POLITICIANS of every hue ask the electorate to trust them, often making much of their own personal integrity.

They make promises, pledges and vows. Party manifestos are presented as the articles of faith by which a party should be judged. Indeed, Mr Cameron went to great lengths to blame the coalition as the reason why he was unable to implement the Conservative manifesto in 2010.

Thankfully he cannot ascribe his latest breaking of a promise to the Lib Dems.

In April 2015 the Conservatives made a promise to cap what a person can be charged for residential care.

This was yet another "no ifs, no buts" promise and was a clear, unambiguous statement.

“We will cap charges for residential social care from April 2016”.

Last week, only six short weeks from the election, Mr Cameron’s Government advises that “a time of consolidation is not the right moment to be implementing expensive new commitments such as this”.

This begs two questions. Firstly, when is the right time and secondly, what expensive new commitments are OK to implement?

Clearly the Government has no appetite to implement the Dilnot recommendations, having kicked them in to the long grass until April 2020, the month before the next election, and the Government is happy to spend vast sums on other commitments, irrespective of whether or not we are in a period of consolidation.

The simple fact is that when politicians make a promise, swear a vow or pronounce a pledge, remember this simple truth; they make grandiose promises to influence your opinion but in reality they are not be relied upon to fulfil any assurance they might make.

DES MORGAN Caraway Drive Swindon