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i always find the narrative to the last labour government was a disaster as a weird re-writing of history, if you look at the actual facts there's a pretty strong argument that the Blair/Brown period was one of the best for normal people in this country in my lifetime.
Obviously Blair will forever be tarnished with the illegal war in Iraq (and rightly so) but generally speaking by virtually every metric the quality of life for the general public improved under Labour.
Waiting lists for the NHS went down, the minimum wage was brought in, the equality gap for pay was significantly lower, the economy was good, investment in social care, housing and job creation was better than under any tory government i've lived under, devolution was brought in for scotland, wales and northern ireland. The good friday agreement was signed (obviously a lot of credit for that has to go to John Major too), gay marriage via civil partnerships was brought in (and section 28 repealed).
Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Income Support went up by 72% in real terms, improvements were made in financial support to pensioners, and by 2004, the poorest third of pensioners were £1,750 a year better off.
Child poverty was more than halved during the Blair/Brown years and statutory holiday pay was brought in to make sure all people were given paid holidays, they also brought in shared paternity/maternity leave and extended it to people who'd adopted.
Then there were smaller things that were hugely positive like removing charges for guide dogs in taxi's and making it easier for tenants to switch from leaseholds to commonholds.
In amongst this there were unpopular things like tuition fees for university, closer EU ties and not regulating the financial sector properly, but compared to the damage the psychopaths in the current government have done in the last 14 years the last Labour government were genuinely transformational for most people in this country.
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Who are you voting for? on 17:39 - Jul 4 with 1145 views
Agreed most of those tzhings were good, but Brown/ Blair inherited a fast growing economy by 1997 giving them the money. Who made that possible? The Conservative government under John Major! He got the economy growing at 2.5%....Lucky Blair got the cash. But typical of a Labour government they overspent, introduced stealth taxes, borrowed and didn't repay the national debt or save for major shocks. So when the financial crisis happened, guess what? They had no funds to deal with it, and then had to borrow another 400 billion!!! The Conservatives had to pick up the pieces...then got hit with Covid and the Ukraine war. Under the circumstances they done well to start turning it round.
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Who are you voting for? on 17:57 - Jul 4 with 1122 views
the conservatives have done well to start turning it around.....?!!!
Are you on crack?
they have hammered our country to pieces, aside from their little clique of lords and ladies and friends in hugh places whose palms they lined with silver through the Cover crisis
Some people will just never learn
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Who are you voting for? on 18:19 - Jul 4 with 1104 views
You two Walter Mittys for starters are the dumbest on here.
One imagines hes a high flyer of a businessman, thats jetting back and forward to the states. The other digs worms and pretends hes a saints supporter. Who in their right mind would listen to you two?
Funnily enough I tend to think john major was a pretty good PM in awful circumstances, and actually have a hell of a lot of respect for his stance on Ireland when he was willing to take his own government down to gain peace.
That said the economy didn’t really start to boom until much later, so crediting him with it is just plain wrong.
As for stealth taxes, they werent really stealth, they were taxes. And that’s why we had better public services and social care. If you want those things you have to pay for them, and if the rich don’t pay their way we have to cover the burden.
As for the financial crisis virtually no government on earth survived it (other than those that had regulated banking heavily before it happened) and I don’t think any political party would’ve seen anything other than the result we had.
So balancing things off the quality of life in those labour years was better for almost everyone in this country, and certainly the best I remember.
I still don’t like Blair as a person, he was far too egocentric, weirdly religious and lied to the public on Iraq. But I can’t take away the facts because I don’t like the man
[Post edited 4 Jul 19:58]
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Who are you voting for? on 21:59 - Jul 4 with 951 views
Well you need to look at the facts, I know 22 is a typical reactionary, knee -jerk Labour echo chamber, but you seem more reasoned. Blair inherited a fast growing economy from Major.
'It certainly helped that in 1997 Labour inherited a reasonably good economy with national debt close to the lowest level for 80 years. After the ERM debacle of 1992, the UK economy recovered and by 1997 had a decent momentum, with growth averaging 2.5%, but inflation well under control.' 1 May 2024 https://www.economicshelp.org › ec...
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Who are you voting for? on 22:06 - Jul 4 with 942 views
No wonder the Labour Party are full of half-wits like you Read the facts....
'It certainly helped that in 1997 Labour inherited a reasonably good economy with national debt close to the lowest level for 80 years. After the ERM debacle of 1992, the UK economy recovered and by 1997 had a decent momentum, with growth averaging 2.5%, but inflation well under control.' 1 May 2024 https://www.economicshelp.org › ec...
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Who are you voting for? on 22:23 - Jul 4 with 900 views
Keep your eye on the result from the Great Yarmouth Constituency - a certain Mr. Rupert Lowe is standing as the Reform candidate, and yes, I have checked, it is the same RL that was once the Chairman of SFC 😮
Ha! Lived through Thatcher royally decimating our country privatising everything that we now suffer from, then just had to suffer 14 years of total incompetence austerity brexit whilst the likes of Cameron Raab Hancock BoJo et all run off to their country piles leaving us hard workers to pay through the nose in taxes for services that no longer exist
Seems like i am not the only who thinks that way either (other than you) given today’s decimation of the self serving morons
If you still think they got it right trust your family estate is looking after you because the welfare one won’t now thanks to them
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Who are you voting for? on 07:17 - Jul 5 with 674 views
Who cares the corrupt, self serving Tories, many of whom made millions out of COVID, out of office. Hope those that did get brought to account now and have to sell their yachts etc.
[Post edited 5 Jul 7:43]
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Who are you voting for? on 08:00 - Jul 5 with 621 views
Basingstoke is labour for first time in 100 years and Liz Truss is booted out, great night for this country, now labour with a massive majority can start putting right the conservative mess. No doubt within a few weeks people will be saying where’s the change, it’ll take time as the country is an absolute sh!t show.
Interesting we are now so powerful in the Houses of Parliament with Sunak and Rupert Lowe fighting the southampton corner, Bring out a ruling that Saints will start every season with. 30 point start at least we would have 2 votes! COYS
I personally get fed up with politicians putting a huge spin on facts! Labour vote was 5% less then the Corbyn 2017 election disaster , Lib Dem’s was just under half the vote of the early 2000s , Conservatives lost most of their votes to Reform so all in all its was a crap election for the three big parties and that people are now willing to move from election to election not on party grounds but to how they feel at the time.
I am surprised that the conservatives didn’t play up the Furlough scheme more as it certainly saved me and my family.
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Who are you voting for? on 09:20 - Jul 5 with 561 views
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