THE sight of William Hague wearing a Margaret Thatcher wig left me shaking my head in disbelief. Why is the Labour Party resorting to such tactics? It seems it has been attacking Mr Hague for some considerable time, suggesting he is a non-entity, a bad leader. And it seems to me that it is diverting so much energy into killing him off

that it must be wary of him. He is, afterall, very good at arguing his point, in Parliament and on television, and no matter how much criticism is thrown at him, he always bounces back.

Then I switch on the television and there is Michael Portillo mimicking Tony Blair. In fact this general election campaign is unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it, such an onslaught on the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition. I can't help thinking they should all stick to politics and stop trying to be comedians. They are all trying so hard to make fools of each other, that they end up making fools of themselves. I know times have changed, but it's hard to imagine this sort of thing happening in the era of Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan or even Jim Callaghan.

It's all designed to try and undermine the credibility of the party leaders in the eyes of the public - but the public are not stupid. And some of the national newspapers also seem determined influence public opinion and bring the leaders down. Journalist harry the politicians, often repeating the same questions over and over. Many journalists seem more interested in massage their own egos than actually finding out the truth. They seem more interested in making good television than exploring politics and the real issues gets lost.

So you have two parties making unprecedented attacks on each other and a media which exploits this to the full, making the most out of schoolyard name-calling, while the public deserves more.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats may benefit all the way to the ballot box as they sit back and watch their rivals score own goals.

In Hartlepool, which according to the last election is a Labour town, I hear people question what is going on, being equally critical of Labour and Tory tactics and querying the money being wasted on them.

It seems the general election campaign is concentrating on the negative. Labour and the Conservative parties are not saying 'vote for us', they are saying 'don't vote for them'. It's like saying vote for them through default rather than for the reason they set out in their respective manifestos. I wonder if this is because their policies are very similar, they certainly are when it comes to law and order and health.

I think politicians have their work cut out regaining the confidence of the public, and these current tactics are doing nothing for their cause. After years of sleaze, they are now asking the public to trust in them and they are now trying to convince the public they do care about their communities. I would have thought the starting point here would be to show their respective parties some loyalty, but so often you see the various MPs sniping at the leaders they elected as the best men to do the job.

Mr Hague seems to have a problem with his profile, which isn't necessarily his fault. You've also got to blame the people around him for failing to lend their support. There are suggestions Mr Portillo will challenge him for the party leadership after the election and that Gordon Brown may challenge Mr Blair. The media, of course, jump on this, but where is the information coming from? I suspect from within the respective parties. So when the general public is asked to trust politicians, the electorate is likely to say 'why should we when you can't even stand by your own party'.

I don't think I have ever seen anything like this. It just tells me that politicians have a long way to go and it is time they gave the public more credit than they are giving them at the moment.