This election is a crashing bore... posted by Richard Seymour

At least for television viewers, who are switching off the news to avoid the sterile non-debates and glib casuistries of 'the big three'. For Charlotte Street, language has been hollowed out into noises , designed to appeal to the - what was that phrase? - "gut instincts of the British people". Trouble is, the more politicians go to the gut, the more people want to vomit.

Still, there is the odd risk of excitement here and there. For instance, Labour is being obliged to pay unusual attention to a heartland constituency apparently in part because of local polls showing Respect has a very slight lead, where Peter Hain has been despatched to tell voters that George Galloway is a "playboy politician" . Unto which: "Being called a playboy politician by Peter Hain is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame." This campaign has caught the international headlines like no other seat in this election. The Canadians are curious , the Americans are appalled , Tracy Emin is proud , the Cable Street generation are too (what was that about Moseley?), the students are all sorted out for fees and piss, and the international press are watching incredulously...

Meanwhile, I am told that Salma Yaqoob's constituency is going very well in Birmingham Sparbrook. Respect won the most votes in that area during the European elections, and Salma is outdoing the local MP in the placards and posters stakes. Lindsey German is doing surprisingly well in West Ham too.

On top of which, Martin Bell is irking his nephew by supporting Reg Keys in Blair's constituency , where polls apparently show that 60% of voters are 'undecided' and the rest are split evenly between Mr Keys and Mr Blair. And Craig Murray, the former diplomat to Uzbekistan, is seriously worrying Jack Straw .

It will be extraordinarily difficult to win a seat, but the big guns of the antiwar movement are pointed right at the throats of New Labour's hottest stars. We do not have the enormous resources of the main parties, and so rely on what we can say in the few avenues of communication that we have access to. This has gone an incredibly long way so far. And we now have the forced irruption of the war onto the electoral terrain to help. The fact that Labour are feeling so threatened in a heartland constituency is encouraging - but the race is close enough that every last vote matters, including any that might be fraudulently counted . There will be a big Respect outing in the East End over the weekend, and anyone living in Birmingham might want to pop over and help Salma Yaqoob. Every vote matters. It is time for the antiwar movement to take some bodies as well.