The MT Diary: Howard Davies

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Hail an election year; Bank's bare mantelpiece; ghost of chancellors past; charity match.

It's election year. Probably. Let joy be unconfined. Hours and hours of perfectly balanced three-way analysis to look forward to. Synthetic Newsnight anger from Jeremy Paxperson. In-depth forensic interviews by John Humphrys with Teresa May. A new crop of party political broadcasts, confected by the finest ad agencies in the land - or at least in Soho. Mori poll upon Yougov survey will illuminate the enlightened, and sometimes the baser, self-interests of the electorate.

Perhaps you can hardly wait for the fun to begin. If so, you are unlike anyone I have talked to in recent weeks. They see this election as a match between a team that has done enough to lose and one that has not done enough …