Remember those heady days in May, 1997. A new government, a new prime minister, new hope?

In all the euphoria of change, anything seemed possible.

Suddenly the sun was shining, literally and metaphorically. Naively, many of us thought the country might be united by common purpose. To make life better for everyone. To be rid of the sleaze, greed and hypocrisy of the final years of the Tory regime.

Now we are right back where we started. Different party, same problems.

It is hardly surprising that a new Gallup survey says turnout for the June election will be not only the lowest since 1918, but more remarkably, the lowest in normal peacetime since Gladstone beat Disraeli in 1874.

However, while politicians are aware of this level of voter apathy, there seems to be little evidence that a low turnout would harm Labour more than the Tories, or vice versa.

Astonishingly, all the party leaders appear to have concluded that much of the electorate has decided not to bother voting because it sees the result as a foregone conclusion. The politicians could not be more wrong.

People will not vote because they believe it will be the only way they can register their anger, disillusion and mistrust of all politicians. There is a limit to how much bunkum is acceptable. We must be as close as we have ever been in history to that limit. The simple truth is that politicians are treating us like morons.

Someone in New Labour had to sit and actually dream up the idea of launching the election campaign in an inner city school with multi-ethnic pupils singing 'We are the children of the future'.

Tony Blair posed in front of a stained glass window, the sun coming through and creating a halo effect around his thinning hair was farcical.

But you can imagine the creator of this nightmare saying "Yeah, they will really go for all that stuff"!

Then we have William Hague kissing babies as though life depended on it, looking wide-eyed with astonishment at suggestions that a Tory government would make £20bn cuts in tax and spending.

The farce of his shadow treasury secretary Oliver Letwin leaking it to the Financial Times was simply brushed aside.

There was nothing funny, though, about the derisive laughter and jeers from the demoralised Police Federation conference in Blackpool which silenced home secretary Jack Straw when he made the mistake of trying to defend his record on supporting the police.

Nor was there anything funny in the unedifying spectacle of the deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott throwing a punch and being wrestled to the ground by a countryside protestor in Rhyl.

I have already argued we should all use our vote in spite of such dreadful events and our increasing apathy.

How to use it is something we must wrestle with our consciences about during the next three weeks.

Will there ever be a party we can trust?