On the campaign trail, both parties are experts at calling out broken promises, just don't ask them to keep one themselves.

The most revealing moment of this election campaign did not happen at a policy launch or televised debate. It happened in a draughty hall outside of a recording room, where journalists stood checking their watches, notebooks and microphones in hand, waiting for a press conference that had been called for 10am and did not begin until an hour later.

It was not the only occasion. It happened every time, at either end of the political spectrum. Morning and evening.

I have covered enough press conferences to know that a campaign is, at its core, a performance of competence. Parties spend millions crafting the impression that they are ready to govern, that they are organised, disciplined and accountable. They fill our screens with promises about delivery, responsibility and keeping their word to the public.

What they rarely account for is that journalists are watching not just what they say, but how they behave when they think the cameras are not yet rolling.

What irked me the most in this campaign is that both parties did not stick to the scheduled time for their events, whether they were press conferences in the morning or mass activities in the evening.

There were many occasions in which journalists were informed about a given event barely an hour before it was due to start but, after overcoming traffic issues to get to the venue on time, the press conferences always started late, sometimes more than an hour late. The same goes for the evening events, with the media informed that they will start, say, at 6.30pm, and then nothing happens before 8pm.

None of this is, of course, a matter of great national consequence. Journalists are accustomed to waiting. It is practically a professional qualification. But it matters as a symptom. How a campaign treats the mechanics of its own communications tells you something about the mentality of political parties.

One understands that sometimes extraordinary things happen that lead to delays, but in this campaign it seems that these extraordinary happenings took place every day.