My mother, now 88, with severe osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, fell and broke a bone in her back, and fractured her sternum and elbow.

She was in need of immediate nursing care but, for reasons unknown to us, was not admitted into hospital.

I contacted 46 care homes here in Cumbria (private and otherwise) to no avail. They were either fully booked or short staffed. We finally accepted the last room available in a care home just over an hour's journey from here, in Lancashire.

We are, we're told, living longer. However, no cure would appear to have been found for osteoporosis, dementia, incontinence, loss of sight, loss of hearing, frailty, or any of the other vagaries of old age necessitating care.

Thousands will become part of an ageing population with nowhere to live and no one to care for them - but successive governments seem oblivious to this fact.

The powers that be are planning to spend upwards of 48 billion pounds on HS2 (probably much more), we continue to fritter millions of pounds a day on EU membership, and yet the country not only has a depleted stock of schools, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons - but also the staff to work in them.

I have always voted Tory and would like to continue to do so - but my patience is being severely tested.

Could someone please advise me why any sane person would buy a Ferrari if the roof of their home was leaking?

Louise Broughton

Bowness