New Labour - The Economic Impact of Blair and Brown

A look at the economic impact of the New Labour government from 1997 to 2010. Successes and failures. Impact on growth, government spending and taxes. Short term and long-term effects.
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00:00 Intro
1:56 End of Boom and Bust
3:00 Growth of Finance
4:24 Inequality
6:10 Tax and Spend
8:15 Education
9:05 PFI
10:40 National Debt
11:20 Credit Crunch
14:37 Housing
15:19 Overall
ABOUT
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► www.economicshelp.org was founded in 2006 by Tejvan Pettinger, who studied PPE at Oxford University and teaches economics. He has published several economics books, including:
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► 50 Essential Economic Ideas amzn.to/3IgxndG
► Cracking Economics. www.economicshelp.org/shop/cr...
► What Would Keynes Do? Amazon amzn.to/2xShqq4
► Economics Without the Boring Bits amzn.to/48T1hA9

[@jamesknight2382]

I benefited from having better financed state schools in that period but I don’t know if the country benefited from increased university education. Only 68% of graduates are in professional jobs so one in three are working unskilled jobs. I think the economy would’ve benefited more by increased infrastructure spending. Imagine if we had cheap fast and efficient transport like Japan? Our economy would be revolutionised

[@Jordan-fd6cx]

The legacy of Blair is short-term gain, long term pain. As much as I was lucky to grow up in the middle of the Blair years rather than Austerity. I'm among many young people paying the long-term price of these policies. Introduction of tution fees, which have ballooned up to ridiculous levels. I 'only' had to pay 3.3k a year, 1 year before they tripled to 9k PA. A terrible start to a young person's career, especially with degrees being worth less and less. Planning that 50% of people should go to uni, had an awful impact, they've mostly just become debt-factories for the unsuspecting. As an NHS worker I can say the NHS and other public services have been wrecked by PFIs, outsourcing and other stealth privatisation. I can see a private healthcare advertisement displayed boldly in my department's waiting room, while we struggle with a massive backlog, poor pay, understaffing and being overworked. Half the staff are looking for easier, better paid work elsewhere. There was a big missed opportunity to undo the privatisation of public utilities which continue to bleed the country dry while providing a poor service. Also not repealing the harsh anti-trade union laws, which is ensuring wages and working conditions stay suppressed, even as cost of living skyrockets. Deregulation of the financial sector also contributed to the credit crunch, which helped pave the way for the conservative party to move in, impose mass, unrelenting austerity, no end in sight. New New Labour shows very little interest in fundamentally reforming any of these issues, just tinkering around the edges whilst continuing to pander to the richest individuals and large corporations.

[@garyb455]

Having been in business through all these periods of Government, Labour in the 70s were an absolute disaster. Thatchers Government sorted out the Unions and the Country and created the sound money that Blair and Brown inherited. The 80s was a great time to start business and thrive but Brown was a canny man and he increased taxes for business dramatically. He also mortgaged the Country up to the hilt with PFI contracts mostly repaid into off shore Bank accounts. Going into the Credit Crunch Brown was borrowing £4 billion a week ! His scam to pay tuition fees also increased graduates taxes for 25 years, a very clever move. The last 14 years in business in the UK have been dreadful, the taxes from Browns time have only been increased and business today is hardly worth the effort. So to sum up from a business point of view, apart from the Thatcher, Major period it has been downhill all the way. The biggest difference is in the 70s, 80s and 90s people were greedy to get on and become successful, but since 2000 they seem to have only become envious.

[@gerhard7323]

As New Labour architect and erstwhile Epstein buddy 'Petie' Mandelson said he has no problem with people getting filthy rich. When Corbyn was Labour leader he also said proudly that he did his best to undermine him, the party's then elected leader, every single day.

[@alexander92179]

You missed immigration

[@hughjohns9110]

The recent rounds of industrial action we have seen show that trade union strength is still good enough. The biggest suppressor of wages is immigration - especially as we had it under freedom of movement.

[@alexander92179]

@@hughjohns9110 which the last Labour government started and the Tories continued.

[@danwarb1]

Too much deregulation. They spent more, but there was no lasting progress because of privatization. Turned what could've been stimulus to assets at 0% interest, into PFI debt.

[@DeepakDograx323045]

What meaning you wrote

[@lonevoice]

Agreed. They created a subsidiary company to the BofE for QE and that created hundreds of billions into the economy without any inflation. Something similar could have been done instead of the costly PFI investments. The same mechanism is needed now as so many areas of the economy need some transformative investment.

[@svenroeder]

while the interest rates were low, no one bothered to renegotiate the contracts.

[@marumaru6084]

TB introduced loads of regulation! He didnt find the funds for his spending either despite a global boom! Nothing to do with them! Then he did the worst bailed out the banks so the poor paid for the richest!!!

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

This channel is amazingly undersubscribed considering how good it is. One of my favourite economic channels.

[@hughjohns9110]

As for more people going to university under Labour….whether that actually benefitted those people and the economy is highly debatable. More degrees does not necessarily mean more or higher useful skills.

[@gerhard7323]

This country, from Thatcher to the present day, has had a succession of expedient, self-serving execrable leaders. We have in the UK been consistently betrayed by our political and financial classes mortgaging the country's future for their own miserable ends.

[@speedonz]

Sorry but Blair and brown presided over a massive wealth handout to the people... which ofcourse the people simply squandered! Maybe self serving in the way that it kept them in power for so long but ultimately its the peoples fault!

[@valuetraveler2026]

Wrong. The UK is not designed to benefit you. Nor was the empire. Same people at the top

[@ilikelampshades6]

We still haven't recovered from Thatcher and her evil policies. We are all poor today because of her and subsequent PMs have not fixed her damage

[@valuetraveler2026]

@@ilikelampshades6 keep voting Labour

[@mongoliandude]

@@valuetraveler2026 There is unfortunately very little difference between the Conservative Party of 15 years ago and the current Labour Party.

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

All European governments pre 2008 lived off the property boom and accustomed the population to ever increasing spending with low taxes… it was so so unsustainable

[@loc4725]

- One of the few good things David "call me Dave" Camron did was cut down on certain work visas, mainly where existing vocational college graduates were being turned down as cheaper foreign workers, mainly from China it seemed were so easy to employ. - On Universities, it seems generally agreed that too many and particularly those unsuited to University were pushed in that direction whereas vocational routes were either wittled down or sidelined. - Many of the new hospitals, including one near me were built with *fewer* beds than those that they replaced, were often Private Public Pi** takes and had *private* car parking which even the staff had to pay for. - The increase in University fees was entirely predictable. I for example predicted back in 2001 that fees would enter double figures and the rules and especially interest rates would be retrospectively changed by around 2015ish.

[@rogermanvell4693]

Excellent measured piece; your work is becoming the gold standard for easily accessible economic analysis.

[@MrGavinBoyd]

Gordon Brown favoured “light touch” regulation of the banks. The bank run on Northern Rock was the first since the Victorian era. 125% loans. What could possibly go wrong? 🤷‍♀

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

The problem for Labour is they're scared of being called "anti business" by the media and so acquiesce to the neoliberal mantra

[@willrossetti2360]

He inherited it from the prior administration, but agree he didn’t choose to reverse it (Tories certainly weren’t calling for that from opposition either).

[@frogandspanner]

Not re-regulating banking was Brown's biggest failure. The big bang was Thatcher's biggest failure.

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@willrossetti2360 Exactly. Neoliberalism

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

New Labour's principle error other than being scared into letting the banks do what they wanted was not dealing with the considerable unemployment and worklessness that 18 years of Thatcherism had created. The Tories had been playing games with how unemployment was calculated since the mid 80s and in the early 90s started the trick of moving long term unemployed people onto Incapacity Benefit Unfortunately a very visible underclass developed during this period which the Tories and their press were able to continually highlight. Rather than getting all these people into work, New Labour decided to give big business millions of cheap compliant immigrants who'd work for less. This produced a toxic situation of extreme resentment on all sides and following the bankers' crisis, the Tories were able to start their usual game of vilifying everyone on benefits to distract from the fact that 99% of the population had just been forced to bail out the paper wealth of the 1% Ultimately, we live in a neoliberal state because the media are its propagandists and Labour are too stupid to foresee the consequences of their policies. This leaves us at the mercy of the ruthless and unscrupulous Tories

[@alexander92179]

Because we haven't had a genuine right wing government

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@alexander92179 You don't seem to understand that "Right wing" means a tiny few profit from everyone else. That's precisely what we've had for the last 14 years while the Tories passed the costs of the banking crisis to ordinary people. What have they done that isn't Right wing? Mass immigration is a Right wing policy - it lowers wages, maintains unemployment and pushes up house prices

[@gazunkafonegazunkafone3492]

We have never left the new labour policies, most MPs have carried on with Blairs policies and continue his toxic legacy. People will disagree, then call him a tory in disguise…which one is it then?

[@Arpit89]

New labour came in power as compared to old labour policy and to get your ideas and policy to be implemented you need to be in power hence many labour leaders still believe in them because it was those policies that brought them in power but for most of members it was a shift toward right

[@marcuswalters8093]

I mean... 14 years of Toryism is enough of an answer for me.

[@squirrel6338]

Did I miss where you mentioned selling off our gold reserves?

[@OpenDoorEnglish]

Our? Where did you keep yours?

[@squirrel6338]

@@OpenDoorEnglish I keep mine in my safe and in a safety deposit box. But the 395 tonnes of UK Treasury gold that Gordon Brown sold were probably kept in The Bank of England. The price is now almost 10 times the price he sold it at. It was incredibly poorly timed, his announcement in advance of selling it was a blunder and the fact he put 40% in Euro bonds was probably even worse. It would actually be good to see a proper financial analysis of it to see if I was actually as bad as some people suggest. However, I am very surprised it wasn't mentioned in this video

[@johnnagle7702]

Bailed out goldman Sachs short position

[@castanheira99]

@@squirrel6338 " The price is now almost 10 times the price he sold it at. " In fact I don't see the price of the gold 10 times higher but the paper money 10 times lower and that is the reason that you deliver more money to buy gold than before. After all gold is allways gold and you can't make it from thin air

[@squirrel6338]

@@castanheira99 I agree with you there. That's pretty much how I see it.

[@jim-es8qk]

A very good video. Well done.

[@oneeleven9832]

Gordon Brown sold a large chunk of Britains gold at rock bottom prices..he cost the country billions..

[@JjustBoy]

Very interesting!

[@Daytona2]

Thought provoking, thanks Tejvan. I'm intrigued by how the Major government did.

[@mark4lev]

It’s important to remember that the major government turned polytechnics into ‘universitys’ and watered the process down. ‘Further and Higher Education Act 1992’. That’s where it started.

[@Daytona2]

@@mark4lev ?? I'm not interested in that aspect, which is why I'm here and not on Education Help UK

[@mark4lev]

@@Daytona2 it’s all the same there’s no separation

[@convinth]

A very fair and comprehensive summary of the Blair/Brown years.

[@idonthavealoginname]

Please don't gloss over the horrendous recession of the early 90's ,millions lost their jobs and its was the worst recession since the Great Depression .People not only lost their jobs but their homes from the ridiculous 15% interest rates.Lets not forget the hollow 'green shoots of recovery' parroted by Norman Lamont when in fact the economy was in a terrible place.The UK was only just recovering when New Labour was voted in .

[@loc4725]

No offence but you should like a Boomer. The 15% interest rate was for *part of one day,* and although many people lost their jobs & homes the ultimate end result was a significant transfer of wealth, mainly housing, and for those that could buy or keep hold of their homes the future turned out to be very bright.

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

That was when the Tories starting attacking single parents and the social security system. When their banker friends hurt the country, their first instinct is to set people against each other

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@loc4725 You sound like a resentful child buying into the "blame the baby boomers" meme. I was 12 in 1992 and I remember the high interest rates were on the news every night as countless people lost their homes

[@loc4725]

​@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp You post a strange comment as someone from a later generation who stands to lose out to the Boomers' largesse. And the strawman argument coupled with disenginuity is very unusual outside of Boomer usage. Is this an ominous sign of responsibility shirking yet to come? As for your counter 'argument', I never suggested the recession didn't make people homeless although the bits you fail to mention are perhaps much more interesting. For starters there were still many empty social housing homes still available and these were pretty much all consumed in the early to mid 90's. Try getting one now as a member of the younger generation! And most of them seem to have been brought under Right To Buy, nice if you were born early enough to get in! Then there is the infamous "15% interest rate" that Boomers' appear so fond of. Except that was just for part of one day and never had any impact on loans or the base rate of people's mortgages. And of course the bit the Boomers' never seem to mention was that the average pay rise over that period was 23%. If you had a mortgage and kept your home you were well and truly quids in.

[@edwardmiller3859]

Stopped the boom and bust cycle. So now we have just bust 😂

[@squishedfrog99-gp4qq]

If that's the case why did Brown destroy final salary pensions using stealth tax for hundreds of thousands in the private sector? He did it knowing very few vote Labour. Ironic that his pension was unaffected. He should be on trial and held to account, not bumbling around the G7.

[@martinjones4776]

Plus selling the UK's gold reserve, announcing the sale which lower the price. The bloke is a fool.

[@BillCarrIpswich]

You say that the minimum wage was a success - I say that since its introduction we have seen a collapse of typical minimum wage employers and the explosion of foreigners being imported to work for gangmasters and slavers. An early example of this was the Chinese cockle pickers that died on Morcambe Bay. Now we have thousands of barbers and nail salons, all with imported labour working outside of the rules a native-run business would have to follow.

[@mark4lev]

I’m glad someone else gets it. Up to 2002 the jobs section in local papers was rammed. Pages and pages. The ‘casualisation ’ of the jobs market, coupled with increasing living costs and immigration, led to agency work, disguised self employment and the gig economy. Things unheard of before Blair. It also dovetailed nicely with working tax credits. The involvement of the state. Newlabour people were all Marxists. It’s all in Peter Hitchens books. Destruction of Christian faith, transformation of the police, and the destruction of the family

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

The minimum wage had to be introduced because so many employers were taking advantage of people. Minimum wage employers weren't hit by it, they were smoked by big corporates and the high cost of premises The rentier private debt economy is slowly strangling the West

[@castanheira99]

I took a bit of each of you Mr. Ipswich and Mr English. As much as I can see science has grown a lot over the last 100 years and today propaganda, psychology or marketing are among of the arts used by big names of industry, corporations and even by politicians to promote ultra liberal politics and perpetuate their seats on power. Governments sold everything from de people and if it last anything will be not for much longer. Now governments are investors, colector of wealth and the makers of rules and laws for the best of themselves and friends, that will be supportive to them or as Borrell would say: they are the garden and the people is the jungle.

[@mongoliandude]

@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp This is exactly the issue. The housing crises in the UK ‘trickles up’ to the detriment of every sector - with small businesses being consumed first. I do wonder whether the rise of e-commerce has also had a positive or negative effect on many small businesses, as it arguably presented small businesses with new opportunities but also hugely increased the reach of massive corporations and multinationals to compete in places previously home to smaller businesses that could not compete with the economies of scale of these large business.

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@mongoliandude Yep, it's somewhat ironic that 90% of small business owners were the most staunch Tories only for the party of big business to hang them out to dry. Of course too many people can be persuaded to resent their tax bill - which of course the corporates have every means of avoiding - and to not think so much about the cost of premises etc.

[@Talushallux1]

I am no fan of Labour, but a lot of funding went into the NHS and other public services! But on the downside, a lot of bureaucracy was introduced to the NHS! It was a different time period when growth, productivity and employment were high! The worse effects of today can be traced back to under-investment from early Tory days of 2010! At the same time, NHS dentistry was thrashed and NHS privatization through the back door was started by Blair. I would rate that period as one of the golden periods in British economy, may be not by design by the people in charge, but by favourable economic winds! Well made video!

[@arthurdixon5890]

Thank you for this video. It is very interesting. I would only add that: The minimum wage has resulted in a gradual reduction in real wages for the majority of people. Business have used it as a yardstick to set wage levels for employees. It has enabled businesses to be more profitable at the expense of the workforce. This depression of spending power has undoubtedly hit the economy and as wages are gradually dropping towards the MW yardstick more and more people are giving up work as benefits are in some cases more lucrative for their household. The workforce has lost its mojo as a result of this policy.

[@penderyn8794]

Gordon brown sold gold at it's lowest levels comparatively over the last 5000 years! Gordon brown has got very lightly off in history for his deregulation of banks and his mismanagement of gold reserves

[@FEiSTYFEVER]

$250 dollars an ounce if I recall correctly.

[@james83777]

Be interesting to hear your explanation to exactly what happened and how the government went about nationalisation of the banks during 2008/2009 and what’s happened to all that invested money now and whether our investments made any returns for the country.

[@guff9567]

No mention of selling the gold reserves?

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

People on benefits make me so mad… it’s such a humiliation to working people. I’m really sorry but abolish benefits or make them all temporary.

[@valuetraveler2026]

Its a good choice. They are often more switched on than the wage slaves

[@AJ-hi9fd]

@@valuetraveler2026 I can see your perspective. The workforce including myself are the fools!

[@patastienescordera]

You forgot regeneration. The policy of regenerating the regions and investing heavily into the regional capitals basically transformed their fortunes. Places like leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle benefited enormously.

[@valuetraveler2026]

😂

[@chubbychubs4636]

Sold the gold off at the bottom

[@HShango]

Gordon Brown fell on his sword nicely day 😂😂😂

[@roberthuntley1090]

I blame Brown for the widespread use of PFI (save today, pay much more later) and his tax raid that led to the demise of private sector final benefit pension schemes. Also, I learned take his budget and wait for the small print to emerge a day or two later.

[@MarkFarrington-hb2ne]

16 years of austerity because of banking control and then saddled the public with the debt - that was Brown & Darling

[@James-el6lj]

Tony Blair (aka Sir Anthony Blair) was one of the biggest sleazes in human history!

[@johnnagle7702]

When the price of gold escalates and a new gold standard needed will Brown and Blair be arrested?

[@convinth]

What a silly comment.

[@rickyjulian496]

"Let's sell a load of the uk gold off at record low prices brain.." "eggschellent idea pinky! "

[@convinth]

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

[@jamesmacdonald1116]

I've never considered any Labour government successful, It's easy to grow the economy when you're taking out loans to pay for it, but it catches up to you. Any sight hiccup and you end up paying for it BIG time. We might hate on the Tories for the years and years of Austerity but we wouldn't have the need to dial back spending if those loans were never taken. 2008 didn't help and that wasn't Labour's fault, but it showed once again the flaw in Socialistic policies, how can you pay for something when the cupboard is bare?

[@ThomasBoyd-ex5vr]

Awesome. Brilliant content. Spot on. Gordon Brown he flaws in his past history as Labour MP Scotland. Who told Liz Bisland she pensioner she vote Labour party in 2010 uk general election she born 1921'to 2016. She Liberal Democrats she middle class legal secretary. Her issues with him Thomas is that thought had Health issues Gordon Brown Labour Prime minister. She thought he better calked uk general election 2007 he Labour actually win it. She said Tories be power 14 year she got that one correct. She said Tories introduced stringent Budget in 2010. 56 Liberal Democrats MP fall guy David Cameron Conservative cockpit coalition government 2010 to 2015. Last 2015 to 2024 show itself politically today in England London Britain. He did nothing for disabled people Gordon Brown.

[@TM-hw5tq]

Your content is excellent but your editing software seems to have a lot of glitches

[@nigelrequiem]

New Labour New Immigration!!!

[@Tom-771]

Please stop using the term Tax and Spend. You should know it's actually Spend and Tax. The tax generated from the spending eliminates the spent money for a Sovereign Government such as the UK. Even the Bank of England know this. Tax offsets govetnment spending, it's only non government spending like councils who can't create their own money who need money from the population to pay for things.

[@valuetraveler2026]

where did all the gold go?

[@FEiSTYFEVER]

Brown sold it.

[@convinth]

Why ask a rhetorical question? You already knew the answer.

[@FEiSTYFEVER]

@@convinth The question is no longer raised as the event has long past? The vast majority of people are uninformed through ignorance, indifference or otherwise inundated with the burdens of life to pay much attention. The ability to question is not an inherent ability, it has to be developed and sadly, the education system in this country has for a long time been producing low-functioning cogs. Finding an important question that has been already formulated can bring awareness to individuala who would otherwise be blind to the issue can be a boon for both the inquisitor and the topic.

[@sergedubois7544]

UK business owners explain the catastrophic Brexit, it doesn't matter, we ask Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage for the solution

[@agadorspartacus650]

Don't forget the libor scandal

[@AdamWebb1982]

you say minimum wage has been a success while all the low paid jobs have been taken over by self service... so yeh...

[@loc4725]

In my local supermarket a lot of jobs have been lost to self-service checkouts but the thing is this would likely have happened anyway. Also the point a lot of people miss is that by not having a minimum wage employees end up receiving 'top up' benefits from the state, an effective corporate subsidy as their employer who can now pay them less.

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@loc4725 These fellas don't care. They wouldn't even pay unemployment benefit. They love hanging people out to dry

[@user-si5sk2hm2n]

Not Blair but your Sunak and his fellas ! Including bankers

[@andreasarnoalthofsobottka2928]

LSE is obviously telling BS. The UK- economy consits of 80% services; mostly centered around financial with a little tourism attatched. In short enormous sums of money of various (partly dubious) origin flowes in and out the country blowing up GDP. A part of said money flows into the pockets of bonus- bankers, lawyers, shareholders and tory- donours. The rest of the people are food- or working poor; to poor in fact to drive inflation. Now, with brexit, the sanctions against russia and improved control of international money- flow this sector goes down the pipe like the others did previously. No political programe will stop the downward spiral.

[@MnemonicCarrier]

Stop basing the economy on house prices and gambling on the global casino.

[@gerhard7323]

It's all they know sadly.

[@kylebird91]

The man who sold the world

[@matpk]

🆒

[@DeepakDograx323045]

Success with Struggle sitting silent no Succeed you ever

[@PhilipMatthewsPAEACP]

LOL

[@fiddley]

Tony Blair’s government was bloody brilliant. Increased spending on health and education is exactly what makes a strong nation. Lack of regulation of the financial sector and some terribly ill informed foreign policy intervention took a opened the door for the Tories and the world of pain we’ve endured since.

[@garyb455]

Having been in business through all these periods of Government, Labour in the 70s were an absolute disaster. Thatchers Government sorted out the Unions and the Country and created the sound money that Blair and Brown inherited. The 80s was a great time to start business and thrive but Brown was a canny man and he increased taxes for business dramatically. He also mortgaged the Country up to the hilt with PFI contracts mostly repaid into off shore Bank accounts. Going into the Credit Crunch Brown was borrowing £4 billion a week ! His scam to pay tuition fees also increased graduates taxes for 25 years, a very clever move. The last 14 years in business in the UK have been dreadful, the taxes from Browns time have only been increased and business today is hardly worth the effort. So to sum up from a business point of view, apart from the Thatcher, Major period it has been downhill all the way. The biggest difference is in the 70s, 80s and 90s people were greedy to get on and become successful, but since 2000 they seem to have only become envious.

[@speedonz]

While at the same time the effectiveness of both plummeted. Spend=waste.

[@fiddley]

@@speedonz You didn't look at the NHS waiting list charts did you?

[@mark4lev]

@@fiddleynhs rises every year despite who’s in power

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

They also thought they could game the system with mass immigration has created endless problems which they used Hate Speech laws to stop people talking about. For that reason many people are afraid of Labour

[@bortstanson2034]

Improve tremendously, only simpletons would say otherwise.

[@VincentRE79]

New Labour took over a sound economy and handed one to the Conservatives facing lots of problems. High levels of government spending and personal borrowing in those years, issues we are still struggling with today.

[@garyb455]

Having been in business through all these periods of Government, Labour in the 70s were an absolute disaster. Thatchers Government sorted out the Unions and the Country and created the sound money that Blair and Brown inherited. The 80s was a great time to start business and thrive but Brown was a canny man and he increased taxes for business dramatically. He also mortgaged the Country up to the hilt with PFI contracts mostly repaid into off shore Bank accounts. Going into the Credit Crunch Brown was borrowing £4 billion a week ! His scam to pay tuition fees also increased graduates taxes for 25 years, a very clever move. The last 14 years in business in the UK have been dreadful, the taxes from Browns time have only been increased and business today is hardly worth the effort. So to sum up from a business point of view, apart from the Thatcher, Major period it has been downhill all the way. The biggest difference is in the 70s, 80s and 90s people were greedy to get on and become successful, but since 2000 they seem to have only become envious.

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

@@VincentRE79 The Tories had spent the previous EIGHTEEN YEARS asset stripping and deindustrialising this country. Their banker friends imposed incredible pain on householders in the early 90s and by the time they left office schools and hospitals were falling apart The Tory party are the bankers' party so obviously they were never going to make them pay for the crisis they caused. They and their media demanded Labour adopt "light touch" regulation and they and their media blamed everyone else - typically the least well off - when the spivs' casino imploded You know all this very well but the people who cry the most about "personal responsibility" can never actually take any responsibility for their "free market" BS

[@malthusXIII-fo3ep]

@@VincentRE79 Added ONE MILLION workers to the public sector plus uncosted benefits and welfare. No wonder all the money ran out!

[@VincentRE79]

@@malthusXIII-fo3ep Yes it was a great time for public sector workers etc but created a bubble that exploded in 2008. Things have not been right since. The problem at the time is we did not watch what they were doing while the economy was booming.

[@HShango]

If blair didn't bend a knee to george w bush, we wouldn't even have tories lmao. Instead we have been sleep walking from disaster to another disaster to another disaster on a crazy loop

[@garyb455]

Having been in business through all these periods of Government, Labour in the 70s were an absolute disaster. Thatchers Government sorted out the Unions and the Country and created the sound money that Blair and Brown inherited. The 80s was a great time to start business and thrive but Brown was a canny man and he increased taxes for business dramatically. He also mortgaged the Country up to the hilt with PFI contracts mostly repaid into off shore Bank accounts. Going into the Credit Crunch Brown was borrowing £4 billion a week ! His scam to pay tuition fees also increased graduates taxes for 25 years, a very clever move. The last 14 years in business in the UK have been dreadful, the taxes from Browns time have only been increased and business today is hardly worth the effort. So to sum up from a business point of view, apart from the Thatcher, Major period it has been downhill all the way. The biggest difference is in the 70s, 80s and 90s people were greedy to get on and become successful, but since 2000 they seem to have only become envious.

[@carbide1]

Most hospitals were built using PFI, which we are still paying for.

[@williammuir638]

Disaster era