A quick test of an effective pledge is to pose the opposite: If it is something no-one would support, then it is meaningless. The opposite of a pledge to ‘’lower inflation and grow the economy’’ would be a promise to ‘’increase prices and crush the economy’’.

In 2017, luminous billboards of Jacinda Ardern promised Grand Causes: To deal to child poverty, build 100,000 new houses, and practise a new politics of kindness. No-one in this election is running on child poverty. You would need a team of archaeologists to find the word 'KiwiBuild'. Kindness has had its own elimination strategy. We have gone from ‘Hope and Change’ to ‘Perhaps Just a Biscuit’.

Progressive politics has become a home for urban miserabalism. Being depressed about climate change is a sign of political commitment. If you were treating voters on a therapist's couch, you would resist this catastrophising in favour of calmly dealing with problems you have control over, wrote US political commentator Matthew Yglesias.

Josie's latest Post column is here.