Result!

[miasmum]

I’m not a Tory voter never have been never will be

But when the Tories took over from Labour the country was pretty much bankrupt.

It took years to get us in a steady footing

Then the pandemic came along and completely wrecked the economy which nobody including Labour could have handled any different

The global economy is suffering with inflation which is beyond the control of any one Government no matter what Sir Kier may say

It’s so easy to have the answers from the opposition benches

But lets be honest, we know what will happen because its a well trodden path.

Labour will get in with a huge majority which is never good.

They'll spend the first few years telling us they can't fulfil their election promises because of the mess the Tories left.

The next few years still not giving people the utopia they are promising at the moment, because as with all in opposition, talk is cheap until you actually have to deliver.

The next few years will be people baying for their blood because they haven't delivered.

Then we will have a General Election, the Tories will be back and the whole roundabout starts again and again and again

[Workingman]

I’m not a Labour voter never have been never will be.

And I try to be unbiased.

The Blair and Brown years were some of the most prosperous for the UK in many a decade. A lot of it was undone due to the global financial crash of 2007-8, however, Brown was internationally praised for the way he navigated the UK through those choppy waters.

However, in order to stabilise things and put the economy back on track, he did introduce "austerity" as a fiscal measure. It was intended to be a short lived and shallow measure.... then the Tories took over. We all know and feel how well that has gone.

I am hoping that Labour only get in with a wafer thin majority and have to do deals with the likes of the LibDems and possibly the SNP. It's not ideal, but needs must.

What I really want from the next government is the introduction of PR - proper PR not the AV system we were once offered.

[cruiser2]

Talking of elections and PR, at the recent local council elections, for the ward I live in the turnout was just over 25%.
As was expexted Labour got in again but the Lib/Dem got a very good vote and maybe next time we will have a change.

With Sturgeon now in police custody I wonderif there is anything similar inWales?

[Suff]

The Blair and Brown years were some of the most prosperous for the UK in many a decade. A lot of it was undone due to the global financial crash of 2007-8, however, Brown was internationally praised for the way he navigated the UK through those choppy waters.

However, in order to stabilise things and put the economy back on track, he did introduce "austerity" as a fiscal measure. It was intended to be a short lived and shallow measure.... then the Tories took over. We all know and feel how well that has gone.

My how history changes.

Blair and Brown freed the BOE without putting on controls to make sure the BOE was, in turn, controlling banks. Borrowing continued throughout the governments or Blair and Brown but Brown pontificated about "borrowing to invest". Yet we never saw the "investment". Brown presided over the largest raid on pensions in history and brought the liability for pensions back into the Government which caused a huge problem with the budgeting.

The cost of borrowing to buy out the banks who failed due to a lack of oversight was massive and caused inflation to recover. Austerity was a given, you cannot borrow that much money to prop up half the financial institutions in the country without introducing inflation.

It is all very well inheriting a stable economy and then stoking that economy and letting it run wild, but over time the penalty has to be paid. That was what happened in the financial crisis. With correct and prudent management these banks would not have put themselves in the situation they did. It was the responsibility of the government to apply those controls. The excuse that "well everyone was doing it" won't wash. It was the accountability of the government to ensure this was not happening. Just because the US also allowed it to happen is not an excuse for our government.

The entire time was filled with inconsistencies and mistakes. Devolution without a solid foundation for how to control it and manage it going forward. Allowing the SNP to run away with Government and then borrow their way to Glory. Taking the work of Major and others and sticking a gloss of paint on it and calling it the GFA, only to see the Stormont assembly fail time and time and time again. Implementing minimum wage that put millions onto benefits and sucked in millions of short term non UK workers who drifted from job to job and country to country.

An illegal war in Iraq.

Promising a vote on the Euro then running away and hiding because they knew they could not win it.

Lie after lie after lie after lie after lie. All forgotten. All the incompetence somehow polished and set up as some kind of glory age.

Forgotten the dot com bust? Perhaps you were not impacted. I was. All on their watch. IR35? Total disaster saw half a million highly skilled IT workers either leave the field or the country. No problem India will fill the gap with their resources. Interesting isn't it. Sunak's wife is an Infosys heiress. Want to know who Infosys are? Want to know why the NHS is paying £3,000 a day for IT consultants?

This isn't some after the fact accusation. It is something I accused them of at the time.

Nice to know it was a shining example of how to govern a country. All of the above are only the thoughts that come immediately to mind. There are more.

Blair and Brown inherited an economy and a business foundation which was in good health and able to withstand deep shocks. They destroyed it.

The only thing I will thank them for is that they made it possible for the UK to leave the EU without a struggle, the Lisbon Treaty, thanks Brown sneaking in and signing it without asking the people because he knew he would lose. How many even remember that before the Lisbon treaty there was no mechanism for leaving the EU?

It was the actions of Blair and Brown which gave Farage a platform on which to campaign, gave him reason to fight, gave people reason to vote for him and his party. Blair who gave back chunks of the rebate. Oh not directly, oh no, in a devious and backhand way which would be "deniable", but could be challenged.

Blair who politicised the BBC.

There is so much Wonderful stuff that Blair and Brown did. Such a shining example of our "prosperous" years. It was all a mirage, just like Blair himself.

[cromwell]

Boris Johnson got too close to a sausage roll and is out.
Tony Blair took this country to war after standing up in Parliament and talking about weapons of mass destruction which could strike British interests in 45 minutes; which was all lies. And incidently helped set off a war which killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people. Nothing happened to him.

It's a big contrast.

[victor]

Blair the war criminal.
now you go on about Starmer who doesn't know the difference between a man and a woman.
Agree with miasmum that it's easy to shout how things should be done until you actually have to do them yourself.

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[miasmum]

Blair made a huge mistake, the one big mistake of his otherwise good leadership https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... r-did-bush 13 years of the Tories has pretty much wrecked this country

So yes, anything but a Tory

But it was only a mistake which I am sure is a huge comfort to the families of the fallen

I am sorry but a mistake is something I make when I forget to pick milk up on the way home from work because I thought we still has some and a huge mistake is one I make when I inadvertently go to work and leave the back door unlocked

[Kaz]

He was lied to by US intelligence. I believe that he thought that intelligence was correct. It was a huge mistake! Please don't imply that I don't care about fallen military, loads of military in my family, past and present, some fallen.

[miasmum]

I was simply replying to the link you posted, that you commented on thats all, I wasnt implying anything at all