Historians will no doubt have a better idea of why this general election is shaping up to be one of the most boring ever but journalists always have a duty to get in there first.

Even for someone like me, who has a keen interest in politics, I have already more or less given up and there’s still several weeks to go.

It’s even more surprising in some ways because we have long ago ceased to be a nation where only two of the riders stood a chance of breasting the finishing line.

Part of the problem is that none of today’s leaders have a fraction of the panache and charisma that Thatcher, Kinnock, and Blair possessed.

Whatever you might think about their politics there was no doubt that they were all big beasts in a fascinating jungle and made for memorable viewing.

Thatcher with her steamroller, hectoring style, Kinnock, a genuine world class orator, for his entertaining Welsh boyo routine, while Blair’s slick TV appearances made for compulsive viewing in that interviewers were mystifyingly never able to land a punch on him, let alone a haymaker, however big a hole he was in.

And we were also blessed with a cast of characters including John Prescott, who famously swung a punch at an egg thrower in the election of 2001 during a visit to north Wales, Gordon Brown, whose simmering tension with Blair created its own unique theatre, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.

I realised we were in trouble when I couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm to watch the much-hyped first TV debate between the party leaders. You need two boxers in a ring to create a spectacle and with seven clambering around in it there was never likely to be any blood on the carpet.

And it doesn’t help that there doesn’t seem to be really that much difference between the Labour and Conservative parties despite all the furious protestations to the contrary. May 6 can’t come soon enough for me.