the sound of one politician clapping

Witness the zen theatre of the political photo-call:

THE plan was simple - get dozens of Tory activists to speak into megaphones all at the same time, illustrating the party's desire to be Scotland's "voice" at Holyrood.

David Cameron, the party leader, and Annabel Goldie, its Scottish leader, were posing for pictures, waiting for the cacophony of noise to break out from the ranks of activists behind them: but nothing happened. There was no "voice". Then someone realised none of the megaphones worked because no-one had put in any batteries.

You also know you're in a moderate amount of trouble when you have to explain your slogans:

The real aim of yesterday's launch was for Mr Cameron to announce the party's election slogan: "Your Voice in Parliament". The idea is to give the impression that the Conservatives speak up for the disillusioned and the unrepresented.

...represented by a pack of people baying to the press through powerless megaphones. Possibly not the metaphor they were aiming for. For context, here's the polling report on ICM's most recent monthly poll which has:

constituency voting intentions of CON 16%(+3), LAB 29%(-2), LDEM 16%(-1), SNP 34%(+1) and regional voting intentions of CON 15%(+1), LAB 28%(+1), LDEM 17%(nc), SNP 32%(-1). Using Weber Shandwick's swingometer this would leave the SNP and the largest party and the current Labour/Lib Dem ruling coalition unable to form a majority alone.

A new ICM poll should be out at the beginning of April.

Suddenly realising that I should be writing about the Scottish elections, not just reading about them.