Parties can't deliver promises. Ask if they can govern.

I write while listening to Ed Milliband launching the Labour party manifesto, and his commitment that every promise made has been funded. Of course it is ludicrous. Politicians say this at every election.  Promises are made to cut the deficit, put more into the NHS, spend more on defence, out up pensions.    These promises may or may not be met not because of the perfidy of politicians but because they cannot predict what will happen over the next 5 years. They are at the mercy of national and global events and trends that they cannot influence. They should be honest and recognise this; not  later when policies are stopped in their tracks by some global crisis, but during the election. The fact is that most policies are aspirations, not commitments. And the electorate should be  sensible enough to recognise this too of course.

So the real question at elections is not what the parties promise in the manifesto, but how they will cope with the unknown.  That is when policy is made in response to developments and when party principles are fudged in the light of what is practicable.

The evidence is strong that coalitions make better decisions than any single party government (see the recent Electoral Reform Society publication "Working Together"). Coalition partners provide a different perspective when deciding on what to do, and they hold more sway over the largest party than does Her Majestiy's Opposition (though they are not paid for the privilege).

So if you want good government, vote for a change in our electoral system.  Vote for Proportional Representation.   Labour and Conservative Parties won't give that to you of course. But Greens and LibDems will.  Not that they will be able to implement it with the present system in place.