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.

I was answering the question asked by the op, not passing judgement on the wider impact. I don’t disagree with you.

Blair/Brown
(Re Iraq - Blair set the precedent of Parliament voting on going to war - that's why Cameron couldn't follow the US into Syria - he lost the vote.)

Right to buy was bad but made infinitely worse because councils were explicitly forbidden from using the money to replace the housing stock - deliberately destroying social housing.

Not only did Thatcher privatise basic infrastructure for a song she also burnt the north sea oil monies - if we'd done as the Norwegians and set up a wealth fund we'd be sitting pretty today.

Sunak 'salting the earth' re selling the land to stop hs2 being resurrected is just following standard Tory practice - Major's rail privatisation chopped the industry into fragments with no other purpose than to make nationalisation impractical.

The Tories self proclaimed fiscal rectitude has always been baloney - they're the ones that gave us monetarism, the ERM, austerity - anything but Keynes.

People saying Brown clearly didn’t have much to worry about during the financial crash! That’s quite telling.

for me it’s Blair, or the early coalition.

The PM during the best time in my life was Brown and then the coalition. However I was a student/young graduate and I was pretty isolated from what was going on economically and politically.

I graduated a couple of years after the global financial crisis and yes, it was pretty hard to find a decent job but I didn't have anything to compare it with. I also didn't have many responsibilities, no mortgage, no kids, no firm career plan really, so I just rented somewhere pretty cheap with a friend and dossed around in call centre jobs and bar work for a few years. It was fun and it was possible to support yourself as a young person doing that at the time, and still have a bit of time and money left over for having fun.

The effects of austerity hadn't started to filter through yet, the Brexit referendum wasn't a serious idea, and I had a general sense that things were a bit shit but would probably get better. Although maybe that was just general youthful optimism.

I was 10 years old for Blair's 1997 victory and I can still remember the optimism and celebration in the air that day, at least where I was, in a city that never voted Tory. My parents were actually jubilant. I think the period from then to 9/11 and the aftermath might have been the best years of their lives in terms of politics, but I was too young to understand.

Yeah, same @PixiePirate. Just pondering.

The only real "event" I remember about Brown is Swine Flu.

We worried, but were not hugely affected by 2008. We had jobs and mortgages but from our perspective the country sailed through it fairly unscathed.

It wasn't like it is now where you can't get tomatoes some weeks, electricity is so expensive the government had to subsidise everybody £66 a month, insurances have all gone up 40%, this weeks shop costs a tenner more than last week, and the Tories have put £500 on your monthly mortgage payment.

Cameron

It's nice that he's back in Government then.

Just popping this here for a bit of economic context.

With yesterday's budget doubling down on Austerity and threatening to take benefits away if people don't do what they're told is chilling. They've obviously decided to make up for the lack of EU labour by bullying the disabled.

Nah, I think they just do that for fun.

I am tempted to say Rishi Sunak because I am enjoying the Tory election campaign enormously. The sheep! 😁

Callaghan. Who was PM was irrelevant. I was young and had cash in my pocket for the first time. Bandit Heeler could have been PM for all I cared.

Tony Blair, amazing services for children in them days.

When I was young and had money for the first time John Major was PM.

I didn’t choose him though. I chose Blair, Brown, and the Coalition part of Cameron.

We earn more money than ever now but I’m not choosing Sunak.

For me it has to be Tony Blair -one of my favourite things ever was him ripping one to Farage - if anyone says it what about Iraq- yep, not great but was approved by the house- it wasn't a unilateral decision and the people that we should all be angry with were the intelligence services - no one goes on and on about Libya etc.

Blair got that it was important to govern for 'all' - I know many Tory's too who would say Blair was a good leader -

“But Iraq” has almost become a slogan certain types have trained their supporters to repeat. Like “Project Fear” Or the “there’s no money” note.

No one with even a cursory nodding acquaintance with the facts can do it in good faith but not everyone operates in good faith.

Yep, that 'no money left' note was a jokey tradition left by every outgoing government, but that is conveniently forgotten by the tories.

Tony Blair

I should’ve made this a poll because I think Tony Blair has won the thread.

Have they forgotten or are they being disingenuous? Or a bit gullible and uninformed? I never know.

@ClareBlue what government hasn't sent us into an illegal war of some kind? All wars are horrendous!

Blair.

Blair.. worked in a school adjoining a SureStart Centre, felt valued

Blair. He was a really good PM. He had his flaws, but he was in it for the right reasons.