Editorial Comment:

This has been a strange election made more so by the hiatus brought about by last week’s terrorist attack in London and the Nato summit. Today, with a week to go, battle is rejoined and the outcome remains uncertain. It is often said about general elections that they are the most important for a generation or mark a watershed in national life, yet they rarely live up to the billing. But this one does. The campaign has been going on for so long that it is easy to forget the reason it was called.

Just over a month ago, Parliament was gridlocked, the political process was paralysed and the prospect of getting anything done, let alone Brexit, was infinitesimally small. The tumult of the past three-and-a-half years has unseated two prime ministers, torn the main political parties asunder, divided the country and engendered uncertainty about the nation’s future that has been holding back investment and other key decisions.

It had to end and Boris Johnson had little choice but to call for an election to seek a new Parliament to break the logjam. Since this was not in his gift under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, the opposition parties had to agree. For several weeks Labour declined to do so, until their hand was forced by the Lib Dems, whose poor showing in the polls may yet lead them to regret their decision.

But it was the right thing to do. What matters now is to get the right result, which is a healthy majority for Mr Johnson both to see Brexit over the line and deploy his innate optimism and enthusiasm to the task of reinvigorating the national spirit after a difficult time.

The alternatives hardly bear thinking about. One would be an outright Labour victory, which, while looking highly unlikely, must be prevented. To put Jeremy Corbyn into No 10 with a majority would risk the country’s security and prosperity.

But another hung Parliament would be almost as damaging. Either it would strand the Tories in no-man’s land once more as the largest party, but unable to get anything done. Or it would offer a different route to Downing Street for Mr Corbyn if smaller parties like the SNP and the Lib Dems are prepared to countenance his premiership in exchange for another Brexit referendum.

The polls look good for the Conservatives, but so they did in 2017. Complacency is not an option. Stopping a Labour advance over the next seven days is a matter of national importance.