Labour and the Conservatives have paraded their phalanx of industry supporters in the Financial Times's letters pages to try to prove their claim to be the natural party of business. Each party privately attacks the quality and quantity of business people mustered by its rival, while speaking in glowing terms of its own list. Stripped of the spin, neither can claim to have a ringing endorsement from industry.

The epistolary lauding of political parties by business leaders is a traditional rite of the election run-up. The letters are scrutinised for signals about industry sentiment towards Westminster. Textual analysis arguably reveals as much about the preoccupations of the parties as those of business.