Labour "hugely proud of the progress"

handful

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

However you want to cut the dates, and regardless of whether you want the pound to still be hugely over-vauled against the Dollar, you cannot take Brown's time in office and say its the worst performance ever - Thatcher beats it straight off her 83 election victory for starters.

Ah, but look at the global issues Thatcher had to deal with.

Graham_Devon

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

June 07 when Brown took over the exchange rate was $1.98 - today its $1.41, a devaluation of 29%

If you take the same period of time you get June 83 when it was $1.55 to Feb 85 when it was $1.09, a devaluation of 30%

However you want to cut the dates, and regardless of whether you want the pound to still be hugely over-vauled against the Dollar, you cannot take Brown's time in office and say its the worst performance ever - Thatcher beats it straight off her 83 election victory for starters.

I don't think Jason was talking JUST about Brown as PM. I think you are also well aware of that, considering the thread was about the last decade

I give up though. You win

dervish

handful wrote: »

Ah, but look at the global issues Thatcher had to deal with.

She handled all of the global issue very well indeed:

Threats of nuclear war (COld War)
Falklands War
European integration
Famines
Miners Strike
etc etc

Rochdale_Pioneers

dervish wrote: »

She handled all of the global issue very well indeed:

Falklands War

Cobblers. Had she listened to her Foreign Office team then there would have been no war - there was enough noise coming out of the junta that warning shots could have been fired. Instead they saw that Britain wasn't interested and therefore the door was wide open. And having to buy back enough naval vessels to be able to mount an invasion was a pretty poor bit of planning.

chucky

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

Cobblers. Had she listened to her Foreign Office team then there would have been no war - there was enough noise coming out of the junta that warning shots could have been fired. Instead they saw that Britain wasn't interested and therefore the door was wide open. And having to buy back enough naval vessels to be able to mount an invasion was a pretty poor bit of planning.

but she dealt with everything else pretty well apart from that

Rochdale_Pioneers

chucky wrote: »

but she dealt with everything else pretty well apart from that

I don't think even she thought that she dealt with European integration well. She signed the Single European Act, at a stroke signing Britain up to the superstate programme with all the loss of sovereignty that goes with it. Within a few years she was ranting about having been tricked, and then spent the next 10 years encouraging Tory rebels to undue what she signed up to.

Dylanwing

Thatcher - Council House sales, utility privatisations, closing manufacturing, replacing coal with gas to generate electricity, giving our North Sea Oil bonanza as tax cuts to the wealthy - All policies that have had a long-term negative impact on the UK. In terms of transforming attitudes in the UK, probably positive.
Blair - Promised lots and delivered endless soundbites, but too gullible, and too much in awe of big business. Shied away from rail re-nationalisation and reforming the Welfare State, both were much needed, and should have ben done whilst he had a large majority. Obsessed with targets and 'modernising', so that money invested in the Public Sector has largely been wasted on statistic gathering bureaucrats, Consultants and expensive PFI deals. Minimum wage is one positive, but a questionable immigration policy and the human rights act have not been great successes. Also, I am not keen on loading the indirect taxes just to get a lower income tax rate, and the promised action on evasion/ avoidance has been pathetic.
In terms of the economy, both parties have been guilty of ignoring warning signs, preferring to ride the popularity of an artificial boom, and then taking their chances when it all goes t*ts up. As for Blair dragging us into two pointless wars, how were MP's so gullible as to support him?
Well, that's just my opinions, feel free to disagree - If we all agtreed, we would have mindless clones in Westminster.... Hang on.......

piggeh

Going back to the OP I think it's difficult to claim 'improvements' when I guess most have been funded from increased tax revenue during this 'asset boom'? It will be interesting seeing what level of spending will be achieved by any government once everything dies down and 'recovers' to it's natural level again. No doubt the next Government will have a short stint as people start to see standards falling again and start having a nice old moan.

jay3_2

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

jay3 - if Labour has broadly followed a previous government then more fool them. It only makes them seem more sheeplike than ever. In 11 years, you would expect them to have adapted to the whatever the current situation of the day was. They were brought in to change things, make things better, and abracadabra, yet another Labour financial mismanagement (I've lived through a few, including 19s 6d in the Pound income tax - not that it affected me, of course).


Jen
x

Jen, I totally agree with you! I'm not here to defend Labour, the Conservatives or LibDems. I'm just pointing out to those who claim that Labour has a monopoly on poor economic policies that many governments of various colours have royally messed things up in the past. Merely concentrating on one party just masks the real underlying issues.

jay3_2

Dylanwing wrote: »

Thatcher - Council House sales, utility privatisations, closing manufacturing, replacing coal with gas to generate electricity, giving our North Sea Oil bonanza as tax cuts to the wealthy - All policies that have had a long-term negative impact on the UK. In terms of transforming attitudes in the UK, probably positive.
Blair - Promised lots and delivered endless soundbites, but too gullible, and too much in awe of big business. Shied away from rail re-nationalisation and reforming the Welfare State, both were much needed, and should have ben done whilst he had a large majority. Obsessed with targets and 'modernising', so that money invested in the Public Sector has largely been wasted on statistic gathering bureaucrats, Consultants and expensive PFI deals. Minimum wage is one positive, but a questionable immigration policy and the human rights act have not been great successes. Also, I am not keen on loading the indirect taxes just to get a lower income tax rate, and the promised action on evasion/ avoidance has been pathetic.
In terms of the economy, both parties have been guilty of ignoring warning signs, preferring to ride the popularity of an artificial boom, and then taking their chances when it all goes t*ts up. As for Blair dragging us into two pointless wars, how were MP's so gullible as to support him?
Well, that's just my opinions, feel free to disagree - If we all agtreed, we would have mindless clones in Westminster.... Hang on.......

You missed out Thatcher's increase in VAT from 8% to 17.5%. Do these people think we'll just forget things like that?