Not long ago I wrote a column throwing freezing water on the usefulness of election manifestos or indeed any master plan. However, as the season of campaigning grows towards ripeness, I wish to put forward a little manifesto in the form of an article which I wrote some time ago and which I believe remains as relevant as ever. I think it will be my only contribution to the debate.

In the background of all our lives there exists a fundamental and dominating lie. It is that material success counts more than anything else – indeed, that nothing else counts but material success.

People are not simply, or even principally, thinking machines. Most people absorb much more information from sense impressions and emotions then they do from abstract symbols. The world is…..