What did the Conservatives ever do for us ? AKA lets apportion blame where it is due [smile]

Johnson definitely said he’d shaken hands with people when it wasn’t known how many deaths of the elderly it would cause. I washed my hands more but I didn’t think it would bother me that much if I caught it, I regarded it like flu and I have had worse flu than covid. I don’t know anyone that died of Covid or has long Covid either but obviously they exist!

Furlough was a lifesaver, £400 towards my all electric bill of my tiny but ancient house actually helped a lot and £150 refund of my council tax bill was great. I do remember Starmer largely backing whatever the Govt said at the time in solidarity and it was so mature to just back it in a weird time. Not just bitch.

Gay marriage.

Maybe Labour can commit to building the prisons the Conservative Govt didn’t build and then when they’re up and running, stop the 40% of sentence policy. It would benchmark where they have achieved what the Tories couldn’t.

I’m looking forward to their fixing everything. They do have a cabinet with logic applied, I’m glad to see they’re pressing ahead with banning puberty blockers for children and Starmer did the diplomatic thing to say Biden wasn’t demented (or words to that effect). Nothing’s gone wrong in week 1!

Why, why, why did they do fuck all about the prison situation?

Reprehensible.

Same sex marriage only became law because of a large number of MPs from other parties supporting it.

Do you know where I could find him on Youtube doing that? I don't actually remember him doing that precise thing, but I do remember that there was a time early on when even the WHO was saying masks weren't necessary but our government was telling us to wash our hands, very carefully. The thought was that the C might be spread by hands on trolleys et cetera, so we had to put the gel on our hands and the trolley handles and we had those squirty machines at the doors of the shops. M and S anti-bacterial hand slurp smelled nicer than some others! I remember when we were being told to wash our hands in all directions, not unlike surgeons do, and I recall Mr. Gove on a news programme telling us what the recommendation was at the time, wash for as long as singing 'Happy Birthday' through twice. Those of us with any sense were listening to the recommendations. At the time it wasn't really known if it was spread in the air. Later, the WHO decided masks were good. It was a damn nuisance to wear the masks with spectacles, but I did it.

-

This is a brilliant explanation where the Covid money including the furlough scheme came from and where did they go.

I meant as PM. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad he’s gone but compared to what came before he was the best of a bad bunch.

That’s hilarious. I’m remembering Boris boasting about shaking hands in a hospital where there were covid positive patients.

What’s your solution?

He is picking the pieces up from 14 years of Tory government. It’s under their watch the crisis came about.

Time for this again.

I think it's a bit Tory-defending as well as Labour-boosting.

There was a man called Abu Hamza something. Well, weren't several Home Secretaries keen to see the back of him or do I misremember? Who was Home Sec went he eventually buggered off from these shores? Tory Theresa May. Yes, no doubt someone will pounce on me and say really it was Jeremy Corbyn on the quiet who got rid of him but I shall choose not to believe it.

Huge cuts to legal aid meaning hardly anybody qualifies anymore. Underfunding so there are very few lawyers who will do legal aid work even if you do qualify.
No dentists in most of the country.
An NHS which is itself in need of cpr.
Rivers and seas full of sewage.
Wasted £310 million on rwanda scheme
Roads so full of potholes they are dangerous to drive on
Made us an international joke with brexit and revolving door at number 10
Lost billions of trade with brexit
Lost people their homes with the mini budget
Normalised lying in public office and cronyism to a degree never known before
Incited hatred of disabled people
Incited racism
Had to be forced to feed desperate children by a footballer
Shame after shame after shame really.

@FinalCeleryScheme no one is forcing you to read it 🤷‍♀️

Yet another nauseating MN Labour boosting thread.

We all know the Tories failed and have been kicked out. Now, live on Labour’s record - too early to say, obviously, but FFS be sensible. It’s like being inside an Islington Labour branch meeting on here.

I don't think there is/was an intention by either party to let out rapists and murderers before their time but Rory Stewart, this morning, said that some people who are in prison are there because they haven't paid their Council Tax. They are not exactly a danger to society. Surely they could be punished in some way without taking up a prison cell.

Edit to say I have considered withholding Council Tax and getting sent to prison for a little while to see how nasty it is, but now THEY have been to see to the potholes - for the time being at least - I have no reason not to pay it.

What I was wondering about Rishi Sunak, in the post which led to this one of yours, was whether he is by nature longing to be a personality star of the show or whether he would just have soon had the eat-out-to-help-out announced and stayed in the office and not gone to get publicity shots for the party. If you felt that I was being a bit mocking and flippant, I most likely was, but of the 'PR machine' rather than of RS himself.

Somewhere on Mumsnet I have agreed with others that his leaving speech outside no.10 was good, and that he and Keir Starmer said respectful things about one another. I said they set a good example by that.

Have you read my 23.02 post of yesterday evening? The fact of furlough is very much not lost on me. When he came out with his first proposals they were generally well met, I think. I wrote 4 or so posts then - 23.02. The tenor of them is definitely not 'Tories all wicked, Labour all wonderful'. I'm the one who hasn't jumped on an illiterate band-wagon of 'All Tories are twats'.

I am old. I couldn't get work in my chosen job in the later 1970s because of a number of reasons which included the financial mess that the Labour government was making and I got on my bike and went to do a job way lower than my academic abilities would suggest, way before Mr. Tebbit told us to get on our bikes, so I'm not forecasting anything for this new government. I'm waiting to see.

And

Rishi Sunak’s government released more than 10,000 prisoners up to 70 days early, figures reveal, as the new justice secretary prepares to announce further emergency measures to ease another overcrowding crisis in jails.

Ministry of Justice figures show that 10,083 prisoners were allowed to walk free under the end of custody supervised licence (ECSL) scheme between October 2023 and June 2024 in England and Wales.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/12/over-10000-prisoners-freed-70-days-early-sunak-government

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd1jxmrk11yo

@Iffx

"I blame Bojo for brexit - a high profile, charismatic campaign from him. To a lesser extent, I also blame Corbyn"

Actually I don't blame either- Boris, Farage, Cummings and to a lesser extent Corbyn placed the loaded gun on the table. 17 million voters chose to pick it up, put it to their heads and pull the trigger.

I'm in my 60s but my son who doesn't live in the UK got his way before me. They got one out a few days before other countries who rapidly overtook us with the roll out. Then they shouted a lot about how well they'd done.

Well, no, they didn't have to introduce austerity, they could invested in infrastructure and jailed the bankers, as Iceland did, and then they wouldn't have left us in the shit as they did.

It was a choice. Because they don't care about anyone other than themselves and their mates...

The last time Labour left power, the finances were a mess which is the whole reason why the Conservatives had to introduce austerity measures in the first place. Why should future generations be saddled with our debt? Now all the years of austerity will be for nothing as Labour blows the finances yet again.

I take it that reading is not one of your particular set of skills...

Meanwhile it has been confirmed today that Labour are indeed reducing prison sentences to 40%. What an absolute joke. What sort of message does that send out? The population is increasing. Build more prisons. But no, just let them out earlier and earlier and hey presto no more over crowding but at the expense of more crime and people feeling even less safe than they did before. Wonder what they have in store for us next?

The problem is that the tories have left the country and public services in a terrible state with low growth and outside the single market. Labour now has to clear up the terrible mess and will be blamed for not being able to wave a magic wand and instantly fix everything.