Having spent the weekend in Scotland, I picked up on an election story that I'd missed last week. Church leaders up here are cross with David Cameron for "hijacking" Easter for party political purposes.

"No matter what faiths we follow," wrote the Tory leader, "we can all draw strength from Christ's message of hope, of a new beginning and a promise of a new dawn."

I'm seeing a pattern here in Cameron's way with words. The other day, he appealed to Guardian readers to "overcome any prejudices you may have" and vote Tory.

In both cases, he's playing cleverly with the language of his audience - but in a way which hardly seems likely to win them over. (When his shadow home secretary thinks B&B owners should be able to turn away gay couples, are Guardian readers really likely to be impressed by talk of "prejudice" against Conservatism?)

Since I've now had a dig at the Tories two days running, I should put my cardlessness on the table: I'm no fan of the current government, and I've met Cameroons who impressed me with their understanding of the kind of grassroots, asset-based community development about which I'm passionate.

But I'm picking up an undertow of cynicism in Cameron's way of reaching out to people - which I can't imagine is the desired effect. I wonder what he thinks he's achieving with this stuff?