POLITICIANS are in ‘purdah’ – a kind of political limbo between the end of parliament and May 7’s general election. Official decisions are not made, unless critical for the country, in case they are used for political point scoring.

It is during this period that that the political brawling really ramps up.

To lighten to the mood, we’ve put together a list of 10 things you probably never knew about the general election.

 

Good God - If Ed Miliband wins the 2015 election he will be the first officially atheist prime minster.

The price of democracy – To stand in the election each MP must put up a £500 deposit which they will get back if they get more than 5% of the vote. This deters jokers – though it’s never put off the Monster Raving Looney Party. Each candidate is also limited to spending £15,000 on the campaign and will be disqualified if caught out, even if they have already won!

One doesn’t vote - The Queen, although allowed to vote, chooses not to as she is officially politically neutral.

Leaving your mark – Signs: some say they’re a waste of time, others agree. But did you know that if you leave your election signs up for more than two weeks after the event you can be in for a heavy fine?

Boredcasting – Long standing broadcasting rules state that no party can buy airtime. Instead, each party is given free time on major channels. There are no such rules constraining newspapers, as the Sun showed with eloquence with its infamous 1992 front page: ‘If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights’. He lost.

Beating the odds – No party has gone back into government after spending just one term in opposition since Margaret Thatcher beat Jim Callaghan.

On the other hand – To win the election David Cameron must increase his share of the vote compared to when he was last elected – no governing party has managed this since 1974.

Granny farming – Yes, it’s really called that. Only illegal since 2006, it is process of gaining old peoples trust and using their postal vote or voting by proxy for them. If this is your tactic for getting into Westminster, you could end up in prison for malpractice.  

Education, Education, Education - 28 per cent of this parliament was educated at Oxbridge and 37 per cent went to public schools (54 per cent of Conservatives, 40 per cent of Lib Dems and 15 per cent of Labour.)

It all adds up - The estimated cost of the 2010 general election was £113.2 million, five years on the costs could be much higher.