Over the last 3 General Elections we have seen Conservative Governments elected on manifestos which they have consistently failed to fulfill for different reasons and based on at least one national hustings in the last few weeks, promises made by Cabinet Ministers which were not even in the manifesto. The real question has to be what is the point of publishing such documents and is it time for us to treat General Elections as though they are primarily the election of lots of local MPs? The two big parties want us to treat the elections as though they are part of a presidential system, but in reality this is just a smokescreen. Many people questioned if much of the Labour 2017 manifesto would have been delivered upon, despite it being a costed out set of proposals. On the other hand the Tory 2017 manifesto was a pretty weak set of aspirations, it was not costed and it bore little relation to many of the aspects of the speech, the Queen delivered last week. The manifesto certainly did not contain the promise to invest an additional £1Bn in Northern Ireland. What made this years manifesto even less credible was the words and behaviour of the minister for disabled people, Penny Mordaunt who told a national disability hustings event a few days before the general election that “We have managed to get into the manifesto a legislative commitment to dismantle the work capability assessment.” which she confessed “treats people like they are part of a sausage factory”. Clearly many people in the UK would agree with such sentiment but rather fewer people would have previously read the whole of the Tory manifesto and been in a position to challenge her words. It is a shock to discover that Ms Mordaunt was lying and that nothing was in the manifesto or has appeared in the Queens speech to deal with a process she apparently believes treats people like a sausage factory. Yet despite this the re-elected MP for Portsmouth North has taken up the same Ministerial post as she held in the last Government which along with the words she spoke at the hustings brings into question her own integrity as well as that of the Conservative Party as a whole. They took part in a coalition in 2010 which is why their manifesto was severely adapted, then the 2015 manifesto promises by David Cameron were jettisoned by Theresa May a year later and this years manifesto which was adjusted on an almost daily basis after its publication has been similarly ignored as May and Mordaunt desperately cling to power despite their own lies and deceit. Politics has clearly changed and we need to consider if manifestos are worth the paper they are written on.