SARAH VINE: The vote for 16-year-olds? I wouldn't trust them to collect my dry cleaning!

SARAH VINE: The vote for 16-year-olds? I wouldn't trust them to collect my dry cleaning! By Sarah Vine For The Mail On Sunday Published: 02:01, 26 May 2024 | Updated: 02:01, 26 May 2024 e-mail View comments And they're off! And I don't just mean the almost biblical exodus of Tory MPs (including my ex-husband, Michael Gove , in a move that surprised even me). I mean the party leaders and their election teams, spouting promises they almost certainly can't, or won't, keep and policies that range from the ridiculous to the reckless. Rachel Reeves insisting that Labour's tax-and-spend binges are a thing of the past? Oh, come on! Unless Sir Keir is on weekly injections of fiscal Ozempic (and there's absolutely no evidence), there's fat chance of a Labour administration sticking to that pledge, especially given its plans to unleash a veritable orgy of public-sector spending.

And what about a cap on private-sector rents? It's an idea that, having recently become a renter myself for a variety of calamitous personal reasons, I would selfishly welcome. But this policy has proved disastrous in Scotland where landlords simply sold up and the rental stock shrank, thereby – you guessed it – making the market even tougher. Then there's Labour's genius idea to lift the VAT exemption on public-school fees, a policy that has already spooked so many parents that they're already pulling their children out of the independent sector.

Even before the policy has been implemented, it's cost around.