Daily catch-up: Election 2015 – yes, it was fear of the SNP wot lost it

The definitive election book; plus dreams of a rainbow coalition; and Star Wars in 140 characters

Conservative rally, Wadebridge, Cornwall, 7 April 2015, wide shot and (inset) close up (Niall Paterson/Sky and Getty)

Today is Cowley and Kavanagh Day: publication day for The British General Election of 2015, by Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, the definitive account. It features the contrast between the TV close-up of a "pumped up" David Cameron at a rally in Wadebridge, Cornwall, which is used on the cover of the book, and the wide shot taken by Niall Paterson of Sky News of a huddle of people in the corner of huge barn at the Royal Cornwall Show ground (above).

The book is the most thorough assessment of the campaign so far. All the parties' strategists thought it was going to be a hung parliament, even if the Conservative team "had higher predictions for the number of seats they might gain". But Cowley and Kavanagh debunk the "myth" that "the role of the SNP and its possible future influence on the government only became significant as a result of Nicola Sturgeon's excellent performances in the party leaders' debates". They say: "The future role of the SNP was an ever-present issue throughout the campaign."

One of the most important features of the book for dedicated politicos are the statistical appendices, "The Results Analysed", by John Curtice, Stephen Fisher and Robert Ford, and "The Voting Statistics". For true pedants, this records the Conservative share of the vote in Great Britain as 37.8 per cent, not the 37.7 per cent reported by the BBC and the House of Commons Library at the time.

• As if to remind us how elastic people's memories are, Rafael Behr in The Guardian today reports another attempt to construct a rainbow anti-Tory alliance of Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Scottish Nationalists:

Chris Bowers, a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate, Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton, and Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow energy secretary ... are co-editors of a book, Power to the People, conceived with the ambition of “reshaping the challenge to the Conservatives”.

Contributors include Mhairi Black, the SNP MP, Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem MP, and Steve Reed, a Labour frontbencher. It is almost as if people have forgotten that the Conservatives and UKIP together won 50.7 per cent of the vote in Great Britain, updated from 50.6 per cent.

• My friend Rohullah Yakobi, a refugee from Afghanistan, ‏said he has never seen Star Wars. "Don't know what the whole thing is about." When he was seven, he was learning how to use a Kalashnikov and had the only radio in his entire large family. He asked people to explain it in 140 characters. Here's what he got.

Jimmy Rushmore: "‏Guy falls in love with his sister, commits wanton acts of terrorism, then kills his dad."

Sarah Terry: "Plucky underdogs take on evil empire and win. Evil emperor is plucky underdog's dad and dies. In space. With robots."

Judith Freedman: "Men fighting with long tubes."

James Tickell: "In a galaxy far away... Bang, whizz, zoom, magic, furry aliens, robots derring-do, giant fascist spaceships..."

Matthew Severn: "Guy tries to return a wheelie bin to its owner, accidentally causes the death of his own father and finds religion."

Matt Roberts: "Good guys take on bad guys with glow in the dark sticks. Good guys win. Small furry guys dance in celebration."

Calum: "A battle of good against evil, it is."

• And finally, thanks to Moose Allain ‏for this:

"Well, we have got all day, obviously. That’s how days work. They keep going until they run out, when the next one starts."