On the trail

Here come the girls

A screaming mob of women on a hen party shouting “Selfie! Selfie! Selfie!” and a social media fan have succeeded where legions of spin doctors have failed: they have made Ed Miliband cool, even a bit sexy. Abby, a teenage Twitter user, launched the hashtag #milifandom because she “thinks the media is unfair to Ed” and wanted to change that. Fans have posted photos of the Labour leader looking coy or bemused and pasted pictures of his head onto superheroes’ bodies. One swooning tweeter even admitted: “if I ever met Ed Miliband I could die happy”. Neither the Tories’ attempt conjure up that sort of excitement for the prime minister (#cameronettes) nor UKIP’s efforts (#nigettes) have yet generated similar levels of hysteria.

Bacchanalians of the week

A Scottish Labour MP on the mood north of the border: “It’s like the last days of Rome. Without sex. Or wine. In fact, with none of the fun bits.” Meanwhile the Labour candidate for Norwich South apologised for joking about the uncertain outcome of the race in his constituency. Anything could happen, Clive Lewis had postulated in an interview: “I could be caught with my pants down behind a goat with Ed Miliband at the other end.”

Old lefties

There are minority parties and there are true minority parties. Two of the latter unveiled their policies this week. Arthur Scargill, once the miners’ leader and head of the Socialist Labour Party, promised to leave the EU and to abolish Eton, David Cameron’s old school. The Communist Party (membership 1,000) has vowed to abandon NATO as well as the EU and raise taxes. Luckily, the two parties are fielding just a few candidates—otherwise they might split the far-left vote.

Grappling with what matters

“I wouldn’t trust that Nicola Sturgeon, she’s got very thin lips.”

A participant in one of Lord Ashcroft’s focus groups homes in on the SNP leader’s biggest problem

Unlikely enthusiasm of the week

“London benefits vastly from being a cosmopolitan city, and that is largely due to the fact we have immigration; that enriches and makes London a stronger, more diverse, more lively city.” This paean to the capital’s foreign newcomers came from the housing spokesman for UKIP, a party that fiercely opposes European immigration.

Food for thought

Miriam González Durántez, the Spanish wife of Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, outed herself as the author of a cooking blog during a chat with Mumsnet, a parenting website. Ms González Durántez, a lawyer, has been writing “Mum and Sons” anonymously since 2011; recent recipes include Tiny Tortillas with Shrimp and Milk Buns.

^{Correction Last week we misspelled the name of Janek Zylinski, a Polish aristocrat who challenged UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, to a duel. We hope the prince will spare us the sword in exchange for our apologies.}