A Time To Mone

A few hours from now, one of this country's two state broadcasters will air an "interview", recorded abroad, with a unelected legislator for life from the governing party, who is under Police investigation for the theft of hundreds of millions of pounds from the public purse.

In the trailer, the "interviewer", Laura Kuennsberg, refers to Michelle Mone as having been "caught up in the PPE scandal", as if she had been an innocent bystander to a traffic accident. This country is so corrupt that no one can bring themselves to say how corrupt it is. Or, at least, no one on either of the state broadcasters. Watch out for any adverse comment on ITV, or Sky, or TalkTV, or GB News. And assess accordingly its claims to fearless independence.

Likewise, judge the Official Opposition by the reaction to this on the part of its Leader, who is rumoured to be a former Director of Public Prosecutions. 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 Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir 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.