Who was the last government you were happy with?

[WhiteTilesWhiteGrout]

Following on from another thread, it seems that whenever it comes to UK parties, nobody is ever happy. Even those who are siding with - say - the Tories or Labour, are not very happy with them.

So if the party you are planning to vote for in the next elections wins, will you actually be happy with what they'll do? When was the last time you were happy with the party in power?

Because it seems that no matter who's running the country, people are never happy.

[SerendipityJane]

1979-1983
1997-2001

there is a pattern here.

[WashingAt30]

Good old Tony Blair and the first years of New Labour! I was a bit young to vote them in first time, but I would have done. Love the work they did with sure start and children's centres as just one example of many.

[ru53]

I was young in the 90s-00s so can’t tell if it was just youth but I remember there being a sense of optimism and hope.
Now when I think of the future for us and for my DC I just feel worried, some of that is down to global events but a lot due to the callousness and sheer bloody uselessness of this government.
I feel like when I was growing up there was still the idea that if you worked hard you could build a good life for yourself. Now it feels like you have to work very very hard just to get by. The systems all feel broken.

[Saucery]

Blair and New Labour for me.

[VeniVidiWeeWee]

Thatcher.

[Shinyandnew1]

I qualified, started work, bought my first house (and 2 others) and had all my children under Labour-1997-2010. Things were significantly better then.

[PhoenixFelix]

@Saucery

Blair and New Labour for me.

Agree!

[AyeupDuck]

The best time for me was the thought of The Labour Party winning with John Smith as leader. He very sadly died in 1994. I had a deep distrust of Blair and while he did some good stuff he also messed up a lot. I remember some of my friends ripping up their Labour membership cards when he won.

[thedendrochronologist]

Tony Blair for me too. What other posters saying feel familiar -sense of hope and optimism

I was 17 in 1997.

But alas it may be rose tinted spectacles

I think the electorate shocked me so much with Brexit and trump I find it hard to believe things will ever get better

[breakfastdinnerandtea]

The Tories have been in for almost my whole adult life so I barely remember anything different. I don't remember my parents ever worrying about things like I do now though.

[Cattenberg]

I don’t think I was happy with any of them to be honest. The economy boomed in the late 90s and early 2000s and the Labour government did bring in the National Minimum Wage.

However, house prices rocketed, to the point I feared I’d never own my own home and decided I’d have to emigrate (I did live abroad for two years). Labour really couldn’t have cared less about the plight of young people struggling with accommodation costs. So I still despise New Labour.

At least Margaret Thatcher enabled many people to buy their own homes (albeit this was probably not for the right reasons).

[LittleRedYoshi]

I once heard a saying that's very true: "No matter who's in power, the government is still the government."

[Mummame2222]

Blair, before the war.

[KevinDeBrioche]

Yep Blair before the war crimes.

[XDownwiththissortofthingX]

None. I'm a Scot, Governance from Westminster is unsatisfactory by it's very nature, it's immaterial precisely who the PM is or the governing party.

If you want it in terms of "least worst", then Blair, but that's hardly any sort of endorsement because it was his determination to go to war in the Gulf and Labour's decades-long contempt for Scottish voters that completely soured me on the Union, and why I will never consider voting Labour while they continue to promote it.

[Frostynight]

Early days of New Labour - 1997 to 2001.

[DrJoanAllenby]

1979-1990 after Mrs Thatchers government it all went downhill.


I no longer vote Conservative and I would never vote Labour, the two main parties are both cheeks of the same arse.

[stargirl1701]

Blair '97

[SwordToFlamethrower]

Labour during Blair's era. It was amazing. So much hope, such investment into Britain. It was a good time to have kids

[Charlie2121]

Thatcher’s government by a country mile. Blair was appalling in comparison. I’m amazed people rate him.

[Izzy24]

@WashingAt30

Good old Tony Blair and the first years of New Labour! I was a bit young to vote them in first time, but I would have done. Love the work they did with sure start and children's centres as just one example of many.

Same

[lostoldname]

@Cattenberg

I don’t think I was happy with any of them to be honest. The economy boomed in the late 90s and early 2000s and the Labour government did bring in the National Minimum Wage.

However, house prices rocketed, to the point I feared I’d never own my own home and decided I’d have to emigrate (I did live abroad for two years). Labour really couldn’t have cared less about the plight of young people struggling with accommodation costs. So I still despise New Labour.

At least Margaret Thatcher enabled many people to buy their own homes (albeit this was probably not for the right reasons).

Many of the council house brought under this policy are in the hands of private landlords who are charging huge rents. Thatchers did not allow mkney from receipts of sales to be reinvested. Blame her for housing costs.

[BigMandsTattooPortfolio]

Blair, but the early years before he got the hots for Dubya, went mad and took us into an illegal war.

[SerendipityJane]

Be curious what current 18 year olds think ? Not that anyone cares.

[scalt]

With "least worst", Blair, until he got the God complex, and lied to justify his illegal war. He was very skilled at telling the public what they wanted to hear, but in a way, that means he was exceptionally cunning, he knew how to play the system, he didn't slip up as much as Johnson.

In other ways, he and his wife were just as greedy and hypocritical as the current lot, but they were better at hiding it, and lots of their crimes have long been forgotten. A couple examples:

• He took his children out of school in term time, to the Seychelles, when David Blunkett was "cracking down" on parents who did this.
• He awarded himself a massive pay rise when he was re-elected: step one of the Blair Rich project.