To wonder if people prefer the last government to this one?

[malificent7]

The amount of people who are saying they hate this government and would vote reform.
So let me get this straight: many would rather vote for someone who was a member of the facist party at university than labour? Er...ok then. It seems to me that most people are fairly racist and blame others for the state of the economy; immigrants, the disabled, sinle parents, working class etc.

The last government gave us Brexit which was a nightmare and landed us in the shit economically.
At least the roads are getting repaired under labour which is a tangible use of my taxes....and yet people moan about paying more taxes.

Im not saying Labour are amazing...tjey are not but are they worse than the tories?

What was “discredited”? The deficit figure certainly wasn’t, it comes directly from OBR. Their working paper clearly states: „Net borrowing(…) reaching £157 billion, or 11 per cent of GDP, in 2009–10.”

As for the “no money left” note was written and later confirmed by Liam Byrne. He did later explain that it was a joke

100%
Voted Labour
Always have
Now will never ever vote for them again

Exactly - he said it was a joke - there certainly was money left. It's also parliamentary convention that private notes left for successors are just that- private. The incoming Tory didn't do that- for party political gain.

Secondly, we had a deficit at that point because we had invested in the country. Tories are obsessed with the national debt- the country with the biggest debt is the USA and they also have the world's strongest economy.

Overall I think the Tories were reaping what they'd sown in losing. Although it's also the case that after 14 years people often just want a change and issues have built up. I don't think, on a worldwide scale, they did horribly on covid, and I suspect Labour would have been worse on that one. But BJ lacked personal disapline and that continuously fucked him.

However, I think Sunak would have done a fairly good job if he'd had the chance. Labour seems to be making stupid decision after stupid decision.

Yes, some of that deficit was due to government investment and stimulus after the financial crisis, and yes, other countries like the US carry large debt. But what matters is the deficit relative to GDP, and by that measure, the UK’s finances in 2010 were in a far worse state than many suggest. Claims that Labour left the country in better shape simply don’t match the numbers.

‘Poor people’ who work benefit from tax cuts
I’m sick of the level of entitlement in this country, and I’m sick of working and paying tax so that an ever growing UC budget can be funded

so no, I’m not happy to pay more tax so that people ‘can stay at home with their babies’. You want to do that, somebody should be working to support that choice. Sure lots of us had SAH parents, the other parent worked to give that choice, it wasn’t a given that the state funds it.

we all suffer from lack of investment in services, everybody is happy to pay tax to improve them. I’m done with paying them to fund other people’s lifestyle choices

The current government suffers from the same problem that the Liberal Democrats did in the coalition - there is a vociferous constituency within their voter base (and among their MPs, which Clegg didn't suffer) which still thinks of itself as a protest movement, untethered from and unhindered by reality, and not as a serious party of government.

So, like Cameron but for different reasons, Sir Keir is held to ransom by a lunatic fringe in his own party which only has fleeting contact with the concept of responsible government.

I have never voted Labour, or Conservative, in my life but I thought the last General Election gave us the best of the realistically possible outcomes. I also believe that both Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves are decent, honourable and well-advised people genuinely trying to do their best for the country with the very difficult hand they have been dealt. It's actually quite painful for me to watch Sir Keir's own backbenchers undermine him at every opportunity.

The UK is a desperately poor country which is convinced it's still rich, and it is gripped by the biggest migration problem in its history - that of millions of chickens coming home to roost.

Nobody gave us Brexit, we had to campaign and work for a Referendum. In a free vote the British chose to leave. Some voted leave because The EU was getting more and more controlling and LESS democratic. We did not know what the Bureaucrats would control next.
That was one event.
The second event was how the politicians reacted and negotiated. Teresa May tried to over-ride the decision and we were faced with "Brexit In Name Only". Remember?
Boris turned out to be useless, worse than useless in the negotiations. He refused to consult or involve any Leave Euro MPs. The people who knew how it worked. .

I raised 3 children with send under the tories and the decline in education and healthcare services, over the years, was clear and shocking.

I was pleased when Labour won but, so far, have been utterly underwhelmed and disappointed!

They are less shit than the tories but still shit.

Sunak had a deep understanding of just how bad the state of the economy was - and that is why he called a snap election. He had a party of pernicious charlatans and knew the path ahead was an incredibly tough one. He wanted out and who could blame him. I didn’t vote for labour however they are trying to rebuild services that have been decimated, and doing it under a campaign of propaganda and misinformation from media outlets owned by billionaires.

The reality is that this is the new normal. We have an aging population making more and more demands on the NHS and on local government for care services. We have too few workers per elderly person and the costs are just insurmountable. Every single government in the last 50 years has know that societal demographics were changing but nothing was done. We hear more about the triple lock than we do about the every day financial pressures on working people/families.

The UK has slavishly dedicated itself to capitalism. Rampant free market economics, and a rapid shift to a knowledge based and services driven economy with little room for those who don’t fit this system. Since 1979 there has been no program for affordable housing and no rent control - effectively leaving people to the mercy of free markets.

Since the end of the second world war we have had more years under Conservative leadership than any other party.

We reap what we sow.

Labor are CONSIDERABLY worse than last Tory. Rishi knew what he was talking about and warned about Labor.

Apart from unionised public sector and benefits claimants I don't know anyone who's situation improved thanks to this shit show of government, but it became much worse for millions of people and more is yet to come.

@FranticSemantics ,
Is that not because the USA is a huge country with many more people?

If not could you please explain?

Your Party then is it? The Greens? Antisemitism, men masquerading as women enabled to do whatever they like, a welfare state that finally eclipses all other spending put together, and blind support for Russia and Hamas? No bloody thank you.

I'm not an economist so this is only my lay person's understanding but it's because it's not a real debt. Countries are independent and control their own currency and money. The stock market know this and play with it, trading currency and bonds. But while it's real in that the financial crash really hurt people, it's not real in that the bailiffs will be round and the King will lose his house.

Remember all the fuss about the UK losing it's Triple A credit rating? Doesn't seem to have hurt our financial institutions.

So it's a big meaningless. Better to invest in your country.

Agree. I’m almost missing Boris at this point. The sneering, nasty attitude toward ‘little Englanders’ (aka non-Champagne socialists that actually work, take their responsibilities seriously and do mental things like plan for their retirement) is vile.

I think Rishi and Keir both have good intentions for the country. They’re trying to make things better. This is a massive improvement on Liz Truss and Boris Johnson who were out for themselves and and their shadowy backers only..

Yes so many groups now hit by Labour, there’s not many left for them.

Are you from the UK? Your misspelling of Labour twice is a bit odd.

Boris was a leaver ffs!

I would take the Sunak version of the last government over thos one absolutely. He was smart and quietly committed, but didn't have the showmanship to maintain leadership. Given a year or 2 longer I think he could have set us on a much more stable economic footing.

Covid was obviously unprecedented, I don't know how, with the knowledge they had at the time, it could have been managed better. Of course it's very easy to look back now and think it could have been done differently, hindsight is 20:20. Furlough was an economic disaster, but what was the alternative, let millions loose their homes?

Brexit was democracy in action. Yes it was a disaster, and so is this current government - we as the public voted for both. As they say - be careful what you wish for, it might come true!

You won’t be alone in that.

I agree with pp on Sunak who had a better understanding of the economy and what to do.

Same. I had high hopes with change in government, but they have actually been worse, which is utterly depressing

Both the complex needs school I work in, and the ARP attached to my daughters mainstream school are considerably worse off than 2 years ago under the Tories. EHCP wait times are up, therapy wait lists are longer due to funding cuts (in this is the first time in 15 years that my paediatric physio teams budget has been cut). HNBF to schools has been cut, the NI increase has further stretched school budgets. My oldest had 2 class TA's to support those in their class with sub ehcp needs when she was in infants 3 years ago. My youngest now in infants has no class TA's, all TA's are now in ARP only to keep those children safe - due to ehcp delays the school is not getting funding to support their needs so that has to come out of mainstream budget, whereas it was previously self funding. They threatened to make it harder to claim PIP but only backed down after a huge revolt.

I’ve never voted Tory in my life, but I might in the next election. Sunak and Badenoch are much better than Keir imo. Labour don’t have anybody who can lead.

Labour are wasting their time trying to get the benefits street vote by lifting the 2 child cap. These people will most likely vote reform. All they are doing is further pissing off people who are going to get their taxes hiked. I don’t think they have a hope in hell of winning another election.

No he wasn't.

He was a brazen opportunist who hitched himself to the Leave campaign because he thought - correctly as it turned out - it would give him the better chance of leading the Tory party. He actually wrote two mirror image op-ed articles, one for remain and one for leave, before he made his decision.

His own personal beliefs were secondary to what the choice would do for his career.

I prefer them to the Tories. Tories were awful and morally bankrupt, but I'm not particularly happy with Labour either, but I think any party would struggle to make things work right now. They've been handed a global economy that is built on gambling and making sure Elites come out on top. No party can win against that. The system needs to collapse first unfortunately.

I think Labour are swimming against a torrent, but they aren't brave enough to try something new either. The idea of Reform is fucking scary. They are spectacularly incompetent (yes I know Labour and Tories are not great either), but they just all seem very vicious, under qualified and lazy. Like the most unprofessional and incompetent managers you've encountered in your working life rolled into a political party.