After three years in office, truth has become a major casualty at the hands of Tony Blair's increasingly disingenuous and out-of-touch Government.

Treated as easily hoodwinked voting fodder, the electorate at large is now not surprisingly reacting with an unprecedented degree of contempt and cynicism which, if unchecked, threatens to undermine the nation's democratic processes.

Blair's army of spin doctors is out in force to bombard us with seemingly astronomic figures (many double or tripled counted) of the Government's pre-election spending promises.

But one figure will surely put the whole process in perspective, namely this year's 75p increase in pensions - in real terms the smallest and most insulting in history and virtually negated by the huge increases in council, petrol and other stealth taxes.

-Michael Williams, Roedean Road, Brighton