To wonder if people prefer the last government to this one?

Agree. I’m almost missing Boris at this point. The sneering, nasty attitude toward ‘little Englanders’ (aka non-Champagne socialists that actually work, take their responsibilities seriously and do mental things like plan for their retirement) is vile.

I'm not an economist so this is only my lay person's understanding but it's because it's not a real debt. Countries are independent and control their own currency and money. The stock market know this and play with it, trading currency and bonds. But while it's real in that the financial crash really hurt people, it's not real in that the bailiffs will be round and the King will lose his house.

Remember all the fuss about the UK losing it's Triple A credit rating? Doesn't seem to have hurt our financial institutions.

So it's a big meaningless. Better to invest in your country.

Your Party then is it? The Greens? Antisemitism, men masquerading as women enabled to do whatever they like, a welfare state that finally eclipses all other spending put together, and blind support for Russia and Hamas? No bloody thank you.

@FranticSemantics ,
Is that not because the USA is a huge country with many more people?

If not could you please explain?

Labor are CONSIDERABLY worse than last Tory. Rishi knew what he was talking about and warned about Labor.

Apart from unionised public sector and benefits claimants I don't know anyone who's situation improved thanks to this shit show of government, but it became much worse for millions of people and more is yet to come.

Sunak had a deep understanding of just how bad the state of the economy was - and that is why he called a snap election. He had a party of pernicious charlatans and knew the path ahead was an incredibly tough one. He wanted out and who could blame him. I didn’t vote for labour however they are trying to rebuild services that have been decimated, and doing it under a campaign of propaganda and misinformation from media outlets owned by billionaires.

The reality is that this is the new normal. We have an aging population making more and more demands on the NHS and on local government for care services. We have too few workers per elderly person and the costs are just insurmountable. Every single government in the last 50 years has know that societal demographics were changing but nothing was done. We hear more about the triple lock than we do about the every day financial pressures on working people/families.

The UK has slavishly dedicated itself to capitalism. Rampant free market economics, and a rapid shift to a knowledge based and services driven economy with little room for those who don’t fit this system. Since 1979 there has been no program for affordable housing and no rent control - effectively leaving people to the mercy of free markets.

Since the end of the second world war we have had more years under Conservative leadership than any other party.

We reap what we sow.

I raised 3 children with send under the tories and the decline in education and healthcare services, over the years, was clear and shocking.

I was pleased when Labour won but, so far, have been utterly underwhelmed and disappointed!

They are less shit than the tories but still shit.

Nobody gave us Brexit, we had to campaign and work for a Referendum. In a free vote the British chose to leave. Some voted leave because The EU was getting more and more controlling and LESS democratic. We did not know what the Bureaucrats would control next.
That was one event.
The second event was how the politicians reacted and negotiated. Teresa May tried to over-ride the decision and we were faced with "Brexit In Name Only". Remember?
Boris turned out to be useless, worse than useless in the negotiations. He refused to consult or involve any Leave Euro MPs. The people who knew how it worked. .

The current government suffers from the same problem that the Liberal Democrats did in the coalition - there is a vociferous constituency within their voter base (and among their MPs, which Clegg didn't suffer) which still thinks of itself as a protest movement, untethered from and unhindered by reality, and not as a serious party of government.

So, like Cameron but for different reasons, Sir Keir is held to ransom by a lunatic fringe in his own party which only has fleeting contact with the concept of responsible government.

I have never voted Labour, or Conservative, in my life but I thought the last General Election gave us the best of the realistically possible outcomes. I also believe that both Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves are decent, honourable and well-advised people genuinely trying to do their best for the country with the very difficult hand they have been dealt. It's actually quite painful for me to watch Sir Keir's own backbenchers undermine him at every opportunity.

The UK is a desperately poor country which is convinced it's still rich, and it is gripped by the biggest migration problem in its history - that of millions of chickens coming home to roost.

‘Poor people’ who work benefit from tax cuts
I’m sick of the level of entitlement in this country, and I’m sick of working and paying tax so that an ever growing UC budget can be funded

so no, I’m not happy to pay more tax so that people ‘can stay at home with their babies’. You want to do that, somebody should be working to support that choice. Sure lots of us had SAH parents, the other parent worked to give that choice, it wasn’t a given that the state funds it.

we all suffer from lack of investment in services, everybody is happy to pay tax to improve them. I’m done with paying them to fund other people’s lifestyle choices

Yes, some of that deficit was due to government investment and stimulus after the financial crisis, and yes, other countries like the US carry large debt. But what matters is the deficit relative to GDP, and by that measure, the UK’s finances in 2010 were in a far worse state than many suggest. Claims that Labour left the country in better shape simply don’t match the numbers.

Overall I think the Tories were reaping what they'd sown in losing. Although it's also the case that after 14 years people often just want a change and issues have built up. I don't think, on a worldwide scale, they did horribly on covid, and I suspect Labour would have been worse on that one. But BJ lacked personal disapline and that continuously fucked him.

However, I think Sunak would have done a fairly good job if he'd had the chance. Labour seems to be making stupid decision after stupid decision.

Exactly - he said it was a joke - there certainly was money left. It's also parliamentary convention that private notes left for successors are just that- private. The incoming Tory didn't do that- for party political gain.

Secondly, we had a deficit at that point because we had invested in the country. Tories are obsessed with the national debt- the country with the biggest debt is the USA and they also have the world's strongest economy.

100%
Voted Labour
Always have
Now will never ever vote for them again

What was “discredited”? The deficit figure certainly wasn’t, it comes directly from OBR. Their working paper clearly states: „Net borrowing(…) reaching £157 billion, or 11 per cent of GDP, in 2009–10.”

As for the “no money left” note was written and later confirmed by Liam Byrne. He did later explain that it was a joke

@malificent7 ,
“So let me get this straight: many would rather vote for someone who was a member of the facist party at university”
Could you provide evidence of this please? I’m aware that the propaganda machine is in full force where Mr Farage and the Reform Party are concerned. I have actually searched for some time to find any information about this.
The only thing I can find is that when he was 13 years old he was suggested to his headmaster as a prefect and another teacher who didn’t even personally know him objected because they said they had heard he was a Facist.

It really is quite unacceptable to throw around unsubstantiated accusations of this type and more fool anyone who believes them without fact checking. Was that what you were hoping for?

Ah Tony Blair the master of Spin.

You know that's been discredited, dont you?

Sunak I think would have made a good leader. He had a grasp of economics. Reeves is a stupid foolish Chancellor who is massively out of her depth and seems to think taxing everything that is moving will allow growth. The billionaires and millionares are leaving, two members of my wider family have already gone (one to Dubai) and lets not scoff - its not as though its better here.

The benefits bill is sprialling out of control. If we arent careful the people on benefits will outvote the people funding their benefits. On a previous post I came out with some ideas how we reduce. The usual suspects bleated that PIP is really difficult and to remember Covid and the MH issues that caused. How come we are the only country who seem to spray money out like this.

Couple of ideas.

Withdraw the Triple Lock
Keep the two child benefit rule
Make every PIP face to face
Make the criteria higher. Dont just cave in
Why are 1 in 8 of our young people lounging around? Not in education or work. They cannot all have MH issues and its Ok to sometimes feel worried and anxious about things. Stop dumbing it down.

To all saying that previous government mismanaged finances, let remember a bit of context here.

When the Conservatives came into power in 2010, they inherited a budget deficit of around £160 billion, one of the largest in modern UK history. Even Labour’s outgoing Treasury Minister left that now-famous note saying, “I’m afraid there is no money.” Yes, there was still a deficit when the Conservatives left, but it was far lower and in a much better state than what they inherited. So before throwing around claims of “economic mismanagement,” it’s worth remembering which government started with the biggest hole to fill…

I'm a lifelong Labour voter and I am a little disappointed in the government. More so for not presenting a strong narrative rather than their policy choices - there are millions of wealthy farmers and pensioners. I know from personal family experience of people buying farms from retiring small farmers with no family as a tax dodge (the one I'm thinking of will save at least £500,00 in IHT). I have no problem with the wealthy paying more or receiving less to help out struggling families - that's what I voted for. But the government have explained themselves badly or not at all, allowed opponents to capture the narrative and well-intentioned policies have been branded as bad.

Also as pp have said, the level of hatred and vitriol directed at Keir Starmer is quite surprising- very hostile media coverage. Boris Johnson lies, skives off, is corrupt and cruel but Starmer is worse because he hasn't sorted everything out yet???

14 years of Tories fuched our country - no investment in anything but their rich friends. You can't turn that around in a year!

Finally, we all do have short memories - remember Tony Blair's Labour government's? Child poverty reduced by a third, NHS waiting lists slashed and hospitals built - they did alright.

The expectations from some (if this website is to be considered a fair representation of the public at large) are a bit insane. It seems people have forgotten who was responsible for the decline of the country and expect it to have been resolved by now. All whilst not paying anymore tax.

Labour are, however, making too many mistakes. They’ve tried to appease reform voters at the cost of losing people who might actually vote for them to the Green Party. They’ve tried to out racist the racist. Continue to blame immigrants for everything. It’s disappointing.

well that's good news, but it's got nothing to do with the government. Your local highways authority is responsible for road repairs.

It was the Tory government who made a decision to hold a referendum on Brexit. You cannot pretend it was not their referendum.

Also I will say as somebody who moved out of the UK just at the start of the last Tory government and returned near the end the gradual decline I saw as I visited was quite unlike anything I had witnessed in all my years prior to the last government. Also I will never forgive them for introducing two tier citizenship.