The Guardian view on trust in politics: by dodging the voters politicians risk damaging democracy itself | Editorial

The main parties will all continue austerity, but none of them dares say how painful it will be

In the past week, David Cameron has pledged an Act of Parliament to outlaw tax increases, Nick Clegg has produced proliferating numbers of unbreakable red lines, although not on an in-out referendum on Europe, and now Ed Miliband has had Labour’s six key election promises engraved in stone. This is desperate stuff.

With less than 100 hours of campaigning time left, voters are still reluctant to give their support to any of the main parties, and politicians are experiencing a crisis in confidence in their ability to win support beyond their core loyalists. Collectively, they appear to have concluded the best thing to do is avoid ordinary voters as far as possible while continuing to fight an election. David Cameron is the worst offender: he has pulled out of a Citizens UK event on Monday and he is the only party leader who is refusing to do the BBC’s radio phone-in Election Call.

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