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There is now a tit for tat feud between GB News and LBC over politicians acting as newsreaders. The centrists started it, so they are going to have to take their own medicine. But the fact that this latest round is about David Lammy speaks for itself. This is now just about shows. This is for show. Centrism and right-wing populism are con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war.

Like LBC, ITV is funded only by its giant corporate advertisers, whose mind may therefore be discerned from its output. This morning on Good Morning Britain, Wes Streeting was interviewed by Ed Balls, the Labour Right talking to itself about what a splendid thing it would be to flog off the NHS to the big corporations. But Balls has not even contested an election in nine years. It is on the other side of the wrestling match, as choreographed as any that ITV ever showed, that there is, for example, a husband and wife presenting team of sitting MPs, she a Minister of the Crown.

Yes, I would like to know about Esther McVey's claim for rent on a property half a mile from the home that she jointly owns. About how the Michelle Mone case was coming along. About when there were going to be arrests in relation to the Post Office scandal, since those singing the praises of Kevan Jones should note that there have not been any. About the real deal with William Wragg, since there is obviously something more going on. About a lot of things. And about Angela Rayner, potential Deputy Prime Minister. Including Keir Starmer's long-term determination to get rid of her, yet short-term determination to keep her. It would be like that all the time under him.

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 Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. If, however, it did not contest North Durham, then I would. 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. We have made a start.