It's a bit of an intellectual cheap shot at the political sensibilities of the general public, but walk down any high street and gather some vox pops and this is what you'd get - pre-packaged soundbites fed out to the populous by politicians who know that attention spans are short and analysis shallow. Downing's own politico, Bill Bracken, once told me that all the major parties pitch their election messages in a way that would appeal to 12 year olds - that being the mental/attention age of the "average" voter in this country. Hughesy.