The opening salvos in the 2015 General Election have been fired and the Conservatives seem unsurprisingly, focused on the economy. But the interventions of first Treasury minister Priti Patel and then, secretary of state for transport Patrick McLaughlin in the debate over public sector employees and their pay, pensions and the right to strike, seem remarkably ill-informed.

The ‘announcement' that the Tories would limit public sector ‘pay-offs' to £95,000, had no clarity as to whether this included the retirement lump sums or merely redundancy payments. And, of course, to do so might require further changes to the terms of the civil service compensation and pension schemes.