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.

Jim Hacker, though I wasn't born when the series was first broadcast.

Probably because he is a work of fiction.

All of the real ones in my lifetime were fuckwits.

Blair and Brown - like others.

Pretty much the last time I felt like the grown ups were in charge and that things were just going to keep getting better and better.

I can't believe we thought things would just continue like that.

We were so optimistic.

I'm not even sure I'd have had children if I had to birth them into this land of shit in rivers and mad Tory Mini Budgets that put a grand on your mortgage.

But back then...

Surely you realised when the boom became a bust

Do you not recall news of the financial crash

It was a huge immediate change

Blair.
Greatest leader of all time

Chill out there bud!

Blair is certainly the worst leader of my lifetime. Actually, I'd put him joint worst with Johnson, Truss and Cameron but for different reasons.

Of all time? Comparing him to Churchill, Ghandi, Mandela, Lincoln etc isn't even a remote comparison.

Global Financial Crash (started in the USA) had nothing like the impact on the economy we have had recently and if people blame labour for that, then the Tories are to blame for Covid and Ukraine.

TBH the way they dealt with Covid was fucking awful, billions wasted in fraud.

Perhaps posters were in the public sector or recession proof sectors, or too young to recall

It was pretty big

It shrank by 10% over the year, which marked the UK's worst economic performance in 300 years. But the effects of the recession following the financial crash of 2008 had a more long-term impact: it took five years for the UK economy to get back to the size it was before the recession

Our sector was hit hard and 1/4 redundant

Houses lost big chunks of value immediately

The idea that it was something that the US just did to us ignores out the high risk exposure from FS. Which is why regulation occurred afterwards

We were deep in CDOs or whatever and booming off the back of that risk, plus paying for state stuff on credit

Of course anyone prefers the fun spending part all on risk and credit but not when the bailiffs come round. But it’s not sustainable, and clearly wasn’t hence the crash.

I do find it quite remarkable that the Tories have been in power for most of my life but the years I consider the best ones were under a Labour government and then the first couple of years under a Lib Dem-Tory coalition.

@MarshaBradyo

No,.

We are feeling the Tory increase to our mortgage, energy bills, food shop etc

But we didn't feel much impact from 2008

A fiscally competent government protected us.

And introduced university fees in 1998

Were you in the public sector?

We were not protected when 1/4 lost their jobs and the sector shrank. It was carnage

We got through losing value on our house but only because we were not exposed on LTV but others were hit hard

You have a very rosy memory for some reason

And responsible isn’t actually having that huge risk exposure to start with

Hence new regulation in FS shortly after

I ve never worked in public sector & it took 5 years to rebuild because the Tories gave us Austerity.
My pensions took a hit in 2008/9 but quickly recovered, they are still 15 to 20% down since Truss over a year ago, with no signs of recovery.

Same with house prices, very sharp fall, followed by recovery, we have the reverse now & look at gilt yields? UK has some of the highest borrowing costs in Europe, even higher than the USA or Italy (30 year bond yields)

It was a global crash, new regulation was done world wide but nice try to lie and say it was Labours fault.

Lol at people getting upset at Labour being involved.

Our risk exposure was high.

Tony Blair. Things seemed optimistic, and my grandma had never been better off.

I was directly affected by the 2008 crash. I knew that my employer wouldn't survive so I jumped ship before being made redundant. Most of my colleagues lost their jobs shortly afterwards. I think most people felt the impact at the time. Many ignored the fact that it was a global crash and blamed the Labour government.

I don't think it's the case that people didn't feel it at the time. It's simply that things have got so much worse since then that the memory doesn't now seem so bad. It's all relative.

Perhaps you're right @MrsBennetsPoorNerves.

I don't remember any serious ill effects personally, beyond slightly worrying about the implications for the world and the country and wondering why we let the finance industry do this kind of thing.

We had a mortgage and pensions and I was pregnant but it felt nothing like all the interest rate hikes, negative equity and repossessions in the 90s or the inflation, lack of growth and mortgage rate hikes currently.

Which sector were you working in?

Blair

Blair

There was an optimism about the UK - remember "Cool Britannia?"

Hear, hear.

Blair / Brown

Hang on, I thought John Major and Maastricht were responsible for Brexit.

Now it's Tony Blair "flooding the country with mass immigration"?

I didn't realise that Tony Blair has been in power since the Brexit bongs!