WE ARE the fifth richest economy in the world, but we are treated as if we are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Clearly, we have great wealth, but the government has not managed to harness it, and austerity has failed.

The Tories failed to achieve their own targets so “living within our means” has been deferred and a loophole opened up to allow increased taxation, for some of us at least.

The Tories have disgusted me by their broken promises and cynicism.

Cameron promised us “localism” which sounded great until we tested it by trying to protect our green fields from builders.

We used to be told that “We are all in this together”, but not any longer.

Mrs May intoned in her manifesto that “we abhor social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality.”

In the same week she promised to cancel free school lunches for all but the poorest, so depriving the infant school children of the “ordinary working families” she claims to espouse these days.

Health studies show an alarming level of child obesity, but to the Tories a free breakfast is more “cost effective”.

This means that it is costs less (7p per child per breakfast!).

A breakfast is very cheap to provide compared to a balanced, nutritious, habit changing lunch.

Experience shows that breakfast will be taken up by c. 20 per cent of children, but lunch attracted over 80 per cent.

Better nutrition gave better performance, but education is being short-changed.

The school funding crisis can be forgotten to allow pursuit of grammar schools, free schools, etc, again ignoring the advice of the experts.

We are quoted the large sums of money being invested everywhere, but those on the receiving end face a deepening crisis.

We are watching our services wither away as each year passes.

The NHS, schools and social care are in a desperate state.

We cannot continue to rearrange declining amounts of old money.

We need new money and new policies.

J Graham

King’s Stanley