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Editor's factfile: May 2
Do the political parties liaise about the key themes of the day?
There is no formal discussion between the parties about what theme campaigning will focus on.
Some people have suggested there is at best a gentleman's agreement or, at worst, a conspiracy between the leaders.
What you sometimes find is that if Labour lets it be known it will be campaigning on health, then the other parties decide to focus on that issue. It allows the politicians to muster up a real bunfight around a live issue.
In the era of spin, parties issue a pre-buttal in which they second guess what their rivals will say - with a rebuttal following up to address any criticisms that may have been made against them.
Setting the pace in elections is important, so if any of the three parties see their rivals dropping the planned campaign theme to shift onto new ground, this is seen as a boost.
All the parties will have set their key themes months ago - making sure they cover vital ground such as the economy, immigration, health and education across the four weeks.
In 2001 William Hague dropped his central election message - saving the pound - midway through the campaign.
Similarly Michael Howard's core message has changed from "are you thinking what we're thinking" to "send Mr Blair a message", although this could be part of a planned strategy for the closing days of the campaign.
The Conservatives are today setting out an eight point action plan for government as they seek to carve out a positive message.
The Lib Dems, however, will want to keep the focus on Iraq and the prime minister.
For Labour the key themes of economic competence and investment in public services will dominate between now and election day.
The one exception to this general campaign rule, however, was on 'world poverty day', just over a week ago, when the three main parties and the two nationalist parties each agreed to devote the day to setting out their plans to tackle global poverty.
This agreement was reached partly because of pressure from campaigners, and partly because each party believes it has a positive message to set out.
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