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.

As much as I hate to say this: Blair. He transformed the early years/education and we all seemed to be much happier. Sure Start centres and every child matters were game changers.

Yes Blair/Brown. Things can only get better folks.

Blair

Tax credits
Surestart
Free books for all kids
Extended school clubs

Society just seemed more pleasant

He'll do as he's told i should imagine.
He doesn't seem to have any real vision imo.

Blair.

Blair/Brown, I was a Civil Servant & this was the only time we got more staff. The introduction of Working & Child Tax Credits fell just before I got pregnant with ds & it meant that I was better off working part time & claiming than I would have been working full time in a job two grades higher. Bringing in NHS Choose & Book meant I was able to have five operations in a private hospital funded by the NHS.2

100% Blair/brown - education was better, NHS was functioning. Low income families were sufficiently supported. Much better times.

😬

Gordon Brown was massively underrated. Kier Starmer is as well. Hard working competence is not valued. People in this country prefer loud mouthed lazy clowns like Bozza.

Harold Wilson.

Blair. Even though he turned out to be a total wrong'un, the sheer optimism after he won the 97 election was amazing. I was living in London (making loadsamoney) and remember taking the day off to go to the pub and celebrate, the pub was packed and the champagne was flowing! I was newly married and was renting a gorgeous little garden flat in Earlsfield for 850 quid a month, and spending my disposable income on having an absolute ball, going out at least four nights a few, clubbing every weekend and going to loads of festivals. Life was brilliant! I was also very grateful for Blair's contribution to the Good Friday agreement, it massively improved the lives of my friends and family in NI.

Margaret Thatcher.

Theresa May for me but those were my first 'proper' adulting years.

Blair/ Brown for the same reasons. Schools, early years services were much better. Councils had more money so local services were better. GP surgery ran a drop in clinic with nurse and health visitors where you could take your baby with any concerns or questions, such a valuable service for a new mum. Child Trust fund anyone?

Blair. Voted in my first election in 1997. Was a council estate kid, grew up in poverty. Went to Uni, into teaching, bought my first house at 24.

My children born to two teachers will struggle to do that now, so what hopes do children who live the same life I did have?

Fucking hate the Tories.

Tony Blair without a shadow of a doubt

Blair. That summer during the London Olympics. Before it all went to shit.

Blair. First time I voted was in 1997.

I had my best years while Cameron was PM. And was fine under May as well.. Bought first house age 24, had first 2 kids, got married so things were good for me. Things are still ok for me but obviously Covid wasn’t great and makes Johnson’s time look especially tricky and now things feel a bit expensive with cost of living. Credit crunch under brown wasn’t a nice time and the Blair years started when I was 9 and i was also was the first year of £3k tuition fees so felt a bit hard done to at the time by Blair as friends a year older were paying much less.

Blair & Brown of course. Good times...

Neither is he ;

Many reasons probably for another thread though

Did no one get hit hard by 2008 crash on here? Eg huge job losses in sector

Or house situation suffered

Maybe it’s a public sector / private sector split

My career did stall but I was still young so having a good time plus it was a global financial crisis it wasn't down to Blair and Brown. Brown actually came out of it quite well. The Tories would have been utterly incompetent.

Another Blair/ Brown vote here. I do not understand why they never get the recognition they deserve. I totally disagree with a PP who said they wasted money and left the economy in tatters. They didn't. What they did was invest in ordinary people. Anyone who worked in the public sector felt the difference in thos years. We were properly funded after years and years of being denied the resources we needed.

I was teaching then, and the difference it made. We had smaller classes and more TAs. SEN education was better funded. Early years were better funded. The children educated in those years really benefited from this.

That ws the time when the NHS got the funds it needed. I was able to get a drs appointment on the day i requested it. There were no massive queues in A and E. not waiting in ambulances just to get in through the doors.

All of that good work has been undone now due to the cut after cut after cut to public sector funding. Many of the people who benefited from the Blair/ Brown years went on to vote Tory - talk about pulling the ladder up behind you.

I really fear that education will never recover from the state they are now in - not due to the people who work in them, but due to being utterly starved of the finances they need.

Blair
Maybe it was more to do with the global economy at the time, and it was after all pre GFC (but we did have the internet bubble burst so it wasn’t all economic plain sailing), but the feeling of optimism was tangible. I can still remember it. Britain was proud to be British. I’m leaving the U.K. this year and it’s partly because the future here looks and feels so bleak. Brexit has done untold damage.

Definitely Blair. The elation and hope when he got elected felt off the scale.
I can't describe how sad I feel about the world / country my DCs will grow up into and have to deal with as adults. Fucking Tories, fucking Brexit