Who was PM during the best of times for you?

@MarshaBradyo are you in oldham ?

Were you living here at the end of the tory's period of power in 1997 ? If so you'll remember the state of the infrastructure then. The schools with roofs falling in and unfit for use ?
The northern town that I moved to in 1990 is an absolute dump now.
300,000 people and no shops apart from vape and charity shops, nail bars, beggars at every set of traffic lights, 1 in 4 (if not more) shops empty, big M and S shuts next week, no nicer home because I've not had a proper wage rise for years,
zilch career progression. Maybe things are fine if you're in Hampstead or wherever in a well paid industry. Sadly healthcare is a low priority for this government...

Blair/Brown (I'm 52) Worked in NHS then, proper funding finally. Tories had been trying to close all the community hospitals, got back in restarted their work. Work in social care now which is an utter shit show!

Blair. It felt like life was easier. Public services were adequately funded, no stress trying to access health care.

In answer to this 49, 3 dc who actually were born under Labour government and recent one all same pretty good care especially improved ante natal as new swish centre for last, very good schools now.

Private sector so not paid by state, biggest impacts have been 30 free hours which were good and awful lockdowns which were not.

I wonder if it coincides with the increasing dominance of social media as well?

Remember at the Queen's funeral when the former living PMs walked into the Abbey? The first three - great. Then Cameron and May - well, alright. Then Boris fucking Johnson. He looked like the disgrace he is.

Mine would have been John Major, not that I think he did a good job or anything but I was young and seemed to have more money. I remember when Tony Blair got in, the cost of everything seemed to go up, council tax etc. However, after I had children, I'm not sure if Tony Blair was still in power or if it was Gordon Brown, but after really struggling for a while the tax credits were introduced which meant we were suddenly a lot better off.

The thing that I’ve noticed is that Major and Blair seem to say pretty much the same things these days. I think 2010 was a real tipping point in British politics, it seems to have marked the end of old school politicians with integrity and conviction.

When I hear him interviewed nowadays about what is going on, I generally agree with every word. I don't know whether that is because former PMs are generally more palatable than current PMs with a few glaringly obvious exceptions. Similarly Theresa May - I think she has conducted herself very well since she was forced out, and it took a lot of character to go back to the back benches and continue to work hard for her constituents.

He was a really excellent constituency MP even when he was PM. He was my MP and I really couldn’t fault him. And I’ve never voted Tory in my life!

I might have missed it, but I don't think anyone on this thread claimed that Major was nice?

Blair and Brown. I earn 2-3 x as much now and feel 3 x as anxious

Cameron was in when I first became an adult/aware of politics. So. Him I guess. 🤷🏻‍♀️ not much to say really 😂

Not just MW (which Tories opposed and said would cost millions of jobs), but rights to paid holiday too. That "nice" Mr Major opposed limits to working hours too.

Wow I didn't realise MW was such a recent thing!

Well it was him who was sent to lie to the Queen in 2019 to prorogue parliament.

Rees Mogg also went after the Standards Committee & Kathryn Stone with regard to Paterson. I think its fair to say that he's not a huge fan of parliamentary oversight or sovereignty generally.

It's deliberately disingenuous - he isn't thick, he is pretty good at the mental gymnastics required to justify his massive and continued hypocrisy.

Deliberately disingenuous gets my vote.

For clarity I’m not arguing Johnson shouldn’t face it

But I haven’t seen convincing reason Blair didn’t

But I was against the war as many others were

So is proroguing Parliament and lying to the head of State about it, and holding ludicrous illegal celebratory piss-ups when people are dying and can't have people at their funeral. A total lack of respect and decency.

Ah thank you I was wondering where that particular odd piece of Tory "logic" had come from - I should have known really.

I haven’t heard anything from JRM but I did listen to committee

I found partygate ludicrous and painful all round but the committee was fairly convincing that misleading parliament is worthy of scrutiny and consequences

A faked dossier for war is a big deal

Jacob Rees Mogg on GB News has been arguing that Blair didnt go before the Privileges Committee and therefore Johnson shouldnt have to.

Which suggests that nobody should go before the Privileges Committee because Blair didn't.

(I think that would actually suit a lot of MPs).