Welcome to The Conversation: Hastings and Rye

Enough of the slogans. Enough of the TV debates.Enough of the promises. Enough of the numbers.

Enough of Europe in or out.

Enough of the social media snipes.Enough of the leaders nobody likes.

Enough of news reporters asking us what we think!

At the end of a long and shivery election campaign in Rye, they have had enough of it all.

The carol singers who were collecting money at the entrance to Jempson’s supermarket did their best to spread some good cheer (and raise money for some excellent causes), but after they’d finished I was in amongst them, asking questions about politics.

It was a good job I'd put some money in the box, or I think they might have started booing me.

Rye is a genteel town on the East Sussex coast in a constituency which has flipped between Labour and the Conservatives in recent elections.

With barely 300 votes in it last time, this might have been a good place to hear opposing views on the issues that matter.

But in any conversation I had here, the first thing most people wanted to do was express their deep dismay with the way this campaign has been fought, and their bafflement at the disinformation spread from all sides.

They seemed to have given up on any hopes of hearing the truth from their politicians, and all were looking forward to the end of the electioneering.

Rarely has the season of goodwill been so keenly awaited.