls
Blinky Balls and Labour's TV 'experts' clearly believe he is good on television. He isn't. Every appearance loses Labour more and more votes, yet he constantly appears. He might do better to spend his time in his constituency, which could be the surprise Tory win of the night.
The Internet
As I wrote in Wednesday's Telegraph, this has not been the internet election. Not that I ever thought it would be. But the impact of the internet has been even less than I predicted. OK, there have been a couple of scalps, but that's not how to measure influence. Only one say's news agenda has been dominated by an internet generated story - four days less than predicted by Derek Draper. Now, whatever happened to him?
Sue
She became the 'whipping girl' for Bigotgate, yet Sue Nye is one of the sharpest brains in the Brown entourage - not that there's a lot of competition.
