The clearest difference between the parties is on how far their messages are spread by people sharing content voluntarily -- known as “organic” reach. Labour currently leads on this across the three most important social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Posts from the Facebook pages of Labour and Corbyn -- largely focused on issues such as the National Health Service and criticizing the government’s austerity program -- have been shared more than twice as many times as those from the Conservatives and from Johnson himself, according to data from CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Facebook.

Labour and Corbyn have also garnered about 100% more views of their videos on Facebook and Twitter than the Tories, according to CrowdTangle and a Bloomberg analysis.

Eoin Treacy's view

Knocking on doors has in many respects been replaced by tapping on phone screens and is arguably more effective considering the willingness of people to spend hours on their phones while being reluctant to open the door to anyone let alone politicians. Google and Twitter have been clear they do not see the risk of being accused of election interference as being worth the revenue from political parties. Facebook seems more willing to engage with politics.

Facebook is edging back towards the highs initially reached in 2018. A sustained move below the trend mean would be required to question potential for a successful upward break.

The challenge for the Conservative Party in the UK is the election is increasingly being cast as a generation war. The “OK Boomer” meme has become increasingly popular over the last month with many younger people expressing both anger and exasperation with the lack of opportunity to attain a middle-class lifestyle which they believe their grandparents had an easier time achieving.

Young people are the future and they will increasingly hold sway in elections. The socialist/anti-globalisation/environmental priorities attached to younger generations will need to be met head on with rational argument and concrete solutions or property rights and pensions will become a battleground where once they were beyond discussion for reform or cancellation.

That virtually ensures whoever wins elections, and not just in the UK, will be engaging in massive fiscal stimulus. The pressure will obviously come to bear most acutely in countries with larger young populations. Germany, Italy and Japan for example do not have enough young people to put a dent in the holy cows of pensions and property rights.