If the promises of this party conference season are anything to go by, we are dead set for a general election.

October looks unlikely until after Brexit D-Day, and few parties will have the stomach for knocking doors in December when the nation’s attention will not be on turning out to vote at storm-lashed polling stations.

So November it is, then?

Day after day, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have promised the earth. Given all their previous election pledges, we’d all do well to regard them with a hefty pinch of salt.

This time it’s Priti Patel, the tough-talking, hardline Home Secretary, who is pledging £20 million to fight a battle very close to Barrow hearts - County Lines drug dealing. Is it pure coincidence that this issue is huge here in Barrow; a marginal seat?

Twenty million sounds a huge lump of money and won’t do any harm, but it will soon vanish down the plughole when shared nationally. The idea of an extra wing of the British Transport Police seems a good one, although as ever, execution will be key.

More cross-border co-operation between police forces is vital because stopping criminal gangs in those places where their footsoldiers are unknown faces depends on very good police intelligence. But let’s not get carried away until real collars start being felt.