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.

We used both state and independent education over the 15 years of DC's education. Taking account of an element of SN, the money spent on independent schools was absolutely worth every penny. So it cost? That was the cost I worked to pay; it wasn't for handbags or holidays.

It was to ensure my massively dyslexic child understood that they were not dismissed as stupid. DC is actually quite clever, and has talents not measured by academic testing.

When party A takes over from party B, most things don't change, and any changes are minor and take years.

Things that go well are totally down to party A, including things started by B and things that would happen naturally. Things that go badly are totally down to the legacy of party B. Policies that party B introduced that A totally opposed are suddenly OK or are kicked into the long grass. Policies that party A demanded from the government when they were in opposition are suddenly less important and are also kicked into the long grass.

Party A contains just as many perverts, sleazebags and members lining their own pockets as party B had. Party A was always demanding the resignations of minister for any misdemeanor, but somehow now, this is making mountains out of molehills and their own pervert/sleazebag/liar/incompetent fool is doing a great job and can keep their jobs.

Party A will drop half the promises in their manifesto as they would be "difficult or impossible in the current climate"

Party A, just like their predecessors, will claim that the NHS is safe in their hands and will continue to spout the ABSOLUTE LIE that it is free at the point of use (when it isn't and hasn't been for over 70 years)

It makes no difference whether party A is Labour and party B is Conservative or vice versa.

Quite a lot changed post '97 but okaaay.

They’re not fiscally prudent? And this lot are? We’re in more debt than since 1945 - remind me who’s been running the country for the last 13 years. The NHS was in good health when this lot got its hands on it - remind me who’s run it into the ground. Business is supportive of a Labour government, immigration is currently out of control, taxes will be higher - for non doms, some businesses that make obscene profits and private school parents - good.

I thought Britain has always done slightly better economically under Labour governments. There was research published into it somewhere or other.

I want to see Labour tackle the public sector head-on instead of just throwing money at it to improve it. All the people moaning, just sack them and tell them to try their luck in the public sector. MODERNISE and run it like it's an elite private sector firm instead of just plodding along doing the same thing they've done for the last 40 years.

They already in the public sector. Yes, sack all the NHS staff when it’s already got 40k vacancies - great idea. Let’s sack all the sick people too while we’re at it. The shit that gets posted here …

Thought MN was full of lefties...😂 This thread indicates otherwise.

You think you've heard it all and then

Full of Lefties is one thing.
Full of people who think the way to change is to vote the same again?🤯🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

It true the public sector is inefficient and often badly managed. The constant reorganizations don’t help though imo.

That’s sad that you care more for your dogmatic beliefs than your child.

They've got 40k vacancies because it's still run like it's the 70s!

Fiscally prudent? The Tories wasted billions £££ making the country weaker, sicker, more unstable and then bankrupted the country.

Absolutely agree!

And our current PM experience in economics is making millions of crashing the pound.

we need change and there’s not a lot of options.

I am not quite sure what this post means, but it seems to convey a suggestion that the PMis benefitting personally from a devaluation in the pound. I’d be interested to see evidence for this; given the broadly upward trend in the value of sterling against main currencies since Sunak took over, it seems an odd suggestion to make.

Crashing the pound? Where have you seen this

The NHS was in good health when this lot got its hands on it - remind me who’s run it into the ground.

I don't think it was. I have a long term health condition so have been going to outpatient clinics for 40 years. It's been adequate at best over that time.

I genuinely think the NHS needs reform as it's no longer tenable with our population size. I have private healthcare and it's worlds' away from my experiences with the NHS (and costs £250 a year under our company scheme).

France and Germany seem to deliver better healthcare with part-pay models (and I think Australia and Switzerland too). The NHS isn't free and we should stop being grateful for substandard care. I'm not bashing the doctors, I know they work extremely hard.

But every discussion of change is met with US/Tory cronies outrage rather than looking at the other countries that deliver good healthcare under different models to the U.K.

And our current PM experience in economics is making millions of crashing the pound.

As a PP has said, the reverse is true as the pound has appreciated against the dollar in Sunak's tenure (from 1.1/1.15 to almost 1.3).

In its simplest form, a rising interest rate is a positive for exchange rates. So the pound is likely to appreciate further against the dollar as the Fed has paused interest rate hikes and the BofE is currently forecast to raise rates another 2-3 times.

How many of our problems today stem from Thatcher and the Tories selling everything that wasn't nailed down? No wonder they could cut taxes they flogged everything they could.
Council housing? Check. Railways? Check. BT, the Utilities...and look how well that turned out. Our rivers and seas are full of shit. The water companies have paid out billions in dividends, largely by borrowing money and invested nothing in infrastructure. Thames Water (largely foreign owned) looks like it's about to go bust and the taxpayer will have to pay to clean up the mess. They sold off our gas storage recently leaving us more exposed to the energy crisis. Royal Mail another recent one, sold at a rock bottom price.
It's been asset stripping on a massive scale.
They're privatising the NHS by stealth. I had a smear test recently and they found a polyp they want checked out so referred me to a gynaecologist. The letter I got yesterday was from a private company thanking me for choosing them.

Aus has a good system. If this is still true I think there is a tax rebate if you use private

That kind of thing would make too many people explode here

Are we ignoring the mass sale of gold by Gordon Brown at depressed prices?

The Royal Mail faces unprecedented challenges with the decline of letters and rise in emails. Plus competition from budget courier companies.

Do we want to subsidise postal services as a nationalised company? Or should it adapt as other private companies have to? Which it has by cutting the cost of parcels and offering a free home collection service.

There's plenty of things the private sector runs well and the state runs badly. I don't see it as the great utopia others do (particularly for healthcare).

This is how things work now. They tell blatant lies and hope they stick. Like the racist ad linking Sunak with grooming. It’s the trump playbook.