The country is broken and in desperate need of change - Yorkshire Post Letters

The country is broken. We have been led by Conservative politicians who have lied to us, have been fiscally inept, and have no vision for the future.

We have inflation at 6.7 per cent: far higher than comparable countries in Europe. Food inflation is still at a staggering 12 per cent. The IMF says we will grow at a slower rate next year than comparable G7 countries.

The NHS has been starved of funds resulting in 7.8million people on the waiting list. Our rivers are filled with sewage, our trains are not running and our schools are falling down.

The Joseph Rowntree Trust reports that almost four million people, including more than one million children, experienced the most extreme form of poverty last year and described such 'horrifying levels of destitution' as a political choice.

They state: 'The shocking statistics...reflect a social security system now so full of holes that it falls to charities - such as food banks - to try to prevent people from experiencing the worst destitution, but the task is too great for them.' 'Relying on charity to fulfil what should be the responsibility of the Government is morally unacceptable.'

Paul Kissack, the Joseph Rowntree Trust chief executive, said: 'Such severe hardship should have no place in the UK today - and the British public will not stand for destitution on this scale.'

In December last year and a few weeks before his death, Bernard Ingham wrote in this newspaper: 'The stench of decay hanging over Westminster is becoming unbearable. The Tories have clearly lost the will to govern and the people know it.'

The country is broken. We are in desperate need of change.