The media seized on the notion that something unprecedented had happened in the first meeting between the three men. Like crude oil spilling from beneath the sea or ash swept in on the winds from a volcano, the Liberal Democrats had become a force to be reckoned with. Exposed to public scrutiny, Nick Clegg was evidently seen as a clean-cut, nicely-spoken young fellow, a new hybrid-engineered model in showroom condition and with less mileage on the clock than David Cameron, last year's challenger to the original streamlined Tony Blair. As for Gordon Brown, he was clearly overdue for the scrappage scheme.

Despite the genuine and important differences in policies, not least in the urgent matter of economic survival, most of the newspapers – as ever – turned away from analysis and chose sides. The Guardian nailed a new colour to the mast by declaring for the Liberal Democrats, leaving the Mirror as the only daily to support Labour. The papers usually backing the Conservatives concentrated on undermining Clegg personally. The Sun and the Daily Mail led the pro-Tory charge.

The campaign at the national level became almost entirely a television event, with radio taking over in the hours before breakfast, and newspapers tagging along. In the circumstances, politicians lost their bearings: on the BBC's Politics Show a panel of experienced parliamentarians – Diane Abbott, Charles Kennedy and Michael Portillo – were outclassed in their discussion of the debates by Rory Bremner, who brought with him the insights of a performer with which to judge the participants. Bremner also appeared on YouTube in one of several videos mocking David Cameron with parodies based on Pulp's song “Common People”. (While Brown was also sent up on YouTube, not one party utilised the sophisticated internet techniques that marked Barack Obama's presidential campaign.)

Another professional from comedy showed a sane response when the other main event of the television campaign sprang at us from a suburban street in Rochdale. Armando Iannucci wrote in The Independent: “As someone who, in The Thick of It, has contrived several silly political moments like these, I appeared to be on a few insiders' contact lists, but there was something rather childish about the mobful of exultant voicemail messages left by hyper-ventilating journalists on my mobile, as BBC news programmes, daily newspapers, and Sky journos asked me to ‘do' a quick response.” Ianucci added: “It's at these moments that you stand back and see, not a nation debating its future, but a pack of shrieking gibbons.”

Even some of the public were not immune: while Michael Crick was reporting for Newsnight from the Cameron constituency at Witney, Jeremy Paxman interrupted to tell him: “There's some imbecile behind you pulling funny faces and doing funny walks.” But even that was no sillier than the BBC's election night coverage, with Jeremy Vine prancing through a virtual landscape, and a party on a boat with the opinions of such experts as Bruce Forsyth and Joan Collins being eagerly sought.

Press hysteria, mostly damning Brown, then Clegg, then a hung parliament, raged on after the non-result was known, totally ignoring the myriad of successful coalition governments elsewhere in the world while warning readers that Armageddon was just around the corner. (The Sun's treatment of the Ukrainian parliamentary dust-up – “Flung parliament: Coalition government's vote scrap” – with the paper informing its readers: “Protestors fought their coalition government MPs yesterday – a frightening prospect as Britain faces a hung parliament”, demonstrated its tone was not about to become in any way conciliatory.)

Most media ignored the salient fact – that the electorate had a different plan from any that the politicians or the media had predicted or that the majority of the press had demanded. Horrors! The common people had spoken.

— BH