To wonder if Labour actually will be any better?

[Baabaagreysheep]

I think like most people I am keen to see the back of the current bunch, but I am not confident that anything will massively change for the better. Maybe that’s a bit pessimistic, but I feel that while some things will improve some will get worse - and some sort of at the same time, so I’m expecting my salary to go up but also my workload to go up!

Thinking back to when Labour were last in power it was another world, really. Interested in views.

Labour did not bankrupt the country, it would certainly have been bankrupt if the banks hadn’t been bailed out in the midst of a global recession. The Tories, had they been in power, would also have taken us into that war.

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/howard-under-fire-over-iraq-7247839.html

Meanwhile, here’s what they actually accomplished.

The majority of the country don't want hard left or hard right. We are a centrist country and always have been until this crappy govt

Central is fine but the policies have to stack up. Plus the amount of spending over last few years has been extremely high anyway

Plus I’d ditch the gender ID stuff

Labour did not bankrupt the country, it would certainly have been bankrupt if the banks hadn’t been bailed out in the midst of a global recession.

Yet again events in the outside world are an excuse for Labour, but never anyone else. And bailing out would have hurt less if we had had healthier national finances. Whatever you think of Cameron he tried to put that right and took it on the chin politically.

The Tories, had they been in power, would also have taken us into that war.

True, in my opinion, but...

...the graphic is just more New Labour spin - to use their euphemism. I think we forget how dishonest New Labour was...including the 'spin' to convince us to go to war. That aspect of the Iraq catastrophe was pure New Labour, no-one else.

They did how ever screwup and destroy all my local hospitals. We are now having lots of local hospitals closed as they cannot afford to maintain them due to dodgy deals from liebor.

Locals now are forced to travel over 1hr to get to their new A&E, now the local one has been forced to close to due labours PFI. Slow clap 👏

@Blossomtoes here :- www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/pfi-debts-an-albatross-around-the-necks-of-yorkshire-hospital-bosses-842784

Things will get worse if the Tories get in again. Thankfully most of the electorate have copped on. They have managed to make things worse for nearly every demographic in the country. Even True Blue Conservatives won't be voting for them next time.

If you are largely reliant on the state then you will probably do better under Labour. And largely not reliant on the state you will probably do worse.

This. The squeezed middle are about to be the rinsed middle.

To be fair, New Labour came up with ideas like PFI to piss off the Tories, because that is not a remotely left wing policy. They wanted to make the Conservatives unelectable by being a more generous version of the Conservative party. The biggest harm New Labour did to the country was to be deeply relaxed about the methods used by the rich to increase their wealth and therefore to allow the economy to become completely skewed towards the activities of City of London, which was in turn deeply relaxed about criminal activity, reckless behaviour, money laundering and tax evasion. The UK and US set the tone for global financial behaviour more than any other countries, imvho, so really were the prime architects of the mess the world is now in.

Anyone remember Gordon selling all the gold at knock down prices

Anyone remember Gordon shafting pensions, which is coming home to roost now?

they are all as bad as each other, and the same as any other government in the world

they are all as bad as each other, and the same as any other government in the world

Lazy ignorant slogans like this are what has given us 13 years of the worst government in modern history.

Every country gets the leaders it deserves.

New Labour were Tories in everything but name.

Probably why the country is in the bind its in now.

We've had years of continuous Tory-ism without any mitigation.

Some simple examples - Labour government would have rolled back some of the free market changes made by Thatcher, mitigating the effect of them. Labour would have built more council houses, mitigating the effect of Thatchers sell off.

Instead we got New Labour - Tory lite.

New Labour were Tories in everything but name.

Don't be so ridiculous.

Thatcher made The People believe that taxes are bad, and flogged off everything we owned to deliver tax cuts. Unfortunately no politician - bar Corbyn - has since tried to make the case that taxes pay for public services, that you get what you pay for, “buy cheap, buy twice”, etc.

People living in high tax countries are amongst the happiest in the world. I really should google the happiness of people who live in no-tax countries. Not the happiness of oil sheikhs and foreign tax-dodgers, but their actual workers, “the people”.

Dors anyone remember the last time we had a PM who served a full term? And let's face it Sunak will not be the leader of the Tories in 18 months. He might not even be the leader at the next GE.

The Tories can't even run their own party, it's no wonder they are incapable of running anything else.

It's time for a change according to the basic swingometer that is our democratic system - so a Labour govt after next GE methinks. Can't say if it will be better or worse, but there are a few 'shadows' such as Reeves, Thornberry and Cooper that i feel confident in handing the reins of governance to.

Thornberry? Blimey.

Yep, Thornberry - happy to hear why she's so persona non grata.

There is some truth to this. That boom they experienced was down to fully utilising financial markets and using high exposure to risk

To be fair, New Labour came up with ideas like PFI to piss off the Tories

Yes and I’d say PFI will piss anyone off that comes next, saddling the next lot with high debt, especially as the population has got older now

To be fair, New Labour came up with ideas like PFI to piss off the Tories, because that is not a remotely left wing policy.

PFI was introduced by John Major's Conservative government in 1992.

It was then expanded much, much further under Tony Blair's Labour government through the NHS Private Finance Act 1997.

While things will “alas!” continue to get worse after the next GE, as the country buckles under its massive Tory-inflicted curse, there is absolutely no chance of any other government of any other mainstream political party being worse at running the country than the current crooked cabal.

How can your hospitals closing now be Labour’s fault? They’ve been out of power for 13 years.

Whilst I do believe that we should always learn from history, including the recent past, there comes a time when it just becomes a blame game, a they did-we did, never-ending critique.

What the electorate wants are solutions to current problems, that's it, most of us are sick of hearing the political blame game.

Still waiting for reasons why Thornberry should be negatively considered.

I suspect there’s every chance. The trouble with political partisanship is that it destroys objectivity.

Like this harping on about “corruption”. In what way are the Tories more corrupt than the last Labour governments?

I can never decide which of Blair’s cash-for-fags or the bogus donor scandal was the lowest point in the conduct of UK politics in my lifetime.

Labour is headed by a man who is so lily lived he hasn't even got the courage to say, of course only women have a cervix. Starmer is weak. I'd hoped for a reinvigorated Labour after Corbyn but he's been truly disappointing so far.

There are stiff challenges ahead for the next government. Labour probably won't handle them any better and they will definitely make life worse for women.