Who was PM during the best of times for you?

I wouldn't have thought so maybe it's because it was a long stretch of time that was so different to the years prior.

Blair / Brown for us

@HappiestSleeping Yes i do always vote, i d never ruin my ballot paper, it just encourages them.
I think i will vote for whoever looks like getting out the incumbent Tory.

Must admit i didn't realise Blair had a financial interest in oil companies, i did check.

Contemporary Circus sounds very tough, Bath Spa offer it and its full on performing and directing but i would like to think that people who do this, would try to work in the relevant sector.

Imho people in the UK don't pay enough tax to feel entitled to so many "free" things, if we want European levels of public service, we are going to have to pay European tax levels and get rid of Trident.

I don't think people are entitled as such - we pay quite a lot in tax for health services and other services, so we are paying for it and shod expect it to be there when we need it. We also pay private companies lots of money, so would expect the same and not to expect them to do things like polite our waters abd make us ill.

Some things are about basic rights, for instance a child with SEN should be able to access a suitable education, which isn't happening for all children now. I think this 'everyone's entitled' attitude has allowed the government to not really do their job and build a functioning, growing country and instead has allowed corruption and plundering from wealthy elites to be rife. We have bailed out businesses and banks and they never change their behaviour, always expect bailouts to be funded by tax payers. That's pretty fucking entitled if you ask me.

@Howpo

Yes, I agree about the personal responsibility. I am probably viewing the sense of entitlement as changing maybe because it came into my consciousness as a thing as I became aware of politics. Maybe it was there before. The fact that many expect to take out but complain about putting in verifies your point.

I was being facetious about the underwater basket weaving, I just meant that the majority of applicants I get for jobs now have degrees in weird and wonderful things, whereas they used to have degrees relevant for the workplace. I had a guy rock up for a senior position very proud of his achievement of a degree in contemporary circus.

It is true that Blair could not have gone to war without the whole due process and getting a vote through parliament, and it is also true that there were apparent threats that needed dealing with. It is also true that it didn't hurt his bank account as his investments in oil companies did very well as a result. I don't imagine he sleeps easily at night, but it is more comfortable crying in a Mercedes-Benz than it would be on a bicycle.

For years I've spoilt my ballot paper as it's the only way to vote for 'none of the above', but this is now too important to do that. The Conservatives cannot be allowed to continue to screw up the country. They're too detached from reality.

Lionel Jospin 😉

@HappiestSleeping

For me, the sense of entitlement has always been there, the NHS, free education, social security safety net!
What has probably changed is personal responsibility has been removed, its always someone else's fault.

The UK is still about average for numbers of students who get a degree, we really did lag behind before & i don't know any Uni that offers a course in basket weaving, the issue we have now is student debt.

I don't think Blair went to war for personal gain, i think he had no choice, Sadam had used WMD in the past, no evidence he had destroyed them and Blair took the USA at face value.
What if Sadam had stayed in power, then used them on the Marsh Arabs, attacked Kuwait with them?
We'd all be saying Blair has their deaths on his hands!

Anyway, on balance, i'd still say Blair! but agree on EU and Starmer - not sure who i will vote for.

All of those things are true, but eventually any government would have done that as the alternative would be to raise taxes and that wouldn't win elections.

In my humble opinion, the Blair government introduced a sense of entitlement to the generations since. I think he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Take obtaining a degree. Controversial this may be but not everyone should have a degree. Everyone should have the chance to strive for one though which I think was his intention. What actually happened was that people now have a degree in underwater basket weaving and it's devalued the whole education system.

Since Blair there also seems to have been a shift of nobody taking responsibility for their own actions. It's always up to a mysterious 'they' to sort it out.

It can't be laid at the door of any single party though, as they are all as bad as each other. I think maybe a better question might be to asl which prime minister do you believe genuinely had the best interests of the UK at heart? For me this definitely is not Blair, who went to war for personal gain, i would say Brown did, i think Thatcher did although again didnt necessarily do the right things, i think May did but the rest? Not really. John Smith probably would have been good, or David Milliband.

@verdantverdure Blair did continue selling council houses when he could have stopped doing so.

I think the current system is unworkable now. I am politically homeless as I don't trust any of them. Starter isn't inspiring any sort of confidence, and I could never vote for the party that took us out of the EU.

Thatcher also encouraged the 'I'm alright Jack, sod the poor' mentality that seems to be prevalent now. The 'greed is good ' decade. I think a lot of this attitude came via the US but it was definitely fostered by the Thatcherite Tories.

I think the biggest issues we are facing is on cost of living, so housing and rents - Thatcher sold off council housing, effectively privatising social housing for the least well off.
She also privatised our utilities (so can charge what they like) and failed to put in a state controlled system for North sea oil (as Norway did) so this golden opportunity wasted.

So think we need to go back a decade or two before we blame Blair.

Blair caused most of the problems we are suffering today and the conservatives made it worse with Brexit and the Trussterfuck.

Blair for me. I wasn't 18 nor was I carefree.

Wilson and Callaghan.

I was 18 when Wilson got elected for the second time. I had a public sector job and my wages went up loads of times. I was 19 when I left home, and moved into a really cheap, but big, rented flat with my boyfriend and another friend.

I have never felt so well off as I did then. We had at least two holidays a year, ran cars, I bought my work clothes in Jaeger and all my shoes came from Russell & Bromley, we were always going out: seeing bands, eating out, going to the theatre, the races, all sorts of stuff.

Then Thatcher got elected and it all went to shit.

Blair for me.

Blair. I can vividly remember the relief when labour got in.

I went from struggling with pennies to having my child credit tripling in 2 weeks.

I also had support to do my degree.

Our lives visibly improved from then on.

Blair/Brown

Mine is Rishi Sunak as I'm probably the happiest I've been? Touch wood don't want to jinx it!

Blair I was a kid/teen, Brown also, David Cameron a young mum had no money at all, trained to be a teacher, hated it, left. Was poor again.

The May/Boris/Truss times I had a job again, had another child, etc.

Hated Covid era and struggled with secondary infertility during this time.

Rishi I finally fell pregnant again, have more money in my job etc, children happy, have happy marriage so all in all- as I've always been relatively poor haha- now is my best era. Also feel more confident in myself.