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Campaign analysis: Tuesday April 19
Daniel Forman's daily diary of the election campaign.
Tuesday April 19, 12:10pm
If its health week for Labour, today it was ladies' day.
The party has been quite open about targeting "school gate mums" in this campaign, which pollsters have identified as a crucial, wavering constituency.
An evolution of "Worcester woman" and American "soccer moms", the concept encapsulates a certain style of female voter, balancing work and family life, wooed by Tony Blair in 1997 and 2001 but now having doubts as a result of disappointment about progress in the public services and disillusion over Iraq.
But the prime minister feels he has a "lot to offer" these women and is "very confident" he can persuade them of the merits of his current and future improvements in childcare provision, tax credits and a third term focus on public health.
That was the theme of the Labour's Midlands press conference today, with Blair flanked by three key female ministers.
Public health minister Melanie Johnson could not have been more explicit. "We are on your side, with the Conservatives you are on your own," she told voters.
The danger is that these women can sound "nannyish", and culture secretary Tessa Jowell and children's minister Margaret Hodge certainly suffer from this reputation.
It was this thought that the "senior Labour strategist" who briefed that many women ministers did not resonate with voters because they are "too posh" must have had in mind.
However a younger generation is on the rise. Johnson was making her second appearance of the week alongside Blair, but like education secretary Ruth Kelly and the Tories' best asset on this issue Theresa May, she is often tied up defending her marginal seat.
Labour is also using less direct tactics to engage with women. Blair has appeared on more daytime TV sofas than in heavyweight political interviewers' studios.
And solicitor general Harriet Harman has also appeared in Hello! magazine.
However this approach itself is a little patronising, suggesting that women are only interested in politics in soft focus.
For all its talk of empowerment, the "nanny knows best" reputation may be hard for Labour to shake off.
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