Who broke Britain?

[User32459]

Who do you most blame for our downfall as a nation?

A) Tony Blair and New Labour (97-2010)

B) The Tories (2010-2024)

C) The current Labour government

D) Brexit and Nigel Farage's lies

I think the answer is all of the above and the current government are an absolute disaster, but to be fair to them they've come in at the end when the damage is done. It's not 1997 anymore when they can get away with Blairite policies.

Labour have a lot to answer for but i'd probably go B. The Tories just about got everything wrong. Did they do anything good at all? And ultimately their shocking governance led to Brexit as well.

And the failures of the lot of them will need to Nigel Farage as Prime Minister.

B

It definitely started with Blair

He put in so much of the groundwork for our downfall.

Is Britain broken?

I think Brexit and the nepotism and failure to address the pressing issues of the country under the Coalition/ Conservatives put us in a very bad way at the moment.

I do also think the labour policies of PPI and Tax Credits have made a terrible legacy for the country.

I don't think we have ever fully recovered after the 2008 financial crash but I am not sure which country has. I don't think Gordon Brown handled it badly.

I think you missed one User 32459. Thatcher and the Tories 1979 - 1997. The rot definitely started then.

Tony Blair and his uncontrolled immigration is what started it all.

Thatcher

I don't think we have ever fully recovered after the 2008 financial crash but I am not sure which country has. I don't think Gordon Brown handled it badly.

This. We’re in late stage capitalism, there’s a certain inevitability to the unravelling and while I’m generally centre left I don’t think it’s any particular government that’s done us wrong, it’s just the stage we’re at in a system that was always going to eventually eat itself.

Blair

A and final nail in the coffin current government.

It definitely started with Thatcher.

A, B, C & D.

A, Because they opened the doors to 25 years of uncontrolled mass immigration.

B, Because austerity destroyed public services, and they continued A’s immigration policies while lying to & gaslighting the public about the issue.

C, Because they campaigned on ‘Change’ but have so far delivered more of the same.

D, Because Brexit has been an economic disaster for the U.K., as so many of us predicted it would.

You are going to tell us why you think Britain is broken first of all.

The credit crunch + austerity + Brexit

COVID didn't help anyone, but austerity and Brexit made COVID worse for us.

I disagree with a lot of what Thatcher did but Britain was in relatively good place in the mid-late 90s. Economically and socially.

Although Right to Buy is the root of so many of our current problems, so agree this thread has a false starting point.

The post above yours neatly surmises.

I think we, like many other nations, are dealing with an unprecedented shift in demographics towards an older population. It needs a complete rethink of the whole system, but no one wants to admit that. Blaming any one of those people misses the point.

Brexit, but immigration policy was the underlying issue imo. I am in favour of immigration (I’m an immigrant, for one!) but I feel like successive governments have gone down a “Yes we are clamping down on immigration!” rhetoric rather than any party having the moral compass to say, “Actually, our universities, farming, healthcare and other sectors rely heavily on immigrants. We need them. Either we radically change those sectors to remove that reliance, or immigration will continue to be high.”

Brexit was a collective act of self destruction. I still can't believe it happened and we have Farage to thank for that.

Maggie thatcher is missing and it stated with her - she is directly responsible for the housing crisis

i also think saying Britain is broken is trite emotive nonsense really - what does it mean that a country is broken? I would say civil war might imply that, famine , human rights abuse

It was profoundly dishonest of the Tories to campaign on reducing immigration in every 2010s election while doing the opposite once they got in. That massively undermines trust in democracy.

Margaret Thatcher and her Me, me, me attitudes which permeate our entire society. Also selling off all our public services so we pay hugely more for a lot less. Selling off public housing so we can't house people.

Brexit

The Tories from 2010 running down public services AGAIN which will take decades to rebuild.

Tony Blair sending everyone to Universities from which they emerge to too few jobs.

Harold Wilson and his sandwiches with the unions so they hold uds to ransom still.

A - without any doubt!