This Government

[flip-flop]

When Labour lose the next general election, as a Tory I'm going to miss them as I've enjoyed watching them royally screw up, lie, commit fraud, take bribes and generally behave worse than your average pirate.

Why? Well when the Tories win the next election I know I am going to have to go from a position of critique to one of defence, although I will try to be a bit more critical in my defence than some Labourites on this site who think they are all demi-gods.

Yes, they will screw up, but I think they will have some way to go before they match the current incumbents, but at least (I hope) we will see an end to our ever increasing tax burden, the ridiculous amount of public spending (black lesbian pygmy disabled outreach worker required at �60,000 PA) and pensioners recompensed for the scandalous theft by Comrade Brown.

So, the question - are any other people of my leaning going to miss them?

[jake-the-peg]

Well I must say I didn't miss the Tories when they went.

I didn't miss �3 billion of tax payers mones going to George Soros and his pals (�60,000 seems small beer doesn't it)

I didn't miss cabinet ministers going to gaol ( rather puts Prescott's pecadilos in the shade)

And I know the people of East Timor (who are now our friends) don't miss the Hawk jets that Margaret Thatcher sold the Indonesians so they could bomb their villages and kill their families!

Only question remains with 4 years to go before another General election has Cameron got the legs? or will he tire and start letting his chaufeur carry more than his briefcase ? - might even have a policy in it by then :c)

[flip-flop]

Why hark back to things of more than ten years ago! You see this on Q Time every week - Labour have held power for almost ten years and yet they cannot boast of achievements just what the Tories did.

Where do we draw the line here? When does criticising old governments become time barred? The three day week? Income tax for some at 85% and more? Union stanglehold on 'Old' Labour?

Although I guess it speaks volumes that resurrecting things of more than ten years ago is the only way of defending the current Government.

[jno]

it'll be great to see Jeffrey Archer's party back in power, no doubt about it. I think as their first action they should retroactively nullify all convictions registered against Tory politicians and compensate them for their time in jail. Think of Jonathan Aitken's sufferings! And they can then try to get closer to Europe - as jake points out, it was the Tories who disastrously joined the European Monetary System, the precursor to the euro, not Labour; have we finished paying for that yet?

[THECORBYLOON]

In Feb 2005 Labour compiled their top 50 accievements

1. Lowest inflation since the 60s
2. Lowest mortgage rates for 40 years
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage
4. Record police numbers in England and Wales
5. Cut overall crime by 30 per cent
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools
7. Best-ever primary school results
8. Funding for every pupil in England to double (since 1997) by 2007-08
9. Lowest unemployment for 29 years

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest counties
11. 77,500 more nurses
12. 19,300 more doctors
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament
15. Devolved power to Welsh Assembly
16. Banned anti-personnel mines
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice at any time
18. New Deal - helped over a million people into work

19. Local government funding has increased by a third in real terms
20. Equalised the age of consent for gay men
21. Free entry to all national museums and galleries
22. Overseas aid budget more than doubled
23. Restored city-wide government to London
24. Child benefit up 25 per cent since 1997

25. Created Sure Start to help children from low income households

cont.

[THECORBYLOON]

cont.

26. Introduced the Disability Rights Commission
27. �200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & extra �100 for over-80s
28. The biggest rolling stock replacement programme ever seen on our railways
29. Negotiated the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland
30. Over 28,000 more teachers in England schools
31. Implemented the Freedom of Information Act
32. All workers now have a right to 4 weeks� paid holiday
33. Record rises in the state pension
34. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty
35. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents
36. Banned handguns
37. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent
38. Free nursery places for three and four-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales
39. Free fruit for all four to six-year-olds at school
40. Free school milk for five, six and seven-year-olds in Wales
41. Record police numbers in Scotland
42. Implemented the Human Rights Act
43. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since the industrial revolution
44. Free TV licences for over-75s
45. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals
46. Halved maximum waiting times for NHS operations
47. Free local bus travel for the over-60s and the disabled in Wales and Scotland
48. Record number of students in higher education
49. Extended the Race Relations Act so that all public bodies and functions now have a duty to promote race equality
50. Five, six and seven-year-olds in class sizes of 30 or less


February 2005

What were the Tories' top 50 then?

[sp1814]

Corby

Excellent post.

[littleoldme]

I love the irony of a Tory voter complaining that Labour supporters only complain about the Tory misdeeds rather than their own party's achievements. Have you seen a Tory party broadcast recently ( or indeed at any time since the 70s)? When in opposition, their broadcasts are full of "Labour have done/failed to do such and such". When in power, it's "don't vote Labour, because if they get in, they'll do yada yada yada, which would be awful". I know the current government is less than great, what I want to know is why the Tories would be any better.

As for picking on the events of 10 years ago, well...erm...that happens to be the most recent Tory government we can judge, in case you hadn't noticed. Are we supposed to just gloss over 18 years of the same kind of incompetence, cronyism and sleaze of which the current government is accused just because it happened in the 80s and 90s? I'm a long way from being convinced that this particular leopard has changed its spots.

[PhilBy]

Corbyloon, I have searched the web trying to find an answer to your question and I found the following crowning moments attributaded to the last Blue Gov:

The Tories in two years increased unemployment from less than one million to more than three million. They put up VAT from 8 per cent to 15 per cent and then 17� per cent in order to fund tax relief for the rich.

Mrs Thatcher cut the link between pensions and earnings costing pensioners up to �30 per week. When the link was with inflation they even changed the month on which comparisons were made to the disadvantage of pensioners.

Another nasty little trick of theirs was to sack people and offer them their jobs back at a lower rate of pay. They then privatised the cleaning of hospitals and public buildings where profit came before cleanliness and now we have MRSA. Mrs Thatcher halved the number of meat inspectors and so we got mad cow disease and cripples British meat exports for many years.

They privatised the railways so we now have 100 private companies instead of one and an unholy mess for travellers, again with profit put before safety.

And so to the economy, where their incompetence lost us half of our reserves and we had interest rates of 15 per cent.

[flip-flop]

Oh Labour compiled their top 50 achievements - so no bias there then!

[VINNY100_2]

Well done the Corbyloon..(:)I shall print that out,and hand it to the first tory who bangs my door.!!

[flip-flop]

And for every 'achievement' there is, of course, a counter argument - record amount of personal debt for instance, its just as well the mortgage rate is low otherwise there are many who would be homeless. Crime cut by 30%, and yet the streets are being overrun by feral lawless yobs - its all spin diddly spin spin.

[jno]

spin works both ways... I haven't seen a single feral yob on my street. Not one! Must be because I'm barricaded in my garden shed with a supply of munitions to keep out illegal immigrants, grasping tax inspectors, crazed spin doctors, fascist cabinet ministers and the like.

[vehelpfulguy]

I would have some disagreement with the list of 50 Labour achievements.

For example, numbers 11 and 12, which is 77,000 more nurses, and 19,000 more doctors.

What they dont say is that a lot of them have now been laid off by hard up national health trusts.

[vehelpfulguy]

And number 5, cut overall crime by 30%.

By which measurement. I am sure you could just as eaily prove crime has gone up by 30%.

Yesterday's crime figures were not that great.

And I heard that if there HAS been a reduction in the crime of burglary and breaking into cars it is as much to do with the low price of hard drugs, requiring addicts to do less stealing to get the money to pay for them.

[Trotbot]

flip-flop, Labour, new or otherwise, has not forced anyone to overspend on Burberry, YSL or BMWs. Personal debt is largely a personal issue, and the system to help the lower paid is now much more efficient (occasional slip ups notwithstanding) than at any time between 1979 and 1997.

[PhilBy]

flip-flop, may I ask you if you lived as an adult under the last Tory goverement? I only ask as I have prospered well under this Labour goverement and the thought of going back to the boom & bust policy of the last lot does cause me concern, I can't think for the life of me why anyone would want to return to that way of life and no matter how hard I look I just do not see a credible goverment with the tories currently on offer. They (Tories) still bang on about Labour but never ever tell me what thier policy would be if they were the governing party......... The only thing I do know for fact is that under them we would of still gone to war in Iraq ........... well that's about it really.... nothing on immigration, nothing on Law & order, nothing on the NHS etc etc .....to be fair they do say they can deliver more & better services whilst reducing the money spent on them but don't say how and because of that I refuse to believe them!

[flip-flop]

I am in my mid 30's so, yes I did, and was better off, money wise (which, lets face it is all that really counts) under the Tory administration.

[PhilBy]

You must of been one of the very few in the Country flip-flop, wages were going backwards whilst interest rates/inflation was going through the roof.

Congratulations to you though if you were better off (If you were living with your parants though it doesn't count :-) but every single person I know including my Blue Voting friends, all agree they are better off now but just offer differing reason as to why!

[flip-flop]

Despite the above, I must wholeheartedly applause the decision to make interest rates the decision of The Bank of England - I can remember as a green politics and philosophy student in the late 80s early 90s arguing that the Government had no business deciding the interest rates!

[PhilBy]

Thankfully I am mortgage free but I am on at my younger sister to get rid of her house now. She is mortgaged up to the hilt and I shudder to thnik how much it will cost me if the interest rate was to rise. I am sure your maths will be stronger than mine but by calcualtions if the rates ever do hit 15% again then monthly repayments will more than double ....... just how many could stand that I wonder? (I could be wrong but I am anticipating some hike in the rate to try and call a halt to the increasing amount of personal debt)