Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour logos are all in need of a makeover. Some enthusiasm and passion would help. Lessons from Educating Rita.

Willy Russell scripted a poignant scene in Educating Rita between Rita and her mother. They are in a pub for a family sing-song. Her mother observes: “There must be better songs than this…” A statement of resignation, sadness, predictability, frustration, lack of purpose and going nowhere.

Sums up the dilemma of the parties as they try to work out their analysis of our current condition and struggle for solutions.

In the business world, logos are fought over jealously. They provide instant recognition and identification with the product. See the lengths Coca Cola go to ensure their squiggly line is protected. Compare this to our political world.

We are now in the season of party conferences. Banner logos cascade from ceilings and walls. A backdrop to Newsnight reports, speeches and fringe meetings. Logos appear on every piece of corporate literature and repeatedly readers are influenced by the images before them.

The Liberty Bird, Red Rose and Scribbled Oak (£40000 fees paid) are the results of considered research and planning but they have the impact of magnolia paint. They are passive and do not exude enthusiasm and passion.

Part of the problem for our political branders is that in a state of fluid politics, the parties are finding it difficult to create a coherent analysis of their current condition. If your product is fuzzy what chance the branding? What chance the visual imagery?

Freedom, patriotism, liberty, tradition, choice, environment, strength, endurance, growth, renewal and individuality seem to have been some of the words party strategists sat down with as they brain-stormed for the images we have now.

Perhaps this is the time to get our some new words: enthusiasm, optimism, responsibility, energy, and assertiveness would be good for starters. Wonder what logos we can get out of them?

All we want is government not to squander our money. It's not asking much.

We live in difficult times. The legacy of irresponsible bankers, their financial instruments and their bonuses stick in the throat. To balance things up, the average Joe willingly took advantage of give-away credit facilities and many overstretched households caught a cold.

Now, we are being asked to tighten our belts, stabilise the economy and reduce the deficit. All we ask is that when government gets its tax receipts, they are spent prudently. The reverse is the case and the evidence just keeps pouring in.

Witness today's announcement that the £12 billion NHS Computer Scheme is to be ditched. Add on Labour’s report recognising its incompetence over messed up defence procurement. Andrew Lansley’s PFI interview on this morning’s Today programme, completed the tale of woe of what happens when politicians get their hands on our money. The abortive reorganisation of the fire service was yesterday’s example of wasted monies. How much money has been spent winding up the so-called bonfire of quangos?

Once HMRC gets our money we have the right to expect government to use it with probity, value-for-money and tight scrutiny. Those are the imperatives when you run your own business. Somehow government, council and the public sector don’t apply the same principles in their own decision-making and we all lose. “We are all in it together” became a short-lived political strapline. The trouble is some of us are in it more than others.

A cameo scene from the West Wing should be required viewing for all of our politicians before the party conferences.

A pattern is emerging across our political parties. They seem to be having a problem remembering who they represent and what they stand for.

Tim Farron for the LibDems observes that his party has “suffered a loss of identity....and support”. Whilst Ivan Lewis at Labour suggests his party “looks like and speaks on behalf of an urban metropolitan elite". Complete the cycle with the Conservatives humbled from their retreat on forests and now succeeding in getting the National Trust to launch a petition over planning. It takes something to upset your natural supporters whatever the party. How has this detachment come about?

Revisiting the second episode ( Series Four ) from the iconic West Wing fictional drama, one is reminded of a scene where White House staffers, Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler, having lost the presidential motorcade, have a conversation with an ordinary Joe in an Indiana bar.

He is not a wastrel just someone caught out by events beyond his control. He wants a little help so that he can keep his head above water. In a slow drawl and gestulating slowly with his fingers, he indicates that he wants just an inch of government support. Ziegler listens uncomfortably and asks if they can talk. It is a humbling piece of drama. The cameo just highlights the insularity of the Washington bubble and ditto Westminster.

So what one might ask? Well, our political elites and the media circus will soon be at their party conferences. As they retire to their hotel bedrooms, perhaps they should put the DVD in the player, start the episode and reflect on what they are doing, why and for whom.

Lessons from Ashes to Ashes - future elections will be anarchic and fast-changing battlefields.

The Ashes to Ashes billboard spoof between the Tories and Labour at the last election, stood out as an oasis of quick-thinking and imagination in an otherwise drab and sterile media campaign. In the heat of battle, it did not get the deserved attention from media analysts.

Labour’s billboard attempt to build on Gene Hunt’s character with Cameron sitting on the Quattro and a strapline of “Don’t let him take Britain back to the 1980’s”, was neatly turned against them with a Tory reworking of the image: “Fire up the Quattro, it’s time for a change.”

Apart from that, the billboards became yesterday’s tool. Those adverts that did reach the hoardings were the scenes of “improvements” from local graffiti artists. This has ever been the case. The difference this time was that the enhancements got a later airing on Twitter, Facebook and the blogsphere. A national audience was reached. Copywriting was democratised. Central party straplines were ridiculed with wit and insights.

Future elections will be largely fought through the blackberry, apps, blog, text and mobile. Imaginative, concise, quick-thinking and memorable messages will be needed for local leaflets if they are used, SMS circulation or Twittered in 140 characters. This can be a golden age for campaigners to generate witty, subversive, pithy and tight messages which tap into the voters’ psyche. Parties need to put in place, the infrastructure to harness the possibilities of a virtual reality campaign.