I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls?

Telling the Greeks that they could not have the Elgin Marbles back is one thing, Rishi Sunak. But offering them Oliver Dowden instead? It is a wonder that they have not declared war. Thank goodness for our half-Greek King.

People who have been in touch to ask whether I was all right, don't worry, there will be a big post in the next 24 hours. But I need to talk to a lot of people. For now, though, let us bask in the happy fact that the continuation of the ceasefire is a total humiliation of Keir Starmer and of a march that was too trashy even for him. Instead, participants had to make do with an old Hilary Armstrong staffer, which meant the right-wing Labour machine purely as an end in itself, and which even next to Rachel Riley was a different order of vulgarity.

Imagine a Government in which a Cabinet Minister had addressed a demonstration to demand that a ceasefire be discontinued and a genocide resumed. Imagine a Prime Minister who had opposed that ceasefire, and the consequent release of child hostages on both sides (although see the coming post), even after Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to it. Andrew Mitchell's remarks in the House of Commons yesterday, about so-called safe zones in Southern Gaza, would have lost him the Labour whip as his punishment for being a grownup.

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.