Brace yourself: If you get a knock on the door in the next few weeks, it is as likely to be someone with a rosette and brightly coloured leaflets as a friendly neighbour with a plate of mince pies or carol singers serenading.

Yes, we are heading for a general election just weeks before Christmas and the parties will be packaging up their policy pledges in tinsel and baubles as they seek our votes.

The stakes could not be higher: after months of parliamentary deadlock over Brexit, our elected representatives have decided to pass the ball back to the people who put them there in the first place.

Labour finally seemed to realise that it was risky to continue to obstruct the election once the Liberal Democrats and SNP had come out with their own bid to have one.

The national opinion polls don't make for optimistic reading for Jeremy Corbyn but we will no doubt be reminded that the polls were out of kilter back in 2017.

Before polling day, an average of all polls put Labour at 35.8% and Conservatives on 43.7%, the actual result saw Labour on 41% and the Conservatives on 43.5%.

And of course there was a seismic shock in Canterbury where Labour masterminded a dramatic coup and captured a seat that had been in Conservative hands since 1910.

So, are we in for any shocks in Kent?

It seems unlikely - while the Conservative national vote went south in 2017 after Theresa May's ill-fated bid to secure a stronger mandate unravelled, the party's support in Kent held up and reaffirmed the county's reputation as true blue heartland.

But this is an election unlike any others in recent years and while it is a cliche, the volatility of the electorate, genuine disaffection among voters for all the mainstream parties, and its timing conspire to make it one of the trickiest to forecast.

Come December 13, politicians may find that what is in their Christmas stocking isn’t quite what they expected.

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