Please, let it all end

Probably the most telling comment in the election thus far was made by Nick Clegg when he told a haranguing questioner "You should go into politics!".

A lot of people forget that politicians are simply applicants in a hugely overcrowded labour market.  Unlike normal job applicants they have to apply to us - the general public - for a job, and we decide which candidate gets a five year contact of employment.

And that's where any involvement from their employer ends. Unlike the rest of the working population, once employed they set their own salaries, their own expenses claims, their own hours of work, their own pension schemes, their own perks, their own holidays - the list just goes on and on.

What is perhaps most astonishing is that we happily concur in the scheduling and operation of this most lucrative of gravy trains, which often end with dismissals in five years' time, but retention of pension rights, lucrative positions on boards and utterly hagiographic publications of their cash-driven existences.

Is it any wonder that most people still have no idea what or even whether they're going to vote?