If there’s one thing I love more than being canvassed at local election time, it’s being canvassed when I’m at someone else’s house. I promise those people the earth. Sure, my friend whose house it is will definitely vote Lib Dem, I tell them; I once saw him make a chicken salad to take on a protest march.

When a Green campaigner came to my sister’s front door, I confidently promised her a hard yes from both the adult kids, a definitely-maybe from my brother-in-law and the shoo-in of my sister. Given that there are three councillors in her ward, that was between nine and 12 more votes than the Greens had had a second before.

Vexingly, my sister then appeared, it being her house. She said she was going to vote Labour and I said: “Oh right, because of Reginald Popoola,” a young councillor who fights immigration raids, and the canvasser’s face lit up as she said: “He joined the Greens ages ago.”

But no, it was the threat of Reform. The polling numbers for the 7 May........

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