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.

Actually @Fieldofbrokenpromises that was the last year I was at school, taking A levels and so I can tell you categorically that the same was true in 1973/4. It was the last gasp of a Tory government, but with the Callaghan administration that followed it, nothing improved. But my uni years 74-77 weren't marked by power cuts, just threadbare.

The thing that is missing from political life now is the big hope. Neither Sunak or Starner tell a story of how the UK will get better, or what plans there are.

Instead it is this awful grind against reality. Effective politicians tell stories and we believe them. The really good ones deliver on part or most of it. It is the vision thing.

People will vote Labour because this government is clapped out. But they do not have the vision thing.

I'm sure you're right @bombastix, even though I'd guess we're on different teams politically.

OTOH, I am nearly 70, and sceptical about any politician's promises.

I think I would agree on promises because I know how manifestos are written, and also, though few want to admit it, there are usually significant reasons why something that is obvious or popular cannot be done once in office.

But even if I do not like him, Johnson was good at the vision thing with Brexit - simply that he did not deliver his sunlight uplands. But he had the wit to know a story captures a vote.

There's a few still limping on but with a massively scaled back service and often only aimed at poorer areas. The great thing about having a children's centre in every neighbourhood and them being for all was there was no stigma. And this helped them to reach families they often aren't able to if only aimed at certain families. The other thing about having so many children's centres was they could specialise in different things. My nearest one specialised in health and had a brilliant breastfeeding support group. Breastfeeding rates went up significantly when it was running. Then another local one specialised in employment and yet another teen pregnancy.
But they were just so good for everyone. Clean, modern facilities, toys and books in good repair, arts and crafts equipment, child sized furniture and toilets. Ours had a sensory garden outside and loads of ride-ons, my little one loved the messy play sessions and my eldest the cookery classes in the holidays. It was the kind of first class place you could be really proud of. Shame on the Conservatives!

@verdantverdure I’m so sorry. I genuinely thought you were a poster who’s constantly posting a graph about Labour “crashing the economy”. Unreserved apologies. 🙏

I realise this isn’t really the point of this this thread, but to the two posters arguing about vitamin intake in children - there’s a scheme called healthy start which provides free vitamins and healthy food to low income families, for children and pregnant women. So that’s available. There is also vitamin d supplementation in formula milk.

TB vaccines are also available in areas with high incidence of TB (which is usually being brought from other countries with high incidences of TB).

Surestart centres are also still available, in deprived areas. I have had access to two in the two areas I’ve lived since having my little boy and DS isn’t 3 yet. The breastfeeding help I got from them was far far superior to anything my NCT mum friends got in their much richer middle class areas.

The people using the surestart centres were not, however, the people they were aimed at. They were the white middle class people who happened to live in or very near the deprived area the surestart centre was located in. I’m not sure what can be done about that. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink 🤷🏻‍♀️

I always thought the general mingling at SureStart centres was part of the genius of the thing.

You got support from out of your usual strata. One of my best mum friends with my first was on benefits, from a family on benefits and in an abusive marriage. Her family and friends were a bit "well you've made your bed" and she credits getting different friends at SureStart with showing her there were other lives she could be living.

No worries. I'm always cutting off vital graphs wording somehow

New Labour was honestly a much needed breath of fresh air. This labour can’t replicate that with a total fucking idiot at the helm and rife anti-demotion in the party

@verdantverdure thats a great story, thanks for sharing.

I agree I think there would be loads of benefits from different people mixing. I suppose my point about the surestart centres was two fold - firstly the centres do exist but they are targeted in areas where mums might not have support networks or money to pay for baby groups, which some would argue is a sensible use of public money. And secondly that even though they are located in those areas it’s not the families that would most benefit that are using them. So even though there would be definite benefits from the mixing, we need to figure out why certain demographic groups aren’t using them and how that can be changed.

But as I said it’s not the point of the thread lol! OP I’m sorry I don’t really remember much about life under labour. Although I do remember how cheap my rent was in my early twenties!!

But even if I do not like him, Johnson was good at the vision thing with Brexit - simply that he did not deliver his sunlight uplands. But he had the wit to know a story captures a vote.

'Get Brexit done,' wasn't a vision and it certainly wasn't a story. It was an empty meaningless slogan and we absolutely do not need more of that kind of thing. He couldn't deliver on it because he had absolutely no idea what it meant. That's not what a vision is. Yes, people fell for it and many would probably fall for something similar again, but the day KS and the Labour party start resorting to shitty three-word slogans will be a very sad one, in my opinion.

Lol at the idea of Johnson having vision... what, like the vision of the extra £350m per week for the NHS?

He never had any vision at all. Just empty promises to get himself elected that he never had any intention of keeping.

Austerity has continued to the present day, cuts in council funding for example and the whooping council tax increases we all see - along with all the other tax rises we now have under the Tories.

Johnson’s “vision thing”! You’ve got to be joking. The Covid enquiry is showing regularly that he couldn’t stick to any decision for more than 5 minutes, let alone have a vision! 😳

No. Quite seriously it persuaded people to vote Conservative who previously never would have done. That doesn't mean he did a good job. But it explains how he was able to get the job.

I can't stand him and he is incompetent. But he did have that ability. Alas he couldn't deliver for toffee

There was a lot less division. The country seemed more confident in itself and its role in the world, more maturity and less exceptionalism. Minorities had started embracing the flag after centrist Britains had wrestled it from the far right.

I had first DC in 2010 and went to the local SureStart where I learned skills such as baby first aid etc and made lots of local contacts.

I’m a high earner now but was far from it under the last Labour government, nevertheless, in many ways, life was more affordable.

I remember how bad things were at the end of the John Major governments. Rubbish everywhere and sooooooo many homeless people. The hospitals were filthy and you would never go in the sea. Blair genuinely transformed the country. I can’t see Starmer doing the same, as we are so far gone, but I believe he will stop it getting worse and set us on the path to gradual improvement.

How do you think Starmer will improve the country?

No one seems capable of answering that question.

err probably because thats not the title of the thread?

Listening this morning on how the UK is falling behind on foreign direct investment, not least because we cannot match USA and EU funding on Green investment (we ve even cut what we were doing) & in energy security (re pricing) and skills training.

Outside of the EU or SM/CU, i believe Labour will have an uphill task to improve the country and who do we have to blame for that foreign policy screw up?

But i do believe Labour can spend the money we have got more wisely.

One thing is certain though, we cannot go on with this soap opera of a govt, the infighting and division is very damaging for the UK, once again, the Tories have made the UK an embarrassment.

fair enough @bombastix by “vision” you meant “pack of fantasist lies” so we agree 😃

Yes pack of lies works too! Political stories are often fiction

It wasn't all that different OP. The leftie lovies of MN (they are legion - as this thread shows), will tell you how it was a socialist utopia with lambs gamboling in the fields and happy, smiling children skipping to well-funded schools while nurses could afford lovely houses in the suburbs and every single Labour politician was a model of decorum and fine, upstanding principles, but that would be bollocks.

The last Labour government fucked up the way GP surgeries ran, got us involved in foreign wars we had no business being involved in, opened the floodgates to mass immigration, which has been a major driver for the housing shortages and overstretched public services we're all now experiencing, and spent a shitload of money they didn't have, which is what Labour always does when it's in government.

The Conservatives have been bloody awful recently and they definitely wasted a shit ton of money themselves on the pandemic, while giving dodgy contracts for millions to their mates, but they're all the fucking same when it comes down to it. Anyway, Labour will almost certainly get in next year, so you'll soon the pleasure of finding all this out for yourself.

Anyway, Labour will almost certainly get in next year, so you'll soon the pleasure of finding all this out for yourself.

Labour, as it currently stands, are just Tory-Lite, so we’re fucked either way.

Sure start centres used to be aimed at all. This meant there was no stigma attached. They used to have a much wider range of classes/courses/services. For example you would see your midwife there in pregnancy which meant by the time you had your baby you were familiar with the centre and its staff. It also did a lot of outreach work. All this and more helped with getting people from all backgrounds to use the centres.

It's good to hear you had good breastfeeding support at your centre. Our local one used to be great.

There weren’t 8 million people on NHS waiting lists and people could see their GP and get an NHS dental appointment. These are the things that matter to people.

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