The Tories mustn’t make another silly pledge on benefits in 2015

As the country approaches a general election, a party leader, desperate to reassure a key group of voters, makes a very silly pledge. He is as unequivocal as possible that, in spite of the big spending implications in a time of economic crisis, he will stick to this silly pledge to keep his target voters happy. Months later, a Coalition has formed, and those target voters are enraged because that promise turned out to be worth little more than the paper it was written on.

We all know that this is what happened with the Lib Dems and their extraordinarily stupid pledge to block rises in tuition fees. But in 2010, David Cameron also made a similarly silly promise, which was to protect universal benefits for older people, including the winter fuel payment, TV licences and free bus passes when he knew there would have to be a squeeze on welfare payments.