Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Who was PM during the best of times for you?

718 replies

verdantverdure · 29/03/2023 22:44

Me?

Blair. Brown, first bit of Cameron.

On paper I earn more money now but everything's tits up isn't it? From the economy to shit on beaches to being able to get access to the NHS when needed.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
bizzywiththefizzy · 31/03/2023 15:20

ShandaLear · 29/03/2023 23:09

Blair. I remember the excitement of the time. New fresh thinking, improvements in health, housing, and education, proper attempts to make society a bit more fair, the Good Friday Agreement. It was a time of hope - some of it was even realised. We didn’t feel our politicians were corrupt and actively working against our best interests the way we do now.

I absolutely agree on Blair , my Husband was in the armed forces and we finally got a decent pay rise , child benefit rose too after years of it being suppressed .
Where we lived at the time there was so much hope and optimism .
The married quarters finally got the upgrades they needed after the neglect of the Thatcher years . Christ some of the kitchens were from the 1950's !

beguilingeyes · 31/03/2023 15:15

chanceofpear · 31/03/2023 09:04

@Blossomtoes the shit we are in now is entirely tied to 2008. There should have been a reset then. Instead we carried on spending the credit and now look where we are. Literally don't even own the energy produced here, corrupt and bankrupt public services. I have no time for any of them to be honest and think we have had a succession of inept government. The whole thing is a ponzi scheme and its coming down.

It was Margaret Thatcher who privatised the energy companies (and everything else she could get her hands on). That's why most of our utilities are foreign owned.

bizzywiththefizzy · 31/03/2023 15:09

mowly77 · 29/03/2023 22:49

Liz Truss for sure. Those were a few great weeks for me.

🤣🤣🤣 Very funny !

pussycatinfluffyslippers · 31/03/2023 15:06

Major/Blair
Brown, well, not his fault the US ratings agencies "opinions" were worth less than a bean.

Cameron onwards has been a shit-show.

LateMumma · 31/03/2023 15:00

Blair absolutely

Howpo · 31/03/2023 14:48

oh and it was the Tories who first used PFI and continued with it well into their 13 years of Govt.

Howpo · 31/03/2023 14:46

Kazzyhoward · 31/03/2023 14:32

@Howpo

No Govt, Tory or Labour can tie in any future administration to do a certain set of policies.

No, but they can enter into contracts which subsequent administrations are stuck with having to pay, such as Blair's PFI contracts for shiny new schools and hospitals that the taxpayer is on the tab to pay for decades!

Thats not true, most have been renegotiated and it kept Govt borrowing off the books, which came in handy for the GFC and the Covid crisis, enabling both Lab and the COns to borrow.

Plus PFI (in regard to the NHS) will cost about the same as Truss cost the country and we got SFA for her disasters.

BUT and here is the question no one wants to answer!

What would the NHS and Education look like now WITHOUT these PFI funded builds?

EnVogue · 31/03/2023 14:33

Blair/Brown too.

Kazzyhoward · 31/03/2023 14:32

@Howpo

No Govt, Tory or Labour can tie in any future administration to do a certain set of policies.

No, but they can enter into contracts which subsequent administrations are stuck with having to pay, such as Blair's PFI contracts for shiny new schools and hospitals that the taxpayer is on the tab to pay for decades!

stargirl1701 · 31/03/2023 14:20

Blair.

WestwardHo1 · 31/03/2023 14:19

but we voted to change that, not the Tories, we did

I bloody didn't.

Howpo · 31/03/2023 14:17

Blair/Brown wasted hundreds of billions on buying our votes with our own money (eg child trust fund) whilst not securing a long-term sustainable health service amongst other things

CTF cost the UK tax payer £9 billion NOT 100s of Billions but at least we got something back for that.

Unlike £21 billion given away to fraudsters.

No Govt, Tory or Labour can tie in any future administration to do a certain set of policies.

Its not how our system works, Blair Brown set the framework for NHS spending for their 13 years in power but we voted to change that, not the Tories, we did.

WestwardHo1 · 31/03/2023 14:03

cantab94 · 31/03/2023 11:39

I think the problems with the NHS are structural and my point was they should have taken advantage of their relative popularity and better finances (left by the Major government) to change the health system to something like the more efficient European ones rather than short-term measures. They could also have encouraged preventative measures and encouraged people to take more responsibility for their own health.

Show quote history

Absolutely agree with this.

WestwardHo1 · 31/03/2023 14:00

How's that "investment" working out? That is the problem with both parties and probably our electoral system in that they do not think long-term/strategically (10 years+) but just until the next election. Blair/Brown wasted hundreds of billions on buying our votes with our own money (eg child trust fund) whilst not securing a long-term sustainable health service amongst other things.

I really really wish that certain things in this country were taken out of party politics altogether and put into the hands of experts, education and health being two of them. Short term five year bullshit could be done away with, and proper long term strategic planning employed.

Yeah I know. As if🙄

Original poster
verdantverdure · 31/03/2023 13:38

Notonthestairs · 31/03/2023 12:06

I guess in return we had a decent health service and education system.
What do we have for the 100%?

Some even richer Tories.

OP posts:
Original poster
verdantverdure · 31/03/2023 13:37

pompomdaisy · 31/03/2023 13:32

I don't ever associate good times with any PM! Weird question.

You don't have to associate. Just remember.

OP posts:
pompomdaisy · 31/03/2023 13:32

I don't ever associate good times with any PM! Weird question.

Nat6999 · 31/03/2023 12:23

chancesofpear I didn't have any choice of returning full time after my maternity leave, my husband had been diagnosed with MS when I was 7 months pregnant & was unable to carry on working, he also needed caring for as well as ds who was only 9 months old. Without Tax Credits I don't know how we would have managed as we went from having £35k a year to £17k coming in.

Blossomtoes · 31/03/2023 12:17

Kazzyhoward · 31/03/2023 12:04

It was only 37% when Blair took over, so he and Brown nearly doubled it!

Show quote history

What did you expect after bailing the banks out to save the economy? It’s 100% now. It was 35.5% in 2007.

Neededanewuserhandle · 31/03/2023 12:10

Kazzyhoward · 31/03/2023 12:04

It was only 37% when Blair took over, so he and Brown nearly doubled it!

Show quote history

Very selective framing - you chose to include post 2008 which was a necessary response to the international banking crisis. If you take the period before that, borrowing was pretty flat. It really soars from 2010 on - under Tory rule.

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/

uk-debt-june-2020

UK National Debt - Economics Help

What national debt is and why important. Latest figures on National Debt and how Covid-19 will affect debt? Can we pay for the increased borrowing?

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt

Howpo · 31/03/2023 12:09

@Kazzyhoward It was only 37% when Blair took over, so he and Brown nearly doubled it!

Indeed they did, after bring it back down from 40% to 30% with a well run economy but the point is, even at 65%, Austerity wasn't needed.

The Tories then took that debt of 65% and increased it to 82% before covid hit, despite Austerity, with a badly run economy & brexit, then added £21 billion of fraud to that debt, with a cavalier attitude to public money.

Notonthestairs · 31/03/2023 12:06

I guess in return we had a decent health service and education system.
What do we have for the 100%?

Kazzyhoward · 31/03/2023 12:04

Howpo · 31/03/2023 11:57

Not so, Govt borrowing after the GFC and when the Tories took over in 2010, was 65% of GDP, it is now 100%.

There was plenty of financial headroom in 2010, an argument can be made for short term austerity i.e. 3 to 5 years but not 13 and still on going.

All our problems of under investment in nhs, education, defence, roads, transport and no Green technologies are linked to Austerity.

Its like not maintaining your house, having a leaky roof and then spending a fortune on fixing collapsed ceilings and damaged carpets but never fixing the roof... this is how the country is now run.

Yesterdays ch4 news highlighted a Oxford company designing the worlds most efficient Solar panels BUT they wont be manufactured in the UK but in Germany, the Govt wont invest, so we now import them.

Tory Britain.

Show quote history

It was only 37% when Blair took over, so he and Brown nearly doubled it!

Howpo · 31/03/2023 11:57

Blossomtoes · 31/03/2023 09:05

No, there was no money left after it was all spent bailing the bankers out to save the economy crashing completely. It would have been entirely sustainable without the crash that started in the US.

Show quote history

Not so, Govt borrowing after the GFC and when the Tories took over in 2010, was 65% of GDP, it is now 100%.

There was plenty of financial headroom in 2010, an argument can be made for short term austerity i.e. 3 to 5 years but not 13 and still on going.

All our problems of under investment in nhs, education, defence, roads, transport and no Green technologies are linked to Austerity.

Its like not maintaining your house, having a leaky roof and then spending a fortune on fixing collapsed ceilings and damaged carpets but never fixing the roof... this is how the country is now run.

Yesterdays ch4 news highlighted a Oxford company designing the worlds most efficient Solar panels BUT they wont be manufactured in the UK but in Germany, the Govt wont invest, so we now import them.

Tory Britain.