We are now at the interesting stage of the UK electoral cycle when instead of being told what to do those who wish to be in Government must make their pitches to us.

Manifestos are odd things. Those parties who won’t be in government, and at the UK level that includes the SNP, can say almost what they like. Nutty levels of taxation - go for it. Spending promises which will never have to be delivered - lay them on thick.

The parties that think they might be in power have a rather harder task. Although they will later claim that “events” have made some of the things they promised undeliverable, the manifestos of the Conservatives and Labour parties have to contain actual plans.

Unfortunately, though manifestos may contain actual plans, that doesn’t mean these are sensible plans. There is a broad background for Labour of more spending and for the Conservatives of lower taxes but they read like a sweetie shop menu. A series of policies which focus groups say will appeal to some section of the voting public.

Labour worships devoutly at the shrine of the NHS but will also spend more on education and defence amongst other things. They have socialist-pleasing measures such as a spite tax on school fees and a stricter regime of taxation for foreign nationals based in the UK.

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The latter sounds - and is - fairer but will probably reduce the tax take. Labour would also bring private equity gains into the income tax net - hard to argue with but it won’t fund many hospitals. They tie their hands by saying there will be no increases in the rates of National Insurance, Income Tax and VAT.

The Conservatives come at it from the other way. Cuts in taxation will be implemented but services will somehow be undamaged.

Both parties promise to square their respective policy circles by delivering more efficiency and that elusive elixir, growth, which makes everything possible. If only it were that easy.

The reality is that neither of these visions is plausible. Yes, there are incremental financial benefits to be had from greater efficiency or tweaking policies here and there but the uncomfortable truths are that radical change is necessary and the big elephant in the room is that national debt is too high.

Our debt is now around 100 per cent of GDP. Twenty years ago it was a third of GDP. The rise driven by the financial crisis and then the Covid pandemic but also by our constant demand for more from the state but to pay less tax than is needed to pay for it.

We now spend over £100 billion in interest payments each year. If national borrowing was where it stood in 2004 the interest we would not have had to pay could have delivered noticeably better services without higher taxes.

Both parties have targets for debt to be reducing as a proportion of GDP by the end of a five year period. This is laughably lax. The debt can go up in years one to four but as long as it is forecast to be on the way down on year five all is OK. No matter that the absolute level is constantly rising or that year five never comes.

If we are to address successfully the rising pressure on the nation’s finances from an aging population in the years ahead and, even more importantly, have enough resilience to be able to cope with the next big crisis we need to forge a national political consensus that debt must be brought down much more rapidly.

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Each of the main political parties needs to do the opposite of what their natural instincts tell them in order to achieve this.

The Conservatives need to say that, yes, in the long-term they want to be a party of lower taxation but that sustainable financial stability and resilience is even more important. So for now no more tax cuts and there in fact needs to be new taxes - stamp duty paid by house sellers as well as purchasers, capital gains tax raised to the level of income tax, inheritance tax replaced with a fairer capital transfer tax. It is the Conservative party not Labour which could push these measures through.

For Labour, the agenda is equally tough. They need to tell the unions that the new workers' “rights” they plan will reduce growth and should be dropped. Doctors, nurses and others in the public sector need to be told that the price of more resources and more pay is an end to unaffordable and unfair defined benefit pension schemes. They need to admit that the explosion of sickness amongst the working age population is partly people gaming the system and take steps to stop false claims. The Conservative party could not deliver these things, Labour could.

We need to be told that the sweetie shop is closed. We all know public services need to be better and both reform and more money are needed to achieve that. If we want something we must pay for it and not heap the problem onto future generations. Somebody has to tell us the truth and we need to listen.