Like many voters I am patriotic about public services – unlike this Government. How can it be in the national interest to underfund the NHS or lose 20,000 police? I can respect an honest Tory but struggle with the hypocrisy of a wealthy few whose objection to a modest tax increase for high earners brings them out in red, white and blue.

Please don't wrap yourself in our flag while voting for your pocket. It's indecent.

Emma Jones

​Abingdon

Whoever wins, this is not democracy at work

Whatever the election result, let’s not praise the outcome as a triumph of our splendid democracy. We should be appalled.

During the campaign: charities were prevented from highlighting the plight of the poor, disabled and homeless; the Government blocked publication of the NHS financial crisis; and, as evidenced by independent bodies, there were gross media distortions and disparagement of Jeremy Corbyn and his policies, while vastly more pro-Tory coverage.

Tory-inspired electoral registration changes impinged more on the poor – and voting is, of course, considerably easier for a wealthy executive than a manual labourer working long, long hours. To cap it all, the parliamentary outcome bears little resemblance to the distribution of votes.

Ought we not to be ashamed at trumpeting the wonders of our democracy?

Peter Cave

London W1

Leave Diane Abbott alone – she is only human

Since stepping down there has been so much speculation about Diane Abbott. Questions arise whether she was “ill or not” and “is this just a Corbyn ploy to win the election?”

Let us look at the facts here. In the past years, Diane Abbott has appeared on numerous shows and interviews, including Question Time. She has always, in my memory, held a good argument and returned facts in a perfectly acceptable way. Had she not, she would most probably have been sacked years ago. In recent months, however, it has become noticeable that Abbott became somewhat vague in her answers as if she were not in the same space as she was occupying. In recent weeks her memory seemed to fail considerably. I’m no doctor, but common sense would tell me that this is a woman who has not been well.

Is it not possible that her duty and commitment to her party made her continue, despite feeling unwell? This is only speculation, but I am saddened by the cynical comments made by the public without knowing the full facts yet. Common sense tells me that things have not been great in Diane Abbott’s world. We are not all robots, after all.

Michael Jones

London

The Tories’ PIP payments are a disgrace

Due to personal independence payment (PIP), many people across Britain are being denied money which they not only need to live but are morally entitled to, due to health problems which limit their ability to work, myself included. As a result, this means that if I don’t gain employment within the next five years, I could quite possibly lose my house.

The Tory government created PIP to get more people off benefits and into work. Fine if it were done ethically, such that it not only excludes those who are claiming fraudulently, but just as importantly ensures that all of us who need help not only to live, but to regain our health and get back to work, get all the help we need. And considering that I pay my taxes, I think it’s only right that the government contributes to at least part of any financial assistance I need; rather than hindering as many of us from claiming as possible.

I am not alone in holding these views: I know four unbiased NHS professionals who agree with me that PIP is effectively a sham. Even my own solicitor stated that in his opinion, “It’s set up to stop people getting money!”

PIP will certainly stay if the Conservatives are brought back to power this year. But Labour has planned to do away with such schemes.

Andrew Winters

Lanarkshire

The Tories have run a dishonest campaign

How dishonest is May's election campaign? She tried to delay the draft plan on air pollution on grounds of purdah? Fortunately the High Court put her right on that. She changed some key content of the published manifesto as soon as it became clear that it was not popular; surely that was against the rules of purdah?

Then a report (commissioned by David Cameron) looking at Saudi funding of jihadi groups is suppressed; no purdah issue, just May suppressing something that should be on the agenda for "difficult and embarrassing" conversations with the Saudis. Also something that we “ordinary people” should know about.

May then announces what her Government will do to overturn the decline in social housing. Not in the manifesto, so surely this should fall under the purdah convention?

Finally, she announces, two days before the election, what she is going to do about terrorism. A raft of knee-jerk, on-the-hoof policies, unashamedly designed to attract the xenophobic vote. This is outside the conventions of purdah and is a disgraceful attempt to use the recent atrocities to gain political advantage.

This is our last chance to prevent these heartless, unethical liars to ruin this country's values and beliefs.

Darryl Pratt

Leamington Spa

A poem about homophobia, and how the littlest of things can turn a good day into a nightmare

Other people's lives are tender things,

We like to meddle, and to poke.

We like to stand and watch them walking by,

with a smirking face or joke.

A joke to my face is at my expense,

So don't pretend to know,

What this really feels like,

To be left out on your own.

Because people are surely people.

We all walk the same blue earth.

I'm not sure I really understand

What all the pain is worth.

So when I stand up, and speak out,

Why don't you even see

How my life is my choice

Yet I'm forced to secrecy.

Because it's against your religion?

Or your dad doesn't like us?

Or your friend thinks it's funny

To always try and fight us?

Because of a choice I made

On how I conduct my life,

And now people like me are forever broken,

Turning to the pill and to the knife.

Even now I'm scared to say

In 2017,

Because a year ago it ruined my life,

And the rumours ripped me clean.

I really wish I wasn't scared,

But inside my heart races,

And I begin to dread to wonder about

The looks on people's faces.