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.

Not true, the reason we had few NHS dentists back then and even less now is because the NHS contractual fees last went up in 2004.

I ve recently had some NHS treatment, i was in for an hour, x-ray, 1 filling, injections, dentist and nurse, the practice got £26.

Private treatment would have been approx £240.

The Tories have 14 years to improve dental provision but have done nothing at all, their recent plan has been ridiculed by Dentists.

I started working in education in 2002 and, truly, I was massively impressed by the spirit of 'every child matters' and the inclusion policy. Schools tried to include those with difficulties and it felt that there was a spirit of positivity. It was so different to my experience of education in the 80s-90s. Over the last 10 years or so, funding issues are very obvious. I work in sixth form now so it's slightly different but inclusion/support etc seems to be very low on the agenda compared to 'saving money' in every single instance. It's sad.

In terms of NHS from a patient perspective: night and day.

I think if you are a wealthy person who doesn't need to rely on public services you probably won't see the difference but, anyone else, I'd say will have suffered under the conservatives.

Yes, global boom then recession may explain some of it but by no means all.

I've still not heard anything convincing about what's been BETTER under the conservatives.

I haven't seen a dentist on the NHS since 1985 when I returned to London from the USA, and there were no NHS practices taking new patients in my area of SW London. So I went anyway, and paid privately. When we moved to our preesent home, I also paid privately but our DS was registered and treated as a child via the NHS. He has never needed any treatment, and remains registered with the same dentist who still sees him annually, now privately and charges him £40 or £50 for a check up.

I also have a dog, and I am careful about her health too. I don't have pet insurance because I think it's a license to print money, but this is my third dog, and the first to be accident-prone and have health issues. So this one has cost the money that I saved on her predecessors. Just since January, she has had a lump taken off her eyelid, which returned six weeks later, so it has now been surgically excised. Between the double anaesthesia, surgery and the drugs, it has cost about £500. But the pet insurance would be £70 per month given her age, plus the deductible so it is still just a bit cheaper to PAYG. And the vet is a great deal more interested and concerned than any GP her humans have consulted recently. Weight check on walk in, full exam to establish general health, then specific consultation. Quite honestly, I'd prefer to consult my veterinary practice for my own health! With the big caveat that my vet is not part of a big private equity funded empire.

I started my business under New Labour. There was much more support for start ups.
The country felt more alive cool even. He had a great vision many like myself bought into. Classless society. He didn't like the RF or all the class bullshit. I felt proud to be British and not laughed at or hated when I travelled unlike now

I hear what you say @QueenMegan . I went freelance in 1990, and moved to Cornwall at the same time. But, apart from the time travelling to/from London by train twice a week to see clients, I enjoyed most of it. I was 35, in demand, highly skilled and quite tech savvy. I was part of the very first wave of people who worked remotely thanks to the fax machine. There was no Internet or email back then (possibly for academics). I just bought fax roll by the box. Big international city work in a glorious AONB landscape.

Although, I might add that I don't feel hated or laughed at when I travel in Europe now. I can manage a smattering of most major European languages (not elegant. just polite) enough to ask if there is a room tonight, if I could see it, and where they would suggest for dinner.

@jasflowers it was Blair who introduced the UDA system which caused a lot of dentists to quit. Blair was full of false promises like ‘Options for change’

Social care was much better funded under labour, EHCPs better met, no long waiting times for GP appointments or dental appointments, better funding for schools, shorter ambulance waiting times. The list goes on.

It's been very interesting to watch services go down the plug hole under the conservative government. It was a slow decline initially which then gathered speed leading us to todays ginormous conservative mess.

At least he left a fully functioning healthcare system with virtually no waiting lists. How many people are waiting now? Is it 7 or 8 million?

@Wonderously seriously I don't think social care was better funded then. I believe the difference has arrived in the huge numbers of boomer retirees. It's obviously a huge problem and not easy to manage. Health care systems have suddenly got to deal with the biggest population bulge in all of history, getting old and infirm at the same time. And all of them know about every medical advance, and they all expect every possible avenue for treatment to be pursued. Take a sensible budget plan and multiply the expectation x 10.

The question becomes, do we want a health care system with an economy trailing behind, or an economy that affords a moderate level of care for all? The UK simply doesn't have pockets deep enough to fund all the social needs, even as the world's fifth/sixth largest economy. God knows, I feel sympathy for every parent with a special needs child. I know you love them and want the best for them, but viable life as a category has expanded exponentially since i worked on a summer holiday scheme for mentally handicapped kids in the late 1970s. I could not use that phrase now without being shouted down. However, whatever I think the numbers are up xxxxx..

@BIossomtoes

I saw a repeat of a Question Time episode with Tony Blair from 2005.

Audience members were complaining that the targets set for patients to be seen within 2 days had the unintended consequence that they had to book their GP appointment earlier than they wanted.

Imagine.

The current wait time is 10 days, down from 19 days last year.

I remember tony blair being gobsmacked that you could not book a GP appointment for next week or whatever, that it had to be in the next 2 days. It was the unintended consequence of his target for people to be seen quicker. Because people were phoning up with urgent stuff and they couldn't get seen within the next 1-2 days as all appointments were booked up.

The current wait time in many surgeries, if you do the 8am bunfight that blair unintentionally introduced is still same day. But only if you can get to the front of the queue of hundreds of people. And then pass the attack dog who answers the phone.

We didn't have enough GPs when Blair was in office, that's why he tried to do this policy. We still don't have enough.

The NHS needs to be taken away from politics. It all utterly disgusts me.

Nothing like the strikes in the 70s

Any number of recollections can paint any picture. It's all just what people want to hear/remember to support the party they want to.

I am at all the rose tinted glasses here. My teacher relative was assaulted by a 12yo under the last labour govt and as a result of that and other incidents, relative went to teach in private school instead.

That excuse doesn’t work. The waiting lists are for surgery. An older population produces a range of chronic conditions treated with medication, not surgery. The time and cost post diagnosis is relatively small to stabilise them. The number of pensioners has risen by 25%. The number on waiting lists has risen by 300%. Those rises are since 2010.

@jlpth @jl.
Totally agree it needs lifting out of politics and they can massage stats and figures to suit themselves

You are more serious about stats than I can manage @blossom so I defer to your version. But more old people, fat people create health choke nets.

Fairly sure that @Blossomtoes, is as old as me, but I'd guess she has a BMI under 25 and has a physical regime.to maintain it.

😂 You couldn’t be more wrong. She doesn’t have any chronic conditions or take any prescription drugs, though.

Aside from the gender recognition act and war in Iraq, it was bloody brilliant.

Consecutive economic growth, well funded schools in the latter years, and the NHS was truly excellent. Crime was lower. Poverty was lower. People were more optimistic. The seas and rivers were cleaner.

Was life perfect? No. Things can always improve. But my God was it better than it is now.

I no longer vote Labour because they’ve shafted women. But I’d take Tony Blair as PM back in a heartbeat.

The impact caused by the retirement of the baby boomer generation was obvious many decades in advance.

More recently, the Tories subjected the social care sector to austerity measures and the impact of this was also wholly predictable.

We are now in a situation where delayed discharges place a huge extra burden on the NHS, and numerous local authorities around the country are in financial crisis due to the system for social
care funding being completely unsustainable.

Baby P? Lordy.
Labour sold our gold reserves - poor money management led to financial crash 2008. I worry about this going forwards. Labour spend on public services, get kicked out, Tories come in, try to sort finances, ruin public services, get kicked out, repeat.

Tories brought in tuition fees, Labour happened to be in gov when the legislation went through.