To wonder if life was better under a Labour government?

[Wasloafbetter]

Or are people looking back with rose tinted specs?

I started teaching in the Blair years and I found it pretty awful, although how much of that was down to my own lack of experience and how much was down to government policies is hard to say.

I’m wondering if people are looking back nostalgically (have seen this on a thread this morning where apparently the 80s were a great time for freedom of expression with no pressure to conform, which don’t tally with my memories at all) or whether life was better then.

I’m 42, by the way - was 17 when Blair was made PM.

@Andante57

all for the audacity of wanting to study rather than become a teenage mother as advised by SS Thousandsoftulips it beggars belief that those who were supposed to be helping you actually gave that advice. It’s really shocking and there were probably many young women who followed it.

Not surprising at all. This is what Labour stand for. Create an army of state dependent, low aspiring voters will in stay in power. Because letting people better themselves loses labour voters. Labour used to be incredibly insidious. Thankfully, now they’re just stupid.

@Choirgirl2021

So, it really depends on your specific circumstances. Many with young children say it was better but what about the teen/young adults for that time and older adults?

It seems so many good initiatives were started and I think they probably tackled the hidden poor and many ethnic communities who had been completely locked out of the money/education system. That’s good. Perhaps on balance it was better ?

The outreach work in communities wasn't just around parents and young children. It also impacted teens and young adults. Community initiatives benefitted and focused on the elderly too.

Another difference under Labour was the maintenance and repair programmes in hospitals. There are lots of old hospital buildings but under Labour, the maintenance and staffing levels meant they were repaired.

Under the Conservatives, there are entire wings of hospitals in our area that are unusable because they've not been able to fund or schedule the necessary repairs. Research from 2019 showed that over £4 billion was cut from capital budgets which would normally have paid for maintenance and repairs. There's now over £6billion deficit for maintenance and repairs - which impacts bed availability, information technology, working lifts, drainage systems, etc.

@EngTech

Labour had 13 years in power, could never figure out why all the Utility Companies and the railways were not nationalised 😳😳

There was no appetite for it and they'd not long been privatised. Nationalisation was regarded as near-Soviet by many people.

I've spent most of my working life in the public sector and started work in 1972. Public services were always better resourced and funded under Labour governments.

I'm laughing that a poster suggested more people had holidays because they spent their tax credits on them.
Research from the ONS shows there was a surge in overseas holidays in that period because of the budget airlines and the common aviation area. Nothing to do with tax credits

I would say that the Labour years from 1997 onwards were the best government in living memory from a domestic standpoint. So much was done to attempt to improve society - Human Rights legislation, Freedom of Information, Data Protection, paternity leave introduced, Good Friday Agreement, Tax Credits (aimed to lift people out of poverty), huge reduction in child poverty etc. The Tories seem to have no plans to change society for the better for ordinary people and seem to coast along without much of an agenda for change or improvement.

@HappydaysArehere

Before the change from Labour it was easier to get a hospital appointment and there were more A&E’s. Within months of the Tories taking over A&E’s were being closed and the NHS has been increasingly struggling ever since. Unfortunately Corbyn and the extreme left did for the Labour Party and gave Johnson an open goal.

Yes. This is so true. I think many people are too young to remember things being better or it’s been wiped from our memories now due to so long under the Tories.

Also Covid has been convenient for the Tories. All the damage they’ve done can be blamed on that.

The Blair government brought in devolution for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Which I think was and is a good thing.

And devolution would not have happened under the Tories.

Good Friday Agreement- Labour tackled that. I think it made a tremendous difference to NI

Remember the school renovation/ rebuilding program too.

Where we live all the new schools were given beautiful new buildings and old schools too. Luckily we still have all that from the Labour days. As soon as the Tories came in it was suddenly stopped and the schools that had not been renovated missed out. They’re now decaying wrecks.

@AdoraBell

All I remember of Labour before 1979 was the power cuts and rubbish pilling up due to strikes.

While we were poor my parents didn’t qualify for benefits snd my father’s work was stable and not affected by the miners strike in the 80’s. The only thing that really affected us from Thatcher’s government was the change from rates to council tax, and my parents benefited from the right to buy scheme.

I was living alone and working full time when Blair took office. While it didn’t make any difference to my situation, both my sister - single parent, and my father- pensioner, were worse off financially immediately.

I agree that once they are in power it makes no difference which party because it’s all about them and their power trip.

All I remember of Labour before 1979 was the power cuts and rubbish pilling up due to strikes

Power cuts and the 3 day week were under Conservative governments.

Or are people looking back with rose tinted specs?

I only remember New Labour - it was at a time in my life I was particularly optimistic starting University - embarking on life.

I do think new Labour was underlying more postive until the end - and all governments end in failure.

Austerity - felt very grim and I think hugly damaged parts of the country we lived in.

I'm currently under a Labour Governement in Wales - they contol NHS and Education - and some environment issues - like air polution - I have serious concerns about performance. As a result I have to admit to being a bit skeptcial of some posters claims everything will be great under a labour government.

I unimpressed with current UK government, current welsh Labour government and with the current opposition.

I think it can be hard to separate out your personal situation from wider social/poltical situation but I do think Labour tends to fund services more but I'm surpised the later austerity years when buffers and support services had been run down were worse than New Labour funded years in education.

I am sure it depends a lot on individual circumstances.

For me personally - both myself and DH employed on average wages (him FT me PT), small semi house, one DC (now adult) - I cannot say that different governments have made a massive difference to our lives.

We always had a worry that Labour govt may impact on DH employment (manufacturing for MD contract) and Conservative govt may impact on my work (public services) but luckily always retained our jobs .

I was a nurse throughout the labour years ,I do remember more building going on ,I also remember the huge amounts of money hospital trusts paid private companies for the building work ,it was very top heavy management wise ,ever increasing tiers of management ,where as staff on the actual wards ime ,was as sparse as ever
I was redeployed twice due to cuts in service between 2005 and 2006
So I don't remember the halycon days tbh

@jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey

Honestly they are all crap! Regardless of party, once elected, they just do what they please.

Yep, it doesn't matter who you vote for because the Government always gets in.

@x2boys

I was a nurse throughout the labour years ,I do remember more building going on ,I also remember the huge amounts of money hospital trusts paid private companies for the building work ,it was very top heavy management wise ,ever increasing tiers of management ,where as staff on the actual wards ime ,was as sparse as ever
I was redeployed twice due to cuts in service between 2005 and 2006
So I don't remember the halycon days tbh

My experience too. It was though all of this money was floating around me but just out of my grasp whilst o got buried deeper and deeper under the pressures of work.

@Andante57

all for the audacity of wanting to study rather than become a teenage mother as advised by SS Thousandsoftulips it beggars belief that those who were supposed to be helping you actually gave that advice. It’s really shocking and there were probably many young women who followed it.

I agree. I was very naive at the time but now (looking back over two decades later and being a mother myself now) I can't believe that was their proposed "solution" to my situation. Not counselling or financial support. A baby, when I could not even look after myself mentally or financially. It would have been a disaster. So irresponsible. No wonder these cycles of deprivation often perpetuate if social services actively facilitate that.

That baby would have had a terrible life and after my childhood my biggest fear in the world was always being a bad parent. It would have destroyed the child's life, and mine. Whereas now, my children are the biggest joy in my life. Yesterday I was told that I am "the best mummy in the world". 💙

[quote Choirgirl2021]@x2boys

I was a nurse throughout the labour years ,I do remember more building going on ,I also remember the huge amounts of money hospital trusts paid private companies for the building work ,it was very top heavy management wise ,ever increasing tiers of management ,where as staff on the actual wards ime ,was as sparse as ever
I was redeployed twice due to cuts in service between 2005 and 2006
So I don't remember the halycon days tbh

My experience too. It was though all of this money was floating around me but just out of my grasp whilst o got buried deeper and deeper under the pressures of work.[/quote]
Indeed. We are all still paying for PFI profits now. It was a ridiculous scheme.

Labour didn’t try to control the media anywhere near the current level, the BBC were far less up the governments arse

@Lonelycrab you're joking, right? Alastair Campbell faxed the BBC to tell them that the Labour Party conference was far more important than the OJ Simpson verdict. And the BBC listened. ITN ignored his fax but the BBC just let him interfere and put Blair's speech up first on the Six O' Clock News.

@DdraigGoch not quite the same as threatening to remove the license fee unless they tow the party line, is it? And trying to do away with channel4s impartiality too. Get real. Even the top comments on the Mails story about being able to over rude court rulings are now saying we are heading towards a dictatorship. Looks like you’re the one who must be joking.

Also putting whistleblowers into jail for ten years, if they happen to uncover “inconvenient” truths. Just call em spies and throw away the key. Place is turning into fucking North Korea.

Indeed. We are all still paying for PFI profits now. It was a ridiculous scheme.

I thought PFI was a bad idea at the time because of the costs it was adding to balance sheets - but I did think again about that when a few months ago I visited a school for my year 6 child, that was built under PFI. It's still owned by the developer, which still maintains the building, but In 15 years the funding will be paid off and the school will own it (though admittedly its an academy now so will be owned by the academy trust presumably) . It's still a great building –suddenly PFI seemed to make more sense than not having new schools/hospitals because of lack of funding.

@DdraigGoch

Labour didn’t try to control the media anywhere near the current level, the BBC were far less up the governments arse

@Lonelycrab you're joking, right? Alastair Campbell faxed the BBC to tell them that the Labour Party conference was far more important than the OJ Simpson verdict. And the BBC listened. ITN ignored his fax but the BBC just let him interfere and put Blair's speech up first on the Six O' Clock News.

I detest Alastair Campbell, but he was right.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone whilst Heath did put some industries on a three day week in the 70s, the Winter of Discontent was under Labour’s James Callaghan, 1978/79. They were the worst strikes, with the biggest number of days lost, the bodies piling up in the streets, the rubbish uncollected.