At one time political leaders were content to shuffle politely and modestly onto our TV screens.
They might even humbly apologise for intruding into our precious time. Those days are gone.
Nowadays any major appearance by any of the leaders of our parties is minutely choreographed.
So like any good star, Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, made us wait while he prepared to make his appearance at the world-renowned David Brown factory in Lockwood.
It was certainly an incongruous setting with dozens of oil-smeared workers being coralled into creating an artificial corridor for him to walk along to a podium swathed in TV lights.
And to the amusement of us media-folk we watched as officials carefully selected female Brown employees to appear close to where Ed would give his big speech. Old habits obviously die hard.
The applause was thunderous when Ed finally appeared and strode confidently down the corridor between the Browns workers.
He was more than happy to bat away those early morning headlines in the Daily Telegraph proclaiming the country would be at risk if the Labour leader got his hands on the economy’s levers.
It’s strange to think how the myth of Ed, the ‘north London geek’, has grown over the years. He looked anything but ungainly and gave a polished performance that was full of charm and poise.
He looked anything but ruffled by the morning’s headlines and handled all the questions from workers and media with the aplomb one would expect from a man hoping to be Prime Minister.
When the Examiner questioned him later on Yorkshire issues he was keen to stress his northern credentials – after all he does have a Doncaster North constituency.
He revealed that if elected Prime Minister he would have a Minister for Yorkshire saying: “As a local MP it’s obviously a big part of my life.
“Yorkshire is a key battleground and I can be relied upon to stand up for the people of Yorkshire.”
On regional devolution he said: “We will bring back a Yorkshire minister. I don’t think David Cameron and George Osborne are friends of the north of England. They are going to pick and choose which areas get more powers.”
And then it was over. Back out into the cold air and onto the Labour party election “Battlebus” bus as photographers clamoured for that one last picture.
