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?

I think the last election was best lost, this is a poison chalice.

The Tory party have made cuts and ignored reports over the years and can’t lay the blame elsewhere for the shortcomings now.

To decline valuable help from Europe of ventilators then blatantly lie about it, is grim

To suggest that we should take this virus on the chin was more than insulting

I get that your both grateful that Làbour are not in power @beautifulteeth and @puds11, but how do you think it would be different right now if Labour had won the last General Election?

“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?”

That’s what I was going to write.

Theresa May has type 1 diabetes and Johnson is obese, so neither are ‘safe’

@wafflyversatile couldn't agree more.

I firmly believe that at the beginning, Boris was far more keen to cover up how much the underfunding and lack of staff numbers was going to impact the NHS' ability to cope.

I also think the numbers skyrocketing now are linked to Cheltenham, which should have been cancelled, along with Crufts and Half Term travel for non-essential reasons.

Cummings was quoted as saying it was basically tough if some old people died as a way of saving the economy. That's peak Tory, all they care about is their wealthy mates.

I also cannot fathom why they blocked help from the EU, other than to think it was so Boris can still make EU into the bad guy and push on with Brexit. Imagine he had said yes please EU, can we have some of your equipment? Then said we are leaving regardless. Even the daftest of gammon would have been hard pressed to find a reason to still leave.

Labour may not have been able to turn around the chronic underinvestment in healthcare, and the Police/army who also have vital roles to play, but they wouldn't have engaged in a cover up as they weren't responsible.

@DioneTheDiabolist I have no idea where you managed to read I was grateful labour aren’t in, but sure, put words in my mouth

I think it would be very different in that the Prime Minister would be isolating for a minimum of 12 weeks and falls into the high risk category. I would not be reassured by that at all. That would be my concern.

I also worry that the advice to isolate the elderly would have been delayed as it would have directly impacted Corbyn himself.

The question should be how would things be different now for the NHS if the Tories hadn't of been peddling austerity for 10 years?

@raydeeo

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Actually that might have been a good thing. He would still have been able to have meetings but we would have seen him self isolating and taken it seriously rather than boris failing to follow his own advice.

We’d all be on emergency basic income instead of letting businesses take the piss with bailouts and furloughing staff when they don’t absolutely have to.

Emergency wealth tax

Requisition private hospital beds

Act sooner to control transmission

Other than that-this crisis has shown Corbyn was right about so much. Broadband access, healthcare, even the role of government.

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

Imagine Corbyn and Abbott running the country...

The stuff of nightmares*

Perhaps you've not seen the news for the past month or so or you'd realise the nightmare is real.

Especially for chronically under funded NHS whose workers will die saving tory voters like you.

I truly despise the tories, and everything they stand for. I’ve never voted for them and morally, I could not.

I’m finding their sudden outburst of love and care for NHS nauseating considering they are the party that has voted for and made cuts to it over the years. Many many departments have been crippled for years and have been told “there’s no magic money tree” or other similar sound bites and quite frankly it’s bullshit.

This government have acted slow and are still putting their selves above others. The tories have such a deep rooted devotion to protecting the rich that many people will die indirectly from the affects of this virus.

I think labour would have looked after the smaller, more vulnerable people first, and not prioritised the bigger, richer companies.

I also think calling out football players saying they should play their part is a farce. The clubs should yes, but it’s not the individual players responsibility, despite many of them doing things off their own backs anyway. Take a look at Marcus Rashford. Has Hancock taken a pay cut? Has he donated meals to vulnerable. I bloody doubt it.

As for Rishi saying the offers he made to the self employed were generous 🤦🏻‍♀️ Self employed people pay tax too. He tried to imply they don’t pay as much as employed people and that infuriated me. I would love to take a look at his expenses.

Yes it’s unprecedented circumstances but they are still conducting themselves in the usual Tory way. They see people as expendable unless they are multi millionaires.

If they’d won the most recent election I’m not sure we’d see significant changes. Perhaps swifter and more significant help for the very poor. If they’d won the one before however, we’d have a much more resilient country ready to deal with this crisis. A better paid, well resourced NHS. Fewer families reliant on food banks. More public servants generally - teachers, nurses, police officers. Fewer homeless people. Etc etc....

I'm also a lifelong labour person, or was. Jeremy would still be sitting on his arse dithering about what to do. Inept.

Corbyn wouldn’t be isolating, he isn’t now even as leader of the opposition. McDonnell wouldn’t be either, though with his heart condition he maybe should. He’d have been leading a lot of stuff and he is sharp. We’d probably have universal basic income. Diane Abbott would not have been in post, she was never going to be after the election. Personal stuff and ill health. Jonathan Ashworth is good at shadow health, he’d be doing a reasonable job.

This discussion is much less interesting when it’s just people going ‘Labour are shit’ or ‘the Tories are shit’. I’m a labour member but I can see that there would have been different strengths and weaknesses.

The fantastic post by raydeeo upthread says it all.

Yes, an emergency basic income would be so much simpler the plans that have been put in place.

@wafflyversatile that’s true, lead by example, unlike BoJo.

The poster who raised that it would have been better if they had won the election before this one, yes to this in spades. I was heartbroken about the most recent election but I think the one before that upset me more. That seemed to signal the beginning of the end.

I think people who talk about voting for conservative is a vote against the NHS have very short political memories considering it was the Labour government who started the cuts in the first place ,the NHS has been in a,mess for a long time neither party has done much to sort it out maybe this crisis will be the impetus do what has been needed for a long long time ,it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it until something is done about the mismanagement of it nothing will change.
This crisis however is unprecedented and no country is coming out of it looking like they have things in control.

@puds11 yes if we had of won 2017 the tide would have well been turned. Rather than the constant promise of 40 new hospitals every time and none such appearing.

It's jobs for the boys with the Conservatives. For the likes of Philip Green and Branson to be asking for a bail out, when one has 3 private yachts and the other has a private island is ridiculous. That money should be prioritised elsewhere.

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

Current Scottish MPs after 2019 GE

Scottish National Party Seats: 48
Conservative Seats: 6
Liberal Democrat Seats: 4
Labour Seats: 1

SNP up 8.1% Cons down 3.5%

Hardly 'lost' is it?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results/scotland

We perhaps wouldn't have brexited so may have acted more quickly to lock down in line with some EU countries. Plus the ventilator scheme thing.
Other than that not much-there wouldn't have been time for them to reinvest in the NHS and all that yet...

I don't know if Labour would have been better or worse really.

This crisis however is unprecedented and no country is coming out of it looking like they have things in control.

Taiwan and New Zealand do seem to be very much in control, but one has learnt previous lessons and the other has a PM who puts life before the economy. Germany has funded its health system and seems to be fairing much better than other European countries. Then there is Cuba that although suffers from political sanctions decides to send in doctors to help the Italians and lets a British ship into port, flys the healthy home and hospitalised the sick at risk to their own. Then look at Canada, right up next to US it’s a stark contrast at under 200 deaths

It's not unprecedented. The govt keep saying that to try and cover their arses. It was going to happen at some point. Plenty of agencies knew this and the govt received warnings including on NHS capacity. They did not heed those warnings and act on them preferring to continue underfunding the NHS.

@BiBiBirdie that’s what makes me the saddest. The reality is even with Labour in, this crisis would have hit and yes, it may have been handled differently, but the damage was already done It’s sad the it takes a devastating virus to force the Tory hand into funding the NHS.