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.

I remember the last labour government under Blair and Brown and it was just the same self serving career politicians lying and swamped in scandals and broken promises as it is with the government today to be honest. Basically all the politicians are the same, they just wear a different coloured tie.

That's because the Blair government made it very clear that they prioritised the markets.

Exactly.

You’re misremembering.

I voted for them. I was excited when they got into power. They were definitely self serving career politician's!

I voted for them too. The Blair/Brown era wasn’t perfect but it was utopian compared with the last 13 years.

On the contrary, the markets will react negatively like they did when Erdoğan won recently in Turkey. The Tories are now synonymous for Instability.

It was awful. He kept raising interest rates the minute he got in

Things didn't get better

Remember that song they used

Well I agree with you there.

I'm not sure what point you're making and it's relevance to UK politics in 2023.

Can't get a fix on old Steer Calmer. One the one hand he seems to be frightened of his own shadow , cringing before the Murdoch press and terrified of upsetting working class voters in the North. And moderate middle class people in the South. Might as well have a corncob up his arse - as Alan Clark said of Douglas Hurd , whose strangulated vocal delivery reminds me of the Labour leader.

On the other hand ....he is expelling a lot of members. He is fearless when it comes to a fight against his own side. The latest intended victim is Neal Lawson of the Compass website and blog. He is in favour of PR but , in the meantime, tactical voting and cooperation with Libdems and Greens. Accordingly he is being investigated for a 2 year old re tweet on that subject. Now a majority of Labour members seem to favour PR as do - gasp - trades unions. Could be quite a major purge coming on.

Maybe I'm reading it all wrong and he has a cunning plan my lord. Live in hope or you die in despair.

I think we need a truly revolutionary alternative which aims for a future focused on climate change and addressing inequality. Capitalism as it is now, isn't compatible with making the sort of changes needed to tackle climate change. With covid we had such a good opportunity to reset our values and make things like home working standard practice. Now we're back to commuting to sit at a desk and join teams meetings all day.
I would vote for a party which set out how to tax the rich and make sure corporations paid tax. I think a lot would. There are still issues which would need to be ironed out, and I personally wouldn't like to see huge taxes for those who inherit a family home which just happens to be worth a million now.

I'm not lucky enough to be in that situation but I think that's a completely different scenario to Jeff Bezos.

How’s your Saturday going Ed Davey?

That isn’t quite true, is it? For one thing they made the BoE independent so it was in charge of rates and interest rates remained unchanged for the first six years they were in power. At their height they were a fraction of the rates under the previous Tory administration.

2003-2007
Interest rates were raised significantly in this period as an attempt to reign in what was perceived to be an over-inflating economy. Rates rose from 3.5 per cent in July 2003 to 5.75 per cent in July 2007.

There seems to be loads of that from the Tory faithful on this thread.😆

No, they are equally shit, maybe even worse and that is saying something. I think a lot of people are politically homeless. Who ever wins the election we are screwed.

It wasn't great for us as we had just bought a bigger house which was necessary

We were struggling but we were above the benefit threshold slightly so were badly affected

They're all as bad as each other. I'm old enough to have seen that in practice. The major difference being that the Tories are unarguably more venal.

Here we go.

I must remember that Mumsnet is a place of extremes. No room for nuance or thinking that there may be some things about Labour which aren't great.

Just putting it here that I've never voted Tory in my life and never would. I have no idea who I'll vote for in the GE (Labour have no chance here). Probably Green.

This was 1997 so they definitely raised the rates

They didn’t.

It definitely went up in 1997

I checked just now and I remember it well

Things were fine until the pandemic here. Except for 2008 when about one quarter of sector were made redundant

I doubt Labour would have been better for pandemic, too lockdown happy for me

Evidence?

It's not a law court