I’m 47, fair enough if you voted for labour pre new labour but I’ve found many of those stating on mn they are lifelong labour voters are aged 40 or younger.
I’m not old enough to remember in terms of living as an adult under a traditional labour govt but I do remember how it was for my family and others around us, I also well remember living under thatcher and how screwed over that made many vulnerable people, I trained and worked as a nurse under a Tory govt and saw how awful it was then and I’m hearing from ex colleagues who ALSO trained and worked then how much WORSE it is under current lot.
Felicity I agree with much of your post. Most people are one major life event away from being one of “them” that they look down upon, shelter estimates half of all working households in England and Wales are one pay cheque away from homelessness. Life can bite you on the arse!
Aged 30 I was
Working full time in a well paid job with a pension
Fit and healthy
Married
In relatively secure housing
By 35 I was
Unemployed
Disabled & mentally ill
Single mum
Had already been homeless once
Why? Divorce, major car crash (hit by idiot texting), mh the car accident was a “final straw” thing and a lifetime of stressors hit me at once.
Nobody is immune except the EXTREMELY & independently wealthy from the financial impact of such events.
I have to say though that my experience of dwp (and previous incarnations) has never really been that of them wanting to help people, it’s far worse now definitely but it was never an altruistic job.
“I’m old enough to remember the traditional Labour Party in the pre Blair days. That’s what this one is. New Labour was the aberration.” From what I do know of the Labour Party and it’s history from friends and family who are old enough and from my own reading up on them I would agree with this. Makes me laugh when I see comments like “labour are too close to the unions” clearly said/written by people with zero knowledge of the labour party’s origins! Often too with zero knowledge about unions! But then I was raised by 2 former shop stewards!
“it's both very baffling and depressing in equal measure.” Absolutely! Who do they think is making them have shit housing, poor nhs access, having to work longer etc?
“I think that's really fucking frightening.” Yes as a disabled person who will need more care as I age and with a dd with a different disability but facing a similar scenario the possibility of USA style healthcare scares the hell out of me!