To wonder what the best goverment you have lived under is?

[malificent7]

And also the worst? My older family members werent impressed with the socialist goverments they lived under

It isn’t hard to apply for public sector jobs. Those people who know they’re paid less must have seen job adverts. How else do they know...

It just shows how little self worth people have - they think they deserve low paid jobs whereas they think their (usually) overpaid bosses are worth the high wages and fat pensions.

I am indeed applying for a role in the public sector. Through my sister. Because I know how much better they have it!!
I have worked in the city for good money but the hours equates to shit pay. In my town for what I do I would have a 9-5 job and paid leave for sick days and doctors app. My last 3 companies I had to make the time up just for going to the doctors. With an hours commute thats not that easy. I think I’m worth more than what I got paid so I am indeed moving to public sector. It’s normally the public sector workers that speak up to say how terrible they’ve got it compared to private. I thought I’d point out my experience that’s all.

So your pay is actually good in the private sector but you work excess hours? I’m guessing.

That happens in the public sector too.

New Labour under Blair.

Every time the Tories have been in government my finances and life have been much worse, usually due to specific policies i.e. redundancies for thousands of civil servants meaning I was out of a job, then cutbacks in education meaning I was unable to carry on teaching due to the stress and long hours, my civil servant mother being laid off when I was a child, benefit cuts, closures of schemes that made huge differences to mine and my kids lives, currently being totally broke and having to miss meals and shiver due to Universal Credit... So not coincidental!

My public sector experience is of being made redundant, then the government point blank refusing outright to pay us our statutory redundancy pay as they were 'The Crown' and therefore didn't have to follow the law as the private sector did!

It even went to Judicial review and the government lost their case- I still haven't been paid my redundancy money six years after I was laid off! The union is so bloody useless they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. I was being paid peanuts compared to the private sector anyway and my pension was crap, unlike older employees with the final salary schemes.

Good luck with the job application and good luck with your 9 to 5 hours. If you're successful, you may be in for a pretty rude awakening. Do you really think you should get benefits so your income matches your husband's?

Blair increased funding to the universities. Our company sells stuff to universities. We made a hell of a lot of money under Blair and thank God we didn't squander it when times were good, because I suspect our kids are going to need it to have any sort of security in life.

Yes my local public sector offices work 9-5 with flexi time so if they work over time they get it back in some form or another. I’ve always just worked overtime for nothing.
They also offer other benefits such as health insurance etc.

I don’t think the government should give me benefits to match my husbands income I’m saying I don’t agree with the government policy of one household earner earning too much that I am no longer eligible for tax free childcare, child benefit etc. If he earns less I would be eligible. I don’t like my finance and eligibility for benefits being tied in with his. So to answer the op, things would have been better for me under Labour than now.

I’m not bitter, I’m sensible. I don’t like people pretending it’s ok to not make changes in their lives to make society a better place and then moan about how awful their lives are because the government won’t give them handouts all year round. I agree with social welfare but perhaps it’s because I’m from a crap town where it’s so rare for people to work, wearing a suit gets you stared at when you walk down the town from the train. I don’t like people having children they can’t afford then not educating them to want a better life. I had that childhood (mum had two kids 14months apart and couldn’t cope) and was lucky to get out and have aspirations. My mum would have happily seen me in a council house because ‘why work when you don’t have to’ attitude ran for a long time under some governments.
That’s just my opinion. I think a better world would involve everyone changing something a little bit. But no one has to agree with me.

I have to selfishly say 1991 - 98, encompassing Thatcher, major and Blair were easily the best for me. I was a single parent living in rented accommodation. I got income support paid weekly, full rent paid and free full time nursery for my dd when she was 3. I lived really quite well and could have continued until she was 12

I started uni in 1987 and was lucky enough to have a grant. I bought my first flat when I was 22, lived through the demise of MIRAS, endured the hysteria of endowment mortgages, 110% mortgages, gazumping, and rampant sexism meaning job progression wasn't easy. BUT after my husband and I split up after 12 years together, and i had to sell the family home (in spite of paying for it for 3 years after our split) I have to face the fact that I will probably never own my own home again, my pension is worth zilch and as a woman who has raised 3 kids and worked self employed part time for 15 years, I am probably destined to retire to cardboard city, I'm sure that most governments are all as shit as each other. Especially if you are a single parent.

No public sector jobs pay health insurance. Or at least not any I've heard of. So you're angry that the government ties your household income together so you (quite rightly) don't qualify for benefits and then say you don't think people shouldn't have children they can't afford and shouldn't get "handouts". I think you're pretty confused.

I am so pleased Harold Wilson kept us out of Vietnam, despite pressure from the Americans.

Margaret Thatcher was dreadful - all that "I'm all right Jack" attitude.

New Labour getting in was a breath of fresh air...until reality (and wars) hit.

When I first started working in the private sector in the late 80s, I had (at an entry level job)
I enjoyed:

Private health insurance
20 days holiday plus bank holidays
Up to 10 days non certified sick days at full pay
Membership of a union
A dedicated he department
Occupational health
Pension
6 months fully paid maternity.
Death in service benefit of salary x4

I didn't take advantage of every aspect obviously, but bearing in mind in 1989, when I was entry level office Work earning £7500 p/a it was very attractive. I experienced similar benefits until I quit for full self employment in 2005 and recently tried to get bank into the employed workforce last year.

It's positively dystopian now.

New Labour. Things just seemed more pleasant and people seemed happier. Less poor bashing and things like Sure start and grants for college kids from poor backgrounds. Less horrid narratives flying round and fighting over the scraps.

I didn't agree with Iraq, the uber feminist SAHM are a problem attitudes and the housing bubble. But purely going off life here it was better than this shower.

What's an 'Uber feminist SAHM'???

Hate this goverment with a passion..much poorer personally, more homeless people on streets...terrifying.
Does anyone actually like this goverment? Id be intetested to know why.

Thatcher/Major for me. Wouldn't cross the road to pee on Blair if he was burning to death, and whilst the coalition were OK for interest rates, they screwed defence over good and proper, for which I will never forgive Cameron and Osborne, (who is a snake). May both their sets of balls turn black and fall off.

Best was Blair. I remember sitting up all night watching red blocks blow up blue ones as the count came in. There was a massive sense of optimism after decades of Tory rule. And I was 21 and just finished uni.

Worst is the current govt. they are awful imo. Running the country into the ground with the likes of boris and Reece mogg

John Major. ( and I'm a labour member! )

Blair/Brown. They aimed for both "compassion and aspiration". Of course mistakes were made but I believe they were mostly well-intentioned.

Thank God I began adult life under them rather than the frankly cruel Thatcher government.

I was a child in the Thatcher years and teachers were always on strike. My parents are real socialists so the negatives were always being highlighted but even taking that into consideration, the poll tax was a terrible idea. I started uni under Major and got a grant, he also signed the Maastricht treaty and personally I feel closer ties with the EU have overall benefitted me and my generation. I definitely felt that overall, Blair’s government brought in a lot of positive things: more focus on education (although not university students), investment in NHS, childcare, GFA. As an individual though, his ego and fawning over George W Bush was his downfall and supporting the Iraq war, even faced with so much opposition from other leaders in Europe and his own voters, along with his and Gordon Brown’s failure to regulate the banks are sadly the biggest legacies and overshadow all the good stuff that his government did. Never liked David Cameron, just smarmy and interested in giving his old school friends jobs, plus divided the country in a failed attempt to fix his party and then bailed. Being a lefty, I’m not a fan of Theresa May at all but have on occasion, felt a bit sorry for her having to pick up after him. She’s set up to fail and is in an impossible position (glass cliff phenomenon anyone?) but I won’t be sad to see the Tories out as they have systematically reduced funding to NHS, schools (I’m a school governor and see this first-hand regularly), police, firefighters, pensioners, and the rest, while refusing to fix tax loopholes, press corruption and a million other things. It may just be my age but I definitely felt more optimistic when Tony Blair was PM but feel genuine panic on a regular basis now at the state of the country my children are going to inherit.

Easily Blair/Brown. My son's statement for his CTF arrived this week, he simply wouldn't have that savings if it wasn't for those B/B policies. Personally, I would like to have seen Brown as PM for longer. He was really made the fall guy when global economy tanked.

Thatcher and then Blair I reckon. I grew up in Sheffield during the miner's strike with a Mum who was campaigning for Thatcher, and a Dad who was an ex-miner. Interesting times.

All I know is I hated those mining communities, couldn't wait to see the back of them. So utterly judgemental and controlling. Think they've massively damaged Yorkshire's image. Even now, everybody thinks we're thick and backward and raging socialists. Best thing she did was break them up, worst thing she did was not have a plan for victory, so their communities collapsed.

Rather like Blair with Iraq. There was no plan for what to do with the country after the invasion, hence the subsequent mess. But all the rest was fine. Yes, WMD was a lie, but the war was always more about supporting America. One of my friends who's now relocated to London told us of growing up in Baghdad and seeing people being lined up and beheaded in his local police station. Do we stop that (Iraq), or let it happen (Syria)? Which one's better?

Blair years were great, just after all Tory infighting. Very similar optimism to Thatcher years.

I'm not sure , each government has had its negatives , also I'm 24 so young the recession seem to have fucked everything up we still haven't fully recovered from it.

@sleepyhead24 which one? There have been several!

Thatcher/major best

Blair / Brown worst