At The Auction Mart

They do not explicitly claim to believe what they do not, but neither main party stands for the things that it allows people to imagine.

Today, Rishi Sunak was the first Prime Minister since Gordon Brown to turn up to the conference of the National Farmers' Union. Liz Truss may have been known only for a speech about pork markets and cheese, but she was and is a disciple of Professor Patrick Minford, who wants Britain to have no agriculture. Truss and Minford ought to be made to defend that position on the stump in South West Norfolk. Truss was the choice of the Conservative Party's members, having been endorsed by the Telegraph, Mail and Express newspapers.

Meanwhile, if anyone thought that Keir Starmer meant a word of what he had lately taken to saying about Gaza, then the anti-Semitism scam would be back in full cry, and since Starmer is a vastly less experienced politician than Jeremy Corbyn was, then he might very well have been gone by now. And not only about Gaza. Of course Starmer would not ban zero hours contracts, or renationalise the rail service, each of which is supported by 60 per cent or more even of Conservative voters, never mind give effect to John Smith's signature policy that employment rights should begin with employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked. Corbyn wanted those things, so they are anti-Semitic by definition, as is any questioning of any allegation of anti-Semitism. If Starmer ever appeared to be serious about any of this, then we know what would happen, because it has happened before.

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.