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.

More radically, to effect such a policy across the public sector might mean extensive primary legislation to take control of the conditions of service and pension schemes for local authorities, the NHS, academies, housing associations, colleges and a whole bunch of agencies.