Who was PM during the best of times for you?

I was directly affected by the 2008 crash. I knew that my employer wouldn't survive so I jumped ship before being made redundant. Most of my colleagues lost their jobs shortly afterwards. I think most people felt the impact at the time. Many ignored the fact that it was a global crash and blamed the Labour government.

I don't think it's the case that people didn't feel it at the time. It's simply that things have got so much worse since then that the memory doesn't now seem so bad. It's all relative.

Tony Blair. Things seemed optimistic, and my grandma had never been better off.

Lol at people getting upset at Labour being involved.

Our risk exposure was high.

I ve never worked in public sector & it took 5 years to rebuild because the Tories gave us Austerity.
My pensions took a hit in 2008/9 but quickly recovered, they are still 15 to 20% down since Truss over a year ago, with no signs of recovery.

Same with house prices, very sharp fall, followed by recovery, we have the reverse now & look at gilt yields? UK has some of the highest borrowing costs in Europe, even higher than the USA or Italy (30 year bond yields)

It was a global crash, new regulation was done world wide but nice try to lie and say it was Labours fault.

And responsible isn’t actually having that huge risk exposure to start with

Hence new regulation in FS shortly after

Were you in the public sector?

We were not protected when 1/4 lost their jobs and the sector shrank. It was carnage

We got through losing value on our house but only because we were not exposed on LTV but others were hit hard

You have a very rosy memory for some reason

And introduced university fees in 1998

Perhaps posters were in the public sector or recession proof sectors, or too young to recall

It was pretty big

It shrank by 10% over the year, which marked the UK's worst economic performance in 300 years. But the effects of the recession following the financial crash of 2008 had a more long-term impact: it took five years for the UK economy to get back to the size it was before the recession

Our sector was hit hard and 1/4 redundant

Houses lost big chunks of value immediately

The idea that it was something that the US just did to us ignores out the high risk exposure from FS. Which is why regulation occurred afterwards

We were deep in CDOs or whatever and booming off the back of that risk, plus paying for state stuff on credit

Of course anyone prefers the fun spending part all on risk and credit but not when the bailiffs come round. But it’s not sustainable, and clearly wasn’t hence the crash.

Global Financial Crash (started in the USA) had nothing like the impact on the economy we have had recently and if people blame labour for that, then the Tories are to blame for Covid and Ukraine.

TBH the way they dealt with Covid was fucking awful, billions wasted in fraud.

Blair is certainly the worst leader of my lifetime. Actually, I'd put him joint worst with Johnson, Truss and Cameron but for different reasons.

Of all time? Comparing him to Churchill, Ghandi, Mandela, Lincoln etc isn't even a remote comparison.

Chill out there bud!

Blair.
Greatest leader of all time

Surely you realised when the boom became a bust

Do you not recall news of the financial crash

It was a huge immediate change

Blair and Brown - like others.

Pretty much the last time I felt like the grown ups were in charge and that things were just going to keep getting better and better.

Jim Hacker, though I wasn't born when the series was first broadcast.

Probably because he is a work of fiction.

All of the real ones in my lifetime were fuckwits.

I'm earning more now but it's because of me, not because of them. I think I should be a lot better off as a 40 year old. Should own a home and be able to have a decent holiday and my own car given I have a degree, professional job and work pretty hard. Inflation and asset priceinflation/house prices and high rents have made sure this is impossible.

I would have been a lot better off if I was in this position now in the Blair years. Things like education local authorities and the NHS would actually function for a start.

This current lot are bunch of unhinged crooks. I'm not even sure they were born on this planet. Maybe David Icke was right. 😂

He said it in a news interview I watched although that's a good spot. As others have said, he wrote two news columns and landed on the side he thought dog must chance of getting him into number 10.

@verdantverdure , IMO it is impossible to connect the 1990s Tory party to the current shower.

I was, and remain, a fan of the One Nation Tory Party that governed then. Socially, much more liberal than mainstream Labour, but with business experience and economic common sense. I won't vote for a Tory front bench that JRM supports. I am happy that Sunak's Cabinet is racially representative of the nation the UK is becoming BUT there is a mountain to climb out of the economic abyss.

We need to do something more constructive than just fling money at the NHS, which will soak up almost 45% of GNP very soon, and waste much of it. A significant item in the growing waiting list is the doctor's strike. In their dreams are they going to get 35% pay increases. Take 15% catch up, and RPI.

Caring for older citizens, who worked and contributed by the rules of their day, could absorb the rest, unless we revisit Theresa May's proposals. It really isn't that unfair that old people's estates are expected to contribute to their comfort and safety in their last two or three years, but it is also reasonable to think that having paid their way and bought their houses from tax paid income, that they should be allowed to guard the last £100k (without tax) to leave to their kids, provided they have it to bequeath.

I read somewhere today that Labour plan to depthcharge the IHT free transfer of agricultural land, which I think is a GOOD plan, because (locally) I have watched wealthy people bid up its value to use it as a store of wealth without productive use for food production, knowing they can't lose, and won't pay any tax on inheritance.