I AM manifestoed out.

Manifesto means a "public declaration of policy especially issued before an election by a political party or a candidate."

So, if we are stuck with a coalition we are sure to get short-changed. It's bound to be a compromise, because we wouldn't have voted for two parties.

The great, late Beatle George Harrison once said "Don't make promises you can't keep."

So when political canvassers doorstep us get them to sign a pledge that they will keep their promises about the economy (Cue Simply Red's Money's Too Tight to Mention).

Politicians – locally and nationally – decide in cabinets that they can close schools and cut front-line services, despite passionate opposition from many of the people who elected them.

Consultancy goes out of the stained-glass windows from Westminster to Wallasey.

We are now saturated with party political broadcasts on TV, but that's when the disillusioned nation decides to make a collective cuppa.

But please try and catch some factual documentaries, satirical shows and debates over the next few weeks on all channels to make up your own minds.

PS: Don’t forget, April 20 is the LAST date to register to vote.

**

TODAY is the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

As a journalist who has written about it for 26 years, the memory never gets easier.

I still believe lives could have been saved. If only we had had mobile phones back then. They tragically came too late for the 96 victims and their families.

On that sunny day on April 15, 1989, communication on this scale was not even in its infancy.

Mobiles would have been crucial in contacting emergency services as well as contacting worried families and loved ones who simply didn’t know what was happening.

Let's pray that such a disaster never, ever happens again.

In 2015 and beyond there is a saving grace that social media in all its forms can help save lives in all our futures.

**

IT was launched on April 1 and I thought – is this a joke?

French and Saunders, Billy Connolly, and Lenny Henry all featuring on Royal Mail stamps commemorating great comedy acts.

But where was Ken Dodd?

Doddy has been at the top of his profession for 60 years.

Ken is an OBE – he doesn't need a stamp of approval. He's always been first class.

Who made the decisions about appearing on ten first class stamps which focused on performers from the tradition of stand-up and sketch shows dating from the 1940s to the present?

Andrew Hammond, head of stamps at Royal Mail (what a job – you can’t lick that on your CV) said: "For decades the UK has long boasted some of the most influential and significant comedy talent in the world.

"This set of stamps rightly pays tribute to the comedians who have made the nation laugh out loud at their ground-breaking comedy genius."

Ken Dodd, by the way, is a Doctor of Letters. How’s that for irony?

AND finally… A long, long time ago I was a paper boy. So was Don McLean.

I bought the record American Pie with all my pocket money.

And I went to see him at the Philharmonic Hall.

It was the first record I ever bought.

The first concert I ever saw.

Forty years on, I interviewed the great singer song-writer on the phone to New York.

I asked him what the lyrics meant and he said: "You won't get me on that, Peter."

This month he has sold 16 pages of hand-written lyrics to the classic explaining all about the eight-and-a-half-minute song.

It went for £800,000 – an iconic piece of musical imagery and allegory. But there is a nice personal touch I can reveal about this magical man.

My dad's favourite song was Don's version of the song Mountains of Mourne.

At my Dad’s funeral we played Mr McLean’s version and I told him.

There was silence and he said: "You have made my day. Thank you, that means so much to me in a city like Liverpool where every one sings."

Well, Don, you made my day and you still do.

Peter Grant