Inhabitants, as we supposedly are, of a new era of multi-party governments, some commentators have doubted the worth of poring over the minutiae of the party manifestos.

The argument runs that in a General Election seen as the ‘war of the weak', with single-party dominance unattainable for either the Labour or Conservative parties, what is set out on the stalls of the political marketplace should be viewed more as bargaining chips for coalition negotiations, rather than as any firm set of promises to the nation.