Social media will have minimal impact on the imminent British general election, according to top journalists speaking at Gorkana PR's latest breakfast debate, Too close to call. 

The Wall Street Journal's Iain Martin wittily described the 2010 campaign as Britain's fourth 'first online election'. The Guardian's business editor Dan Roberts added that the televised leadership debates are likely to have more impact than political campaigning on Twitter or Facebook. 

Although the parties are keen to lear from Obama's supposed social media success, the reality is that people don't join Facebook to get bombarded by political messages. Politicians who try to gatecrash may find their efforts have the opposite effect. America, as always, is different. Obama's social media campaign was about fundraising, not changing opinion. The race to the White House took two years, not the five weeks of most British election campaigns. And presidential races involve scores of rival candidates from the same party, not just one already-selected party leader. 

Most of the Gorkana speakers thought the Tories would win the election, despite running a text book example of a disastrous campaign. Jeremy Warner contrasted Cameron's campaign with Labour's 1997 triumph. Labour was utterly focused in '97, trashing the Conservatives' economic record, but saying little about their economic plans. By contrast, Cameron's decision to say he'd slash public spending has backfired disastrously, leading to a swift u-turn. Iain Martin argued that Tory strategist Steve Hilton's 'detox' strategy to make voting Tory respectable should have given way to an all-out attack on Labour's economic record. Interestingly, he showed that Cameron has a late finisher: making up time to win his degree; coming from behind to win the 2005 leadership race. 'This is the biggest essay crisis of his life.'

Dan Roberts lamented the lack of ideas from the parties. We've seen the greatest crisis of capitalism for 70 years – yet the left have totally failed to capitalise. But the greatest criticism was reserved for the Tories. As Iain Martin said, where's their passion? They have an open goal, yet it's the Tory economic plans that are under the most scrutiny, thanks to the decision to announce the slash and burn spending approach.

Finally, George Pascoe-Watson revealed that the Sun almost proclaimed Nei Kinnock the winner of the 1992 election under the headline One foot in Downing Street. The paper then ran the notorious attack on Kinnock. Let's hope the paper has no impact on the outcome this time. Ironically, Labour was lucky to lose 18 years ago. Major's government never recovered from the shattering sterling crisis five months after that triumph, leaving Labour in power for 13 years.

The Gorkana debate was chaired by former Sky News business editor Michael Wilson. The speakers were George Pascoe-Watson from Portland PR; Daily Telegraph assistant editor Jeremy Warner; Guardian business editor Dan Roberts; and Wall Street Journal Europe's deputy editor Iain Martin.