Here, the relationship between elector and government has come to mirror that between customer and high street bank. we don’t much care for it, and resent being ripped off, but changing to another when they all seem to be offering much the same deal seems like too much bother when there’s tell to be watched.

The Independent’s Matthew Norman is the main reason to buy the newspaper on a Friday (as Mark Steel is on a Thursday). His air of weary disappointment and contempt for our political masters is delicious. It’s a shame the Independent website puts his stuff behind their subscription wall.

Norman’s central thrust this week is that while Tony Blair, Peter Hain and the like pay lip service to the evils of voter apathy, it actually plays well for them electorally. After all, in 2001 New Labour were returned to power with a 167 seat majority on a 59% turnout, the lowest since 1918. The reason? A “culture of contentment”, came the unusually articulate euphemism from John Prescott.

I mean just look at yesterday’s “WARNING: THE TORIES WILL CUT £35BN FROM PUBLIC SERVICES” debacle. Once ITN’s Nick Robinson had established that Tony Blair was a liar (googlebomb courtesy of Tim Ireland), the whole argument descended into the kind of protracted score-draw that made even a political obsessive like me turn over to Ready Steady Cook. Something about a semantic argument between the difference between cutting spending and spending less.

New Labour supporters will have have gone “Tory Bastards!”, Tory Supporters will have gone, “Labour Bastards!”, us tactical voters will still be chanting “stay on target” and the rest will have gone, “What’s for dinner?”. Anybody who doesn’t plan to vote will not have been swayed one way or the other and New Labour can still look forward to its third majority.

And I bet, like most of these “poster launches”, the “WARNING” one is never seen again.