Election 2015: Manifestos and mockery

For the political parties, they are the key to power. But for social media devotees, manifesto launches present another opportunity to poke fun.

A short time before the Conservatives and the Greens unveiled their documents, they had been sent up on Twitter.

It didn't stop the parties trying to deliver a serious message, with limited success.

For an hour from 10:00 BST, when the Greens took to the stage to offer their manifesto, #Greens - the party's chosen hashtag - was tweeted more than 2,500 times.

The Conservatives' preferred label #VoteConservative fared much the same, with just short of 2,500 tweets between the launch of their manifesto at 11:00 BST and midday.

Although these are both fairly small numbers for a Twitter hashtag, it's interesting to note that by 13:00 BST the Greens had pulled ahead with more than 3,200 mentions.

The Green Party tried to keep things focused on the issues, with leader Natalie Bennett topping the most-shared tweets with her post summing up their manifesto pledges in 128 characters. Other party members were tweeting party promotional posters enthusiastically.

Journalists however were slightly less excited...

After the Tories took to the stage, it was the similarities between their manifesto's cover and a previous Australian Liberal Party manifesto from 2013 - also produced by Tory chief election strategist Lynton Crosby - and a fairly unflattering, if un-airbrushed, photo of the Conservative leader which appeared on page four of the manifesto that provoked comment on social media.

Twitter users also commented on Mr Cameron's mention of a "good life" and expressed scepticism that the characters from the popular BBC sitcom of the same name would approve of the Tories' election promises.

Written by Kerry Alexandra