Intelligent voters know that exaggerated plans in manifestos are a time-honoured thing. Intelligent voters see manifestos as aspirations giving them the general sense of direction the party hopes to follow. Intelligent voters know that circumstances can and do scupper some manifesto dreams. Actual lying comes in the particular details, for example telling us that they are planning an extra 50,000 nurses when they mean 31,000, or 40 new hospitals when they mean six, or that we'll be better off by £500 per annum each when they mean £85. They are outright deliberate lies. It's good that manifestos are scrutinised for costings, but in my opinion the IFS got it wrong yesterday when they excoriated both major parties for their unrealistic costings. No-one with half a brain expects a party to be able to predict even in the biggest ball park what money they'll need over five years. What we want to see is the big picture when it comes to their plans for improving the lot of all of the people of this country, which means, among other things, looking after our NHS, schools, infrastructure and the elderly and disabled and raising taxes to pay for it all from the people and companies who can most afford to pay them. As for planting trees, the trees in my garden plant themselves so bloody quickly (assisted by jays and squirrels) that I can't keep up with controlling them. Now there's a thing. Who needs people to do it! Whoever thinks that planting a tree always requires a chap with a spade and a bit of manure in a sack and a carefully-nurtured nursery-reared sapling clearly doesn't know much about nature.