To remind ourselves of what the Tories have done since 2010...

[Dabralor]

...it seems like there are lots of conservative voices bots currently starting threads about how terrifying a labour govt will be.

In the interest of balance, I thought it would be useful to have a list of terrifying things the Tories have already done.

I'll start thus:

Brexit (we aren't supposed to think of this as an election issue but it's shite so I will)

Partygate

The COVID ppe scandal

... Would anyone like to add any more?

30% children living in poverty. That’s it. That’s the stat.
Nearly a third of children growing up in depravation. Quite aside from the moral destitution that implies for a country this is just really bad business. You are reducing opportunities for a significant portion of youth and creating knock on impacts for the workforce and economy.
I am Irish and checked Irish %. It’s 14% still nothing to be proud of but less than half the UK one. 30% is not right for a developed country.

@iam theblacksheep

are you really so stupid as to blame the global financial crisis of 2008 on Labour? Labour's problem last time was holding on to power for so long the bad times rolled again in terms of the economic cycle, and they got the blame. The Tories did a good job of blaming their plans to slash and burn the state on to Labour profligacy.

The Tories managed to cause the bad times this time around. Though I suppose there's a chance you are one of the last remaining people in Britain still in denial about how detrimental Brexit has been for our economy and the lack of money we now have for public services.

To answer the OP the Tories also did for the lib dems, steam rollering every good idea the lib dems brought to coalition so it didn't work, whilst blaming them for problems.

The PPE scandal. The discharge of sewage into our waterways. Tax avoidance. Kwasi Kwarteng. The Rwanda plan. Priti Patel. Kemi Badenoch. Suella BBraverman....

I started singing that to Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire 😅

Universal Credit - a benefit that builds in a month worth of debt
Two child rule
Benefit cap, which in theory has a grace period if you lose your job, but doesn’t unless you know to claim
Freezing working age benefits and local housing allowance for years while bills and rent increased.

Introduced “mandatory reconsideration” an extra hurdle to challenging a benefit decision. Up to 70% of PIP appeals are successful but there are lots that find the two stages just too stressful or overwhelming and give up. There is a one month time limit to submit a challenge in time but no time scale at all for a response.

Reducing capacity in the NHS
reducing local government spending impacting on SEN, social care and other health outcomes due to cuts in sure start, closing libraries and reducing access to lower cost fitness/leisure,

Decimated educational provision for SEND. Thousands of children don't have a school place. Multi academy trusts siphoning money for children's education into businessmen's pockets. Education in general. Stopping sure start. Children's centres have suffered. Increase ratios in early years leading to lower standard of early education and care and challenging children with SEN excluded as they impact the care of others with ratios as they are. Stagnant pay for childcare. Used to be loads of free training within early years now very little. Ofsted would inspect every 3 years when I started now it's about every 8 I think. Ofsted ratings mean shit anyway some truly appalling schools and settings get good or outstanding.

The damage done to the NHS. Physical and mental health care

It's like they encourage misogyny. Rape convictions. The joke that is family court. A man who can beat and rape his partner in front of his child is deemed a good father so long as there's no proof he did it to the child.

Benefits system that makes financial abuse easier. Particularly taking child benefits away assuming the none working parent has access to the others money.

Failing to increase social housing stock. Allowing private rent to skyrocket.

Men in women's safe spaces. I don't care if they know what a woman is more than labour that doesn't mean they don't hate us.

Allowing the police to become what they have.

The poverty gap is a disgrace. PPE is a perfect example. Covid meant ridiculous grants to self employed and Ltd Companies who didn’t need it and spent it on personal gain. Every party in the UK is corrupt and not advocating fully for the individual in the UK. We need a new political system that allows for new political parties to stand a chance. Right is not right and Left is not left, or right anymore. Reform is not the reform or what we want or need. We need a whole reform of the entire political system. Maybe then the views and needs of the individuals in the UK will actually get a chance at being addressed. How we actually get that put into action is the biggest problem.

Why do you think that? Nothing they’ve done so far would indicate they are any better.

I think there is good and bad in both parties. The tories are definitely ahead on women’s rights tho which is important to me

Why was the “global financial crisis” not the Labour government’s fault yet later global issues like the Ukraine war and Covid were the fault of the Tories? Seems like a bit of an inconsistent position to take

I am interested to hear your experiences of how the Tories have upheld Women’s rights? As a victim of their CMS system I have fought long and hard to have my own and other Women’s rights heard? Billions of unpaid child support have gone unpaid under their administration and no reasonable plans to get their inept government system to get this much needed support to children in real time despite the fact it would lift millions of children (and mothers/women- over 90%) out of poverty. This is a topic that is very important to me too. In what way have ‘they’ upheld your rights?

Children have not seen a dentist for years.

I shouldn’t laugh, but that blunt statement did make me laugh out loud… “children have not seen a Dentist for years” How utterly disgraceful that we as a nation are at this point. A ‘developed’ country and our basic care needs are not being met. Surely the PPE scandal, mis spending of public funds, purposefully ruining the NHS warrants a criminal investigation? The UK is on its Knees. Those in power should hang their heads in shame. But they won’t.

One thing in the Tories have done is brought in specific legislation to make Keir Starmer's pension tax exempt. You probably wouldn't believe it, but it exists:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2588/introduction/made

Liz Truss caused the spike in mortgage rates & energy companies/‘supermarkets are posting record profits without the government stepping in, yet they just keep blaming Ukraine/covid

100% agree with the academies siphoning off money - my child’s school just sent a letter saying SEND support was going to be stopped unless in EHCP but the academies 8.7% cut would remain the same.

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. It’s always been this way. The Tories have really f upped because the middle classes are feeling the pinch of their disgraceful profiteering from covid. Labour won’t be much better as they are still too far right to make it right. Linda on the council estate is not your enemy. The big corporations who are using the Russian/Ukraine war are. Until a government steps in and actually advocates for the individual we are all f…ed. There is no political night in shining armour coming to rescue us anytime soon. We need to change the political system in the UK. We need better representation, who actually stand a chance of winning.

*knight

The global financial crisis was caused by a funds on the stock market having a massive hit due to things like sub prime mortgages & loans. Hedge fund managers gambled on the markets, the group that Rishi worked with caused several banks to nearly go under, Gordon Brown allowed them to be partly brought into government ownership to stop them going under. If they had gone under the public would have lost millions of pounds. It wasn't only here, it was the whole world.

What have they achieved? Nothing absolutely nothing.

public services are in an appalling state - have you tried using the NHS recently? Do you know what behaviour is like in schools which can’t afford specialist teachers with buildings that are potentially structurally unsound? Local authorities going bankrupt no money for pot holes or public realm so imagine the stretch to fund services for disabled children or social care. Shoplifting, phone snatching, drug dealing, violence against women and girls have been effectively decriminalised as police numbers are down and criminal justice system overwhelmed; recruitment of police when they realise their error has been mismanaged so there are record numbers dismissed for criminal offences and misconduct in public office.

High debt, low growth, high borrowing, declining FDI. Thanks Brexit. Thanks short term economic policy. Thanks Liz Truss.

High cost of living through high inflation, high interest rates all of which can be traced to Liz Truss. Oh and imagine how higher cost of living feels for those on benefits - 700,000 more families affected by child poverty since 2010 the majority of whom are working families.

Lowering standards in public life, coarsening public debate and aiming to dismantle our constitution. Lying to the queen, lying to parliament, Partygate, contracts for friends for PPE, Chancellor found to have evaded tax, 2 sitting MPs jailed for rape/sexual assault, 2 Secretaries of State found to have bullied their civil servants a resigning matter for any other administration, attacks on judges lawyers by politicians like an authoritarian banana republic.

This is just off the top of my head. I can’t think of a single thing. If they had left office after the first term, David Cameron introduced gay marriage? Oh but the disgusting culture war nonsense that’s been pursued since has emboldened homophobia and racism. David Cameron also worked on the UN development goals and achieved UK spending goals on international development but again what has happened since has unwound the legacy with majority of the aid budget spent on Home Office policies rather than economic development in poor countries which buys soft power and supports policy objectives eg on migration.

Honestly it’s my birthday on Thursday and I know what the best present would be!

Fucking hell. I’ve just RTFT properly.

The Windrush Scandal. How can I have missed that off? Deporting our own citizens - citizens at birth - or forcing them into destitution. Then screwing up compensation. Absolute disgrace and shame on everyone involved.

The number of billionaires has increased.
The wealth of billionaires has increased.

These lists are shocking - when you see it written down you realise how much crap has gone on in the past 14 years.
But people are still prepared to defend the Tories.

The problem for Labour if they win will be that they are inheriting an absolute shit show & people have VERY short memories so very soon they will start being blamed for it all...

Brexit destroying the economy for short-term political interest

Destroyed incentives to work by child benefit removal and removing of personal tax allowance..

Cutting investment infrastructure so schools, hospitals are crumbling

Loosening immigration controls post Brexit so now we have free movement with the entire world - and they can bring their dependents too

Trying to distract from above with Rwanda policy

My mortgage
My energy bills
My food shop
My fuel costs including oil to heat my house

i know that’s all things beginning with my but that’s how they’ve direct affected me without actually thinking in-depth about it.