Who was PM during the best of times for you?

[verdantverdure]

Me?

Blair. Brown, first bit of Cameron.

On paper I earn more money now but everything's tits up isn't it? From the economy to shit on beaches to being able to get access to the NHS when needed.

Tony Blair.

Tony Blair/Gordon Brown

That isn’t true. The investment in high quality public services was entirely sustainable until a global financial crisis came along. And Brown’s swift, effective and hugely unpopular action saved the UK from the worst of it.

As for the Islington matés reference, did you type that with a straight face? Have you seen where vast swathes of our money’s gone in the last three years?

Is he sure it was under Wilson? We had so many changes of government in the 70s it’s hard to keep track of who was in power when.

Blair/Brown/Cameron era reminds me of being young and relatively carefree.

However the happiest time of my personal life was all under Boris, COVID aside. Moved to the area I wanted to live in, got married, got a new job, got promoted to another new job!

There was literally no money left when the global financial crises came along. That's not a country living in a way that's sustainable.

@Blossomtoes the shit we are in now is entirely tied to 2008. There should have been a reset then. Instead we carried on spending the credit and now look where we are. Literally don't even own the energy produced here, corrupt and bankrupt public services. I have no time for any of them to be honest and think we have had a succession of inept government. The whole thing is a ponzi scheme and its coming down.

No, there was no money left after it was all spent bailing the bankers out to save the economy crashing completely. It would have been entirely sustainable without the crash that started in the US.

The Tories have been blaming their disasterous fiscal policies on ‘global events’ since I was born.

Blair/Brown was pretty much the only government who invested in education, health and public services in my lifetime. It was the only period of genuine hope and prosperity in my lifetime. Otherwise, it’s been wall to wall Tory governments pushing on the poor and blaming everyone else for their cock ups.

For fuck sake, have we forgotten Truss? It was only yesterday and we are still recovering from that shitshow.

pissing on the poor

Boris Johnson. He made me laugh so much. You know when you're all down as a country down in the pits struggling and then he comes along and it's either laugh or cry, well I laughed very hard miserably!

Also with Tony Blair, I was educated in state school in the 90s in London and the curriculum is so much more advanced today. There was more money in education but I don't think it was better than today. Also the NHS was struggling back then as well.

I think for me personally Cameron before the Brexit referendum. I don't know what it is but our pm's start ok and then act possessed towards the end just like with Blair and his decision to join the Iraq war.

Most of the problems now have their origins in the Blair/Brown government and their decisions. Eg high house prices (interest rates too low, growing the population without increasing house supply, letting people borrow too much), tuition fees (increasing graduates so that now you have to have a degree to do a basic level job), wars creating refugees, pensions ruined. They spent alot but not on longlasting infrastructure such as decent public transport and housing but just on short term buying of votes. For me Thatcher/Major were far superior, I was young then and could afford a house and almost free education (small loan).

Selfishly it was Boris, I have a ds with ASD. Lockdown meant he had a break from the world, loved learning at home, loved having me on furlough, loved the sunny walks. He was so happy and content. It was a shit time for many though and I'd never want to go back to that, but for a few months my ds was a different child.

Tory fiscal plans are always thwarted by global issues but Labour's are all down to Brown.
No commentary on the giant black hole that is Brexit - a project designed to sort out the Tory eurosceptics which has only led to the reduction of GDP, years of political instability and the opportunity to use Imperial measurements.
Amazing that they think they can have it both ways - and claim the last 13 years have proved them fiscally responsible.
Do we feel future proofed?

Ha ha ha. It will be so memorable for so many. Good Times.

This is all basically nonsense. Interest rates were slashed from 5.75% in 2008, tuition fees were trebled by the coalition and Thatcher bribed voters through right to buy, thus creating the housing crisis we have today. There are some incredibly faulty memories around here.

I think putting detail of age or stage of life would have helped understand the responses.
Major because I was at University, fab first job and met DH having the time of my life.

@CandleInTheStorm A very succinct post. I started my first proper job at a RG University in 1994, I actually met Lord Dearing who did the original report on the future of higher education including tuition fees. People forget that Labour introduced tuition fees against his recommendation. I was there during its very last golden years, it’s last hurrah. The changes, the feel, the quality of the students by the time I retired early due to health issues 25 years later it was just dire. The corporate feel, no more ancient Professors shuffling round the dept being wonderfully eccentric and the many things that made it truly quite beautiful. DH is now an ancient Professor, well not quite, he feels quite crushed at times. The hours he works are actually insane. It’s still very competitive jobs wise but I do feel for young academics they really are just grist for the mill.

Brevity was entirely the fault of the politicians of all parties for shoving through their political project (re Maastricht) without bothering to ask the people. Prior to that everyone was happy with the eec and ec as it then was as it was trading relationship which made all countries in it better off financially.

Signed & sealed by John Major.

How ridiculous to blame Thatcher for the housing crisis when she left power over 30 years ago when things were totally different. She did not reduce housing supply just mode of ownership (my parents were delighted to buy their council house). Slashing interest rates started with Brown and was continued by the dreadful Tories and meant people borrowing more and high house prices which is terrible for young people as well as encouraging second home ownership as pensioners couldn't make money on savings. Tuition fees were down to the over expansion of higher education again started by Blair and continued by Tories. Tories/Labour are two cheeks of the same arse.

John Major was the last hood Tory. We thought he was boring at the time but we'd surely swap these current clowns for him anyway.

Cameron got us into this mess in the first place! What a coward he was.

Before that the sliding doors moment was Clegg siding with Cameron only to be fucked over within days on university tuition fees. Never has one man had more egg on his face.

It's all been down hill from there now descending into pure corruption and fascism.

John Major hangs his head in dismay no doubt.

"She did not reduce housing supply just mode of ownership (my parents were delighted to buy their council house)."

She reduced social housing supply by not replacing those properties sold.

This thread downplays it but the demos were huge at the time, possibly the largest in numbers.

And what has stopped governments in the following 30 years from increasing supply of social housing? At the time of Thatcher social housing was in much less demand as population much lower and private rent was much cheaper.

I guess I'd go with John Major. I was at school and then university - which was free - health care seemed good, property was affordable, it felt like there was a promising future ahead with lots of opportunities.

Not Maggie because of poll tax, not Blair because between him and the US the whole Middle East was destabilised - and look at the problems that led to, not Brown as he sold off half our gold reserves, not Cameron as he was to blame for the Brexit vote debacle and then fucked off, not Theresa May as she failed with Brexit, not Boris because he is a pompous fucking imbecile, not Truss for very obvious reasons, and not Sunak because the country is fast going down the pan and he seems unable to do anything about it.