This general election campaign still has another 80 days to go and already it is mind-numbingly banal with politicians who should know better making utterly asinine comments.

It was absurd for the Prime Minister to suggest that overweight people would be refused benefits until they could fit into a size 34 pair of trousers (I paraphrase). It was ludicrous that Ed Balls thinks we should ask for receipts every time we have the hedge cut (who actually employs hedge cutters anyway? What’s wrong with a pair of shears?)

But much the most worrying of the various daft pronouncements are wild commitments to spending which have no bearing on the real world. So far the parties have committed to ring-fencing education, further education, health, defence (2% of GDP) and international development.