Dear reader,

I’ve covered four general elections as the Guardian’s political sketch writer and this has definitely been the strangest, beginning with Rishi Sunak choosing to wrong foot his own party with the timing of the announcement and getting drenched in the process. Things can only get wetter. Soak the Rish!

Weirdly that turned out to be the high point of the Conservative campaign as the prime minister scored own goal after own goal: first choosing to snub part of the D-day commemorations – we will leave them on the beaches – and then taking two weeks to disown members of the No 10 team being investigated for betting with inside knowledge. A story the Guardian broke. (If you appreciated stories like that one, perhaps you would consider becoming a regular supporter of our journalism.)

Labour, meanwhile, chose to run a campaign that seemed to involve doing as little as possible as it watched from the sidelines while the Tories crashed and burned. Their message was a promise to be a little more competent and that things would be marginally less bad. Not exactly spreading the joy.

Even the debates were unwatchable. The only people appearing to have fun were Ed Davey on a tour of the UK’s theme parks and Nigel Farage. The Reform leader played his “power without responsibility” anthem to large rallies all over the country – when he wasn’t distancing himself from claims he was a Putin apologist and trying to dodge the racists in his own party. Funny how wrong-uns always attach themselves to Nigel.

Throughout all this, I have been sketching six days a week and the Guardian’s political team has been liveblogging every day of the campaign and reporting from seats across the country. None of this comes cheap, but thankfully our coverage is funded by the generosity of our readers.

If you can afford to join them today and help support the work of an independent publication that isn’t in hock to any mega-rich owner with vested interests, it would be greatly appreciated. We can’t do this without you.

See you on the other side.
(And don’t forget to take your photo ID when you go to vote!)

John Crace
The Guardian