Amid the hubbub and organised chaos of the count, it was easy to spot the politicians. They were the ones with the two weeks in Ibiza-style tans, weather-beaten and sun-kissed from the campaign trail.

Many may now be wondering why they bothered with the endless canvassing, leafleting and kissing of babies. Across the country little changed the Tories gained just one seat, Labour lost just six. So did the campaign itself make any difference?

Professor Richard Lynch, a strategy expert from Middlesex University, believes not. Back in May in this newspaper he forecast correctly that Labour would hold the Hendon and Finchley and Golders Green seats and the Tories would retain Chipping Barnet. Voter apathy and low turnouts conspired to derail any genuine desire for change, he says.

Received electoral wisdom suggests an entire campaign is worth about five per cent of votes those genuine undecideds who might be swayed by silky-tongued politicians. That didn't stop some energetic campaigning in the borough's three constituencies Labour and the Tories certainly felt they had everything to play for despite, in the case of the Conservatives, clear indications from Central Office that the election was a lost cause from the start.

Today's political battles place less emphasis on traditional hustings and more on providing easy television opportunities, according to veteran campaigner John Marshall. He lost Finchley & Golders Green to Labour's Rudi Vis in 1997 and failed to retake it on Thursday.

His campaign saw a number of high-profile visits from famous faces like Lady Thatcher more than all the other constituencies put together in fact. Michael Portillo and Francis Maude also made key-note speeches, with cheering party activists providing atmosphere for the television cameras.

"More and more of these events are put on in the hope that TV might cover them. The hustings have become more sanitised with people talking to their own supporters," Mr Marshall admitted.

Devoting energy and resources to clambering for a two-minute television news slot might raise party profile nationally but is unlikely to help local candidates. Cross-party support for easier postal voting, with more than 22,000 issued across the borough this time round, shows everyone recognises the difficulties in getting their vote out.

Ironically, the general election's most unexpected result came in Wyre Forest as independent candidate Dr Richard Taylor overturned a 7,000 Labour majority by campaigning against plans to close Kidderminster Hospital.

His election, with a whopping 17,000 majority, saw genuine political concerns in the area reflected through the ballot boxes. While the upset bore echoes of the 1997 Hendon campaign when veteran Tory Sir John Gorst was ousted from the previously safe seat over the loss of Edgware General, it is the exception rather than the rule.

More often than not the campaign trail is a far cry from the days of Nye Bevan or even John Major and their soapboxes. Visits, when they do take place, are more often than not carefully stage managed and packed with party activists. A sort of choreographed ballet ensues danced by politicians, their supporters and the media, often vying for the best pictures and soundbites without awkward members of the public getting in the way.

Professor Lynch is sceptical about the value of a whistlestop celebrity visit. Others included Labour big-hitters Ken Livingstone in Finchley and Burnt Oak; Mo Mowlan and Chris Smith in Chipping Barnet; and former Tory home secretary Michael Howard in Golders Green.

"On the day they will only meet very few people and their impact therefore has to be in terms of the impression they give to the media," Professor Lynch explains, conceding a visit might raise party morale.

Mr Marshall rejects suggestions that Lady Thatcher's much-reported walkabout in Golders Green on day one of the election proper was in any way stage-managed.

"That was no rent-a-mob. People were genuinely delighted to see her and it was totally spontaneous," he said.

Whether it made a difference at the polls is more questionable: Labour's majority actually increased. Two key figures who didn't set foot in the borough were William Hague and Tony Blair. A Prime Ministerial visit to marginal Chipping Barnet was mooted while rumours within the Tory campaign suggest Mr Hague did not go down well on the doorsteps and was kept away deliberately.

John Marshall denies this: "It would not have made any difference to the outcome if William had come anyway. It would have required such a large volume of voters to be influenced that I don't believe the archangel Gabriel could've done it."

Mr Marshall believes candidates are duty-bound to hit the campaign trail, whether fighting a safe seat or marginal and there is certainly anecdotal evidence this goes down well, particularly among the middle classes. In Chipping Barnet, which saw no high-profile Tory visits, the Conservatives recorded their best result, returning Sir Sydney Chapman for a sixth term on an increased majority.

Whatever the truth of the matter, and in politics it can be well hidden, democracy has now been done. With the low turnouts and little change from 1997, most of the borough's politicians could perhaps have spent two weeks in Ibiza topping up those tans without changing the outcome.