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.

There seemed to be alot of hope I didn’t vote Blair but Cool Britannia was inclusive and it seemed like people were feeling optimistic. I had £500 child tax fund for my son and TC that supported me and my business to work well. I didn’t realise how good we had it

The system collapsed in 2008. It was all built on sand from the Reagan/Thatcher days. It's never recovered but the rich continue to plunder from everyone while the rest get poorer and decreased standards of living, while they pretend it didn't collapse.

25 years.which sadly will be the expected lifetime of the building.

To be fair with regards labour and conservative they've both completely knackered house prices and personal debt.

Actually, I don’t think I’ve spent any of my adult life under a decent government (wasn’t really paying attention as a child so can’t comment!)

Sure Start centres went because the ‘wrong’ families were using them. Motivated middle class mums were attending the sessions and the families they were really trying to reach weren’t attending.

True. Plus rose tinted specs. They were voted out for a reason, and have been out of power for a while. Except in Wales

I do indeed hate the Tories more. I think that on the whole, they’re entitled, amoral and corrupt.

It was soooooo much better. Not a perfect utopia by any means but I seriously miss those years.

The country actually functioned as a baseline for a start. You could rely on a functioning NHS, public transport system, postal system, court system, prison system, children’s services, educational system etc.

They achieved peace in N Ireland. The cost of living wasn’t endlessly spiralling out of control. Living standards and child poverty were generally improving and life expectancy was increasing as opposed to the trends we currently see going through other way since the Tories got into power.

And the prime minster and government actually seemed to take the job seriously and to care about the U.K. public that they served. There was not the same sense of “one rule for them and another for us”. U.K. society was not so divided and people seemed happier and less stressed from day to day.

If someone is left wing then they're not going to gush about Tony Blair and his government though are they?

They were voted out because they’d been in office for 13 years. Governments run out of steam after that length of time in office. As we can see now.

I don’t see why not. Maybe pro Labour site fits better

But there isn't much enthusiasm for Labour. Starmer's polling is usually always awful. At least in the 90s Blair polled extremely well.

It's the scale of just how terrible the Tories have been, that people can't stand it anymore and just want them out. Nobody can defend their record, not even them, it's defending the indefensible. 13 years of utter shit. 'But Labour' or 'Get Brexit Done' is all they've had to say for themselves, not defending their own record.

Lots of rose tinted specs on the comments so far me thinks .

I just said op would be wise to do some real
life non bias , non opinionated research. Factual information.

Oh.. and she should look at Labours historical and current record In their running of Wales too.

The NHS there might be a good start …

I used a lot of public services under the Labour government, as I became a young single mum in 1999.

I was at uni and had to get a loan, but I got a grant as well and the loan was relatively small, I think under £2k a year.
I got a council house when I became a single mum. That was quite rare even then. It is harder now but I've had relatives who have also got council houses more recently so still possible now. My tenancy was a secure tenancy from the start but friends who have been allocated housing more recently have different tenancies, and their income affects their rent (but only in their council area, I think my own council still does the same tenancies as I have although they start off with introductory tenancies. Councils refurbished bathrooms and did repairs throughout my time as a council tenant - I don't think that's got any worse.

We used Sure Start Centres. I have had more dc recently and there are still lots of Children's Centres in my area and they run free Stay and Play sessions in a playgroup type room with free snacks. The schedule is not as busy as it used to be - eg 3 play sessions a week instead of 5. But on the other days there are other centres within walking distance so you can do a stay and play every day if you want.

When I first had my DS I got income support and I would have been allowed to stay on that until my DC was 16, with no work requirements as a single parent. Now they expect single parents to look for work much earlier (at age 3 I think?). I did stay on benefits and my DC was diagnosed with autism and after that I had no work requirements as their carer, so the changes didn't affect me.

It was hard getting SEN support even through the Labour years. I had to battle with my LA over getting a statement to get funding for a 1:1 LSA for my DC. But I took them to tribunal and spent a fortune on legal support to get an independent SEN school in the end. I think parents still have to do that to get any real support for their disabled children now. I don't think it was any easier in the Labour years.

As a young family we were much better under labour than under the conservatives. There were a lot of family friendly policies and grants. I’m very glad I had young children in the 00’s rather than now.

I was entering a level and being told that it's great that I can go to uni. Equal opportunities and all. Don't worry about that loan. You'll earn enough to pay it off within a few months. So off I went and got into loads of debt. Except I did an arts degree and whilst I got a good job it wasn't going to be paid off in a few years.
Next came housing. Borrow 100% mortgage. Oh except that there was a housing crash and we went bankrupt.

So...my impression of labour is that they offer to pay for stuff and give handouts but the reality is that stuff needs to be paid for.

Needless to say I've never voted for them again! Although I recognise this is onlyy personal experience!

There was not much left wing about Blair. He was far more Thatcher than Corbyn. He would have been at least equally at home as a Tory PM (Cameron modelled himself a lot on him and hailed himself as the 'heir to Blair').

This pretty much sums it up.

There's a really good documentary series on BBC iplayer called Blair and Brown The New Labour Revolution. It covers the rise of Blair and Brown in the Labour Party and the years of the Labour government

And who do you think controls taxation and economic policy - Cardiff or Westminster?

The Tories have broken the UK economy.

A lot better than under conservative, Thatcher was a living nightmare, depressing, I was depressed when she got in, and some of her agendas were so oppressive. Labour was a breath of fresh air in comparison

No we wouldn’t. By the time of the 2010 election when we couldn’t decide who we wanted in power the economy was growing again. Cameron and Osbourne managed to put it into a recession with austerity which was in contrast to the way much of Western Europe was dealing with the same crisis. The recession didn’t start easing until Osbourne eased up on austerity policies. Then the economy started to recover slowly but only after an awful lot of people had died.

PFI was a terrible idea, but nothing the Tories have done on similar projects has been any better as far as I can tell. It always seems to cost much more than it should. It is something that we need to look at how we manage.

Basically it’s the same shit as a Tory government, or. LibDem/conservative coalition

It really isn’t. Only someone who isn’t paying attention comes out with this kind of nonsense. On just about every measure this country was in better shape in 2010 than it is now.