In a deliberately provocative speech, David Cameron, the Tory leader, adopted the metaphor of a caravan crossing the desert to highlight the importance of making sure that the income growth of the poorest keeps pace with the rest.

ECONOMIST: Income inequality

How, precisely, would the Tories rectify the fiscal position, as they frequently but vaguely pledge to? (Mr Osborne was at it again this week, making a provocative but sketchy speech on the savings to be made through public-service reform.) How would it feel, after a gap of 13 years, to have a Conservative government?

ECONOMIST: Britain��s long, hot-and-cold summer of uncertainty