There's one crucial policy missing from Labour and the Tories' manifestos and no one's talking about it

By abandoning even a pretence of reform, the parties are, by definition, giving up on improving outputs for the public

General Election 2019: Opinion polls over the last seven days (EPA)

One thing missing from the Conservative and Labour manifestos, for the first time ever, is any plan to reform public services rather than just to spend more money on them.

This general election campaign has increasingly descended into the fantastical. The Tories pledge that voting for them gets Brexit done, when patently it does not. We are sleepwalking into no deal and years of uncertainty. Labour promises it can deliver its manifesto without causing deep damage to the economy – when it is clear an alliance of significant spending, large-scale nationalisation and a lack of economic credibility would be a toxic mix for the country. But, sticking with the magical theme, what I am most struck by is the unprecedented disappearing act the parties have pulled off.

For the first time in memory the twin tracks of public spending aligned to reform (whether you agree with it or not) have been abandoned in favour of economic populism.

The Labour and Conservative manifestos are a competition in offering more state vs more money. This position is damaging for both parties, but most of all for Labour. No social democratic party can credibly stand on a platform of increasing spending without convincing the public it will reform to use the money wisely.

Collectively these manifestos add up to 171 pages, but you don’t even need one hand to count the pages that cover deep reform of our public realm. The size of the documents is an optical illusion – they contain nothing radical or progressive.

Three things in particular are conspicuous by their absence in the manifestos.

First, as I have said, is reform.

Reflecting back to previous elections, the winning party has for generations set out clear commitments to reform – whether you have agreed with them or not.

The 2017 election was not one of big policy announcements, but the Tory plans on social care reform live long in the memory. In 2015 and 2010 the Tories were clear in the deep reform of the economy and welfare state they wanted to undertake. No one would accuse the New Labour years as not having been characterised by substantive reform across the public realm. The same is true of the Thatcher years.

This rule of thumb for good government is now abandoned. At best we are simply being promised more money, at worst managed decline of the services we all rely on.

While the NHS, education, or the police, for instance, are promised more money, there is no accompanying commitment to reform.

By abandoning even a pretence of reform, the parties are, by definition, giving up on improving outputs for the public. The manifestos go large on inputs, the spending taps are truly on, but nowhere is there a plan to ensure this spending – the input – delivers better services and outcomes for people.

Where is the plan for putting the NHS on a long-term sustainable footing? Dealing with prevention, not just treatment, tackling rising issues around mental health and so on.

Absent is a plan to transform our education system to align with the jobs of the future.

More police officers trumps any commitments to harness technology, utilise digital identity cards and other tools, to grip rising crime.

Finally, and critically, the parties ignore the changing geopolitical context the UK is operating within. Globally, the coming decades will see transformational change.

Between now and 2030 the Chinese economy will more than double, becoming the largest in the world. By that year, the size of the Chinese and US economies combined will be three times the size of the third largest, India. By 2050 the Mexican economy will be larger, in PPP terms, than the UK’s and Germany’s combined. In 2030 four of the top 10 economies will be European, by 2050 only two.

The UK will be a moderately important, moderately prosperous, moderately powerful country, in a world dominated by a series of giants. Clearly, leaving our biggest trading market is not an answer to this, but no alternative is offered. How can the UK make its presence and wishes count in this radically altered global picture?

Alongside this geopolitical change is the impact of the tech revolution. This will be our equivalent of the 19th century industrial revolution. The implications of it for all aspects of our lives are profound, yet it is not mentioned substantively by either main party. Labour’s manifesto makes five mentions of “technology”, yet none relate to proper reform. The Tories make more effort, with 20 mentions, but again offer no coherent plan for how the UK should prepare for this transformation.

The country is not being offered the political leadership it wants, nor is it being given the policy answers we need to deliver the change the country needs.

A breaking point is coming. The excruciating nature of this election – bad politics, poor leadership, stale policies – is not sustainable.

In the new year, whatever the outcome of the election, a big rethink is needed. Whatever Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn or Jo Swinson may tell you, new ideas must fill this gaping hole in our politics.

Daniel Sleat is special adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change