To ask what the country was like under a Labour government?

[user6776]

I'm too young to remember a proper Labour government. I was 12 when the Tories got voted in back in 2010 so that's all I've ever really known.

How much better was it than it is now? Why did Labour lose the election back then anyway?

Interested to hear people's opinions.

That might depend on age I imagine.

I'm 44 and I've only experienced one Labour government.

Though Darling is on record as saying that the impact of COVID would be much much worse than that of the financial crisis, and called for an early and clear plan for the lifting of lockdown to lessen the impact…. The opposition really was poor through COVID; those with experience were nowhere to be seen/heard, and the inexperienced Starmer was just left saying whatever the government did they should have done more, sooner. Though as it turned out, that approach in Scotland lead to worse health and economic outcomes…

So they spent less money and achieved all this. I’m very, very surprised you posted that Clav.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/High-Performing-NHS-progress-review-1997-2010-Ruth-Thorlby-Jo-Maybin-Kings-Fund-April-2010.pdf

I haven't seen one for a decade or more but there are still a few in existence.

But a link posted above (mid-afternoon today IIRC) from the Guardian was an interview with Alistair Darling in late 2009 saying that government spending would have to be cut by 25%. Then there was an election and it fell to the Coalition to impose the cuts. Twenty five percent is too big a percentage to spare any govt department. It was going to hit benefits, health, education and defence, so pain all round. The economy has not picked up enough since 2009 to restore the funding, despite massive tax increases, plus Brexit, a pandemic and an energy crisis caused by Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But we are not alone in suffering the pain, so is Germany, and France, and the Italians are much closer to breaching debt ceilings as they try to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants arriving on their beaches.

Agree with all this. So much demand for lockdowns on here surprised people are now talking about the cost, although not really as that’s the internet/ mn generally. No realisation at the time even though it was obvious.

Though as it turned out, that approach in Scotland lead to worse health and economic outcomes…

Yep

It was better. But I don’t think it was necessarily because the Labour government was better. It was a different time during which the whole world was more prosperous and we didn’t have stuff like the cost of living crisis due to the Ukraine war.

BIossomtoes
So they spent less money

My link is dated September 2009 - Andy Burnham told the NHS they needed to trim their spending by up to £20 billion - i.e. costing the Labour government too much.

Darling was a really good Chancellor in retrospect, he tends to be forgotten but he didn't hold the office for long. I always thought the most sensible thing the 2010 victorious Tories could have done was to keep him on as a caretaker.

Agree, he certainly realised the UK needed Austerity but he wanted it to end, unfortunately the Tories kept on with it, after 13 years of it, its no wonder we've had such poor growth since the GFC.

He was sensible and fiscally responsible to his backbone.

Out of interest, and purely speculative: when would we putative Chancellors have eased the tightening of the purse strings and where would we have spent the money released?

September 2009

The NHS will have to shed around 137,000 jobs – almost a tenth of its workforce – if it is to meet planned efficiency savings of £20bn, the Department of Health has been warned.
The severity of cutbacks needed by 2014 was contained in advice presented by management consultants McKinsey to the government this spring.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/sep/02/nhs-advised-to-lose-workers

To answer my own question, I think I would have stuck with austerity until 2015, but I would (temperamentally, as a One Nation Tory) probably have started to give small business tax breaks to expense investments and directed the savings into education and science. But obviously, hindsight.

Austerity 'officially' ended in 2018 - a bit later than the estimate in my Guardian link up thread (March 2010);

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said hefty tax rises and Whitehall spending cuts of 25% were in prospect during the six-year squeeze lasting until 2017 that would follow the chancellor's (Darling's) "treading water" budget

There is no more money to pay the bills, all the promises are unfunded, taxation is at record levels with a moribund economy. Governments of all hues will do what they know best, they will take from the fattest cows - the pension schemes and the housing market.
Expect a further hollowing out of the middle class.

Life felt hopeful and optimistic.

Labour spent money, yes. But they invested in people and services. I hope my kids get to experience a similar environment; the austerity measures are utterly depressing and dangerous.

I'm probably a lone voice on most of social media, and certainly here, in thinking that decoupling from the EU might not turn out such an error over a long term. There's a lot of comfort to be had from snuggling up to a big powerful political bloc and we have definitely suffered pain and dislocation from doing so. But much of sunny Southern Europe is really missing people like me, who would have retired there, learnt the language, paid tax (quite a lot of it) while restoring a rundown property in an area losing it's youth to cities and opportunities. So much so that the French Senate is proposing bending the 90 day rule to give UK (specifically) second home owners the opportunity to ask for easier terms on longer stays.

This is the most accurate answer.

I lost 2 friends in the Iraq war, sent to die for weapons that never existed and Blair knew that.

Also watched my Dsis partner die from NHS waiting lists so it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

It would obviously be a change from the well managed Conservative government we have enjoyed over the past five years.

We were only on my mum's wage, as my dad was ill and then passed away.
Mum was a teacher and said the only time she ever got a noticeable pay rise was in those Labour years (1997 onwards).
We could afford our first holiday abroad to France. Life seemed more liveable in those days.

You are being sarky, and correctly so. But could you stir your brain into thinking about HOW you might improve the situation? Very aware that I am not adding much in the way of new ideas however.

Your memory is letting you down. Power cuts and the three day week were under a Tory government.

Aaah, nostalgia @Alexandero .

Infinitely better