A London vote for party artistry

Walk down New King's Road today and you'll see the faces of the three party leaders woven into £950 rugs, hanging in the window of Bazaar Velvet. They couldn't be more "of the moment", just like a host of other pop-up art, theatre and comedy, including a one-off return of the sell-out Political Animal stand-up night at The British Library, that is setting up all over London and creating a flash-in-the-pan, election-arts trend.

You only have to look at what's happening on stage to see the MPs' expenses scandal reflected in Stiffed, at the Tabard theatre in Chiswick, the exploits of the Bullingdon Club explored in Posh at the Royal Court and, next month, a revival of Barrie Keeffe's play Sus, set on election night in 1979, as part of Barking's Broadway Theatre's Spin Election Festival.

The current wave of timely political plays is no surprise to Indhu Rubasingham, director and producer of the Tricycle Theatre's forthcoming Women, Power and Politics season. "It's absolutely to do with what's going on; it's no accident that the Tricycle season has been programmed near a general election," says Rubasingham. "Theatre is important because it allows an audience to engage with politics on an emotional level. Hopefully, questions will be asked and where we are in terms of women and politics will be back on the agenda."

Naturally, Margaret Thatcher, a political satirists' favourite, is featured in one of the plays at the Kilburn theatre but she's also an inspiration for newly opened, kitsch, Eighties revival club Maggie's in Fulham. "As an Eighties icon, she symbolises that decade better than anyone else," explains co-founder Charlie Gilkes, who has put Maggie memorabilia on the walls and set up the former Prime Minister's speeches to play over the Tannoy in the toilets.

At The Hamptons Bar in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Westminster over the next two weeks, you can choose between colour-coded cocktails created in honour of each of the major parties — a Blue Murder, a Red Rascal or an orange-hued Liberal Minded. The bar is even keeping a tally of the number of each cocktail sold as an opinion poll.

And it seems that food is temporarily election-focused too. Artisan du Chocolat has launched limited edition chocolate buttons with slogans such as "chocolate won't let you down", while last week, jellymonger duo Bompas & Parr opened its Parliamentary Waffle House in Soho. A bar and eatery built to look like the House of Commons, the idea is that people vote with their mouths, opting for different colour waffles and jellies shaped like each of the three main party logos.

Part of the Waffle House experience is the Museum of Food and Politics, which as well as having exhibits such as Tony Blair's face on a piece of toast and the most popular foods often thrown at politicians is also exhibiting political photos that have been taken by the public and submitted to Simon Roberts, the official Election Artist who is commissioned by the Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art to document campaigning activity in the run-up to election day.

"It's important to put a smile on people's faces, even during a serious battle like the election," says Sam Bompas of the thinking behind the museum. Although whether you'll still smile after the election remains to be seen; you may be covering up one very unfashionable rug with the nearest coffee table.