How would it be different right now if Labour had won the last General Election?

[Dobbytheelf]

I've seen posts on Facebook from people who are saying that Boris is doing a shit job and that a vote for the Tories was a vote against the NHS etc from friends I know are very Labour and praising posts from people who were very vocally Conservative during the Election. There's nothing very specific though and I don't want to ask on there but if anyone on here has strong feelings either way what do you think would be different if Corbyn had won and was PM? I don't think I'm particularly intelligent on such matters and I don't have a strong affiliation to any party really so I'm interested to know what others who are/ do think. Is BJ doing a good job and could JC have done better? What would Jeremy Corbyn and his cabinet be putting in place now do you think?

@BovaryX did you mean to be so rude

Considering a lot of Boris's plans that have been well received by the press are lifted straight from the Labour manifesto of 2017 and 2019 (the ones they slated them for before), I hardly think McDonnell is making it up.

Oh and nice to see Boris has found that "magic money tree" May used to slag a nurse off who asked about pay rises.

HTH

@BiBiBirdie
Grow up.

Did I hit a Tory nerve there @BovaryX?

Be thankful you have Tories in charge of the NHS in England.

We have a labour run NHS in Wales.

Were screwed, they can't even test enough people a day, I think we're at 4000 tests a day, and they want to get to 9000 a day by the end of April compare that to your 100,000 tests a day for NHS England. We have 13 hospitals for 3.3 million people, many have been shut down under labour spending cuts and something like fewer than 500 ICU beds.

There are no hospitals at all in Powys one of the largest councils land wise.

Hotspot at the moment is Newport and surround areas, it's like a war zone in their hospitals.

We are in trouble, we all know it, we are waiting for it to hit.

We have multigenerational households, much like Italy and Spain. It's not uncommon to have 4 generations alive at the same time living if not in the same house only a few streets away.

NHS Wales will be brought to its knees, labour have not managed it well, it's been in debt and failing for years.

I was wondering this too DobbytheElf listening to the daily press conference earlier today.

As a Labour voter, I have to say I think it would have been harder to introduce lockdown. I think Boris Johnson has the sort of reputation that if he says ‘I’m closing the pubs’, then people know it’s serious. I also think there would have been more opposition to the Chancellor’s measures. Thinking back to foot and mouth or the financial crisis, I think Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were very calm and in control but I don’t feel it really helped them in terms of attracting public support for what they did.

When there is a real crisis, I think most UK governments behave quite similarly. By contrast, I think Barack Obama would have been very different to Donald Trump.

Did I hit a Tory nerve there @BovaryX?

Please. Surely you already know? Tories like me don't have nerves. Nor hearts. We have liquid nitrogen running through our veins.....

Labour are used to being an opposition - not to actually putting things into action. If they had been in charge now it would be complete fucking chaos purely because they don’t have the experience of actually carrying out the work like the conservatives do. They would have been a very inexperienced party in government for 3 months dealing with a genuine global crisis caused by something uncontrollable. At least the conservatives know what running the country takes!

The government response to this is operational, not political. Labour can call for what ever shit they like because they don’t actually have to do it. They wouldn’t have closed borders etc, I’d bet money on it. But because they don’t have to actually DO any of it, they can demand and criticise all they want - that’s what being in opposition means!

Practically I don't think it would have been vastly different, because no one would have had enough time between the election and the pandemic to make any substantial change to anything, in terms of handling the crisis I don't think JC would have done any better job than BJ

Quite frankly no one has any idea how or if things would be different.

ANY government at the moment will have the problem that WHATEVER they do will please some of people and not others so there will always be people saying they did a great job and people saying they did a shit job and both opinions will be equally valid for a myriad of different reasons.

Thank heavens Labour lost. Corbyn would have been an utter disaster.

And thank heavens the Scottish indie lot lost as well otherwise Sturgeon would have to get out the begging bowl.

I doubt anything would've been different. It would have been a brand new government with little experience of not being in opposition. Response would be directed by civil servants and experts, as it is now. With all the same mistakes. Pretty much no country has got this "right" since nobody has ever experienced it. And apart from Germany, no country has the rainy day money to fund it. Jeremy would've chucked money at people, sure, but he sure as hell wouldn't be able to create jobs to back it up. We'd probably be Venezuela in no time.

If Labour had won in December? I don't think things would be much different. They couldn't have undone the mess a decade of the Conservative austerity had made of the NHS in three months.

@BovaryX haha that's hilarious!

The tories are doing a terrible job. Even the torygraph can see it and have been critical. Lots of things wouldnt be any different now if labour won as they couldn't have made up for chronic underfunding of the NHS in the space of 2 months.

I would hope they would have acted quicker with contingency plans from February time and not turned down the chance to work with Europe. Maybe they would have done something about travel in and out of the country sooner.

They wouldnt have followed the idiotic herd immunity plan I dont think so we would have been in lockdown quicker without that bullshit. And they would have been less concerned about trying to keep the economy going for so long.

I think labour understand better that actually a stitch in time saves nine. Tories dont seem to get that at all .

I hate the conservatives with a passion, but I think they've handled this quite well. I don't think labour would've done much better. I think the main difference would've been the media's reaction to the measures.

Boris' reluctance to lock everything down was reported as him putting the economy before lives (ignoring the fact that people die during recessions). I think the same papers would've accused a Labour government of ignoring the economy and leading Britain into a recession. It fits into the oversimplified narrative of cold-hearted tories and the well meaning but completely impractical Labour Party.

Not much different. Note that pretty much all governments are imposing broadly the same measures. Some moved early than others, but there's very little difference in overall approach.

I think Labour would have been more inclined to pay money directly to people rather than via employees - and I predict that if they HAD it would have been a shitshow because I don't know of any system in place to pay everyone money, without each person having to go through an application process that would immediately implode under demand.

Are you not bothered by their consistent lies at every press conference?

I haven’t heard anything from the Labour party for weeks.

The British press tend not to be Labour leaning, I think we would be in roughly the same place, but the press would be more questioning and a bit less supportive.

Honestly?

The lockdown would have happened sooner as it should have.

They’d have not pratted about getting vital equipment bought and to the right people ASAP

Agree with pp money to those laid off albeit temporarily would have been paid to them direct not via their employers.

This govt and Johnson in particular have been an utter disgrace throughout!

Labour couldn’t have reversed 10 years of health and social care (and every other public service) cuts, but they could and I think would have prioritised lives and health over millionaires profits!

Of course firm, decisive Corbyn, who showed such strong leadership over Brexit would have handled it so much better.

What do you think he would have done differently GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER?

I can’t help but wonder how Corbyn would have dealt with the fact that he himself falls into the high risk category, being over 70 and would have to follow guidance and isolate. How would that have worked?

Hahaha

Is all I can say

That and thank fuck it's not them in charge...

Imagine Corbyn and Abbott running the country...

The stuff of nightmares.

I'm not sure they would have done any better than the government are doing, and I think there would also have been a lot less cross-party co-operation than there is currently. There's no way the tories wouldn't have taken every opportunity for political point scoring. And the media would be firmly putting the boot in too, re spending etc.

Interesting point that Corbyn is over 70 - I don't know how that would have been handled.