Was the Labour Government from 1997-2010 the worse in British history?

[Guest MattP]

Shamelessly uplifted from another site but thought it would be interesting to see the defence from the Labourites on here (Yes I'm looking at you Alf! )

 

Do you remember 1066 and All That? Maybe not, as it was published in 1930. And yet, this parody of English history lingers in the collective consciousness, not least because it amusingly defined English kings as either Good or Bad. No ifs, no buts – no vague, waffly “he built the autobahns, but then things went somewhat downhillâ€.

 

Good. Or. Bad.

 

Of course the idea was satirical: it is seldom we can be so emphatic about our monarchs or our governments. Even Edward Heath boosted the image of sexually ambiguous sailing while smiling in a fixed way at the camera.

And yet, I think we can be properly emphatic about New Labour, that cavalcade of incompetents that pretended to be a government from 1997-2010. They were the worst British government ever.

 

Just look at the evidence. Then cry for your beloved country.

 

Let’s start with the small stuff. Immigration. I know very few people care about this, but Labour – without warning, without consulting, without even asking our permission – allowed the biggest mass immigration into the United Kingdom in our nation’s history: three million people, possibly more than entered these island in the preceding 1,000 years combined. And why did they do this? To drive down low-skilled wages, and to rub the noses of the Right in diversity. Gosh, thanks guys.

 

What else? Health. 1,200 died in Mid-Staffordshire Hospital alone, that’s more than died in Mid-Staffordshire during the Black Death.

 

What about Europe? Labour’s biggest achievement in Europe was to give away half our precious rebate, won by Thatcher, at a cost to you and me of £9 billion so far – and in return they got precisely nothing, unless you count a chortling, after-dinner promise from Jacques Chirac, that he’d make Tony Blair President of the EU, which he didn’t. A small mercy.

 

Surely Labour made an impression with infrastructure? Well, yes: they built the Millennium Dome. It’s easy to forget the Millennium Dome, because, after all, who would want to remember it, but this thing burned up 800 million pounds, was maybe the greatest marketing flop in recorded time, and it turned out to be a great big dirty tent where queueing families could pay £60, just to look at uplifting representations of litter.

 

 

But how about the big stuff? Like the economy? How did Labour do there? Sit down with a bottle of scotch before I tell you. Labour presided over the slowest growth in 50 years, they produced the fastest decline in British manufacturing since manufacturing began, they left us mired in the longest recession since the war, they bequeathed maybe the largest deficit in peacetime history, and they handed over a debt so huge we will still be repaying it when the earth is swallowed by an expanding sun, a cosmological termination which might therefore come as some relief.

 

 

On to foreign policy. One word. Iraq. Two words. Iraq, Afghanistan. Lots of words: 100,000-300,000 killed, 2 million refugees, the humiliation of the British army, the grotesqueness that was Alastair Campbell, and the complete destruction of any trust in what any government will ever say about going to war in the future.

 

 

Which leaves Education. Oh, how Labour chuntered on about education. They often liked to say the word “education†an astonishing three times in a row, just to show how much they were doing with education. And what were they doing, apart from spending many billions of pounds on spinny chairs for deputy headteachers?

 

Here’s what they were doing: they were sending our schoolkids plummeting down the international PISA education rankings, and now, as we know, ensuring English youngsters are amongst the worst educated in the western world – and the only young people with an education inferior to their grandparents.

 

 

So that’s it. That’s the Labour record. And I challenge anyone to find a British government – or an English king – that did worse. Neville Chamberlain might have appeased Hitler, King George III lost the American colonies and went mad, William the Conqueror turned half the nation into a desolate wasteland for centuries – perhaps he inspired Gordon Brown – but none of them equal New Labour’s magnificent record, right across the board, for wretched, lying, blundering, poisonous, catastrophic ineptitude.

 

And you know what’s so depressing? This so-called “partyâ€, this cancer called “Labourâ€, this affliction which keeps returning to the UK like a kind of sociopolitical syphilis, could be in power, once more, in about 18 months' time.

 

Now drink that whisky.

worst*

[lavrentis]

Tony Blair just sums up everything that is wrong with new labour. Unforgivable what he has done bringing the UK into wars etc. Ironic he is the middle east peace envoy.

 

As much as I dislike his politics I'd rather have a few George Galloways than a single slimey Tony Blair.

[Jon the Hat]

Yes, yes indeed.  Lets not forget the laws.  They brought in 4,289 new laws that apply to you and me, yet somehow those wars were legal?  Hmm.

[leicsmac]

No need to defend against shameless one-sided hyperbolic rubbish, Matt. 

 

There have been far worse Governments (pretty much any of them in the 70's really) and definitely worse monarchs than New Labour 97-2010. King George allowing the US to fight a successful war of independence, for instance? And for being a nutjob?

 

If this article has actually focussed on some of the good aspects as well as the bad, then I might have paid it more credence, but as it is it's just a classical Daily Mail-style (and yes, I am using that term because it fits) hatchet job. I'm sure someone could write a similar hatchet job about the present Government using the same topics only from a different angle.

 

But...if you insist, the good:

 

- The Dome functions superbly now as the O2 Arena

- The financial crisis was not in any way caused by NL: though more on that in 'The Bad' below

- Took us from the economic downturn under Major into a massive massive economic boom

- Spent much-needed money on both the NHS and education, including areas which this article conveniently misses - inner city school regeneration being one. (But again see 'The Bad'.)

 

The Bad:

 

- IRAQ. Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Should never have gotten involved in any way shape or form

- Spent too much public money in a time of boom without thinking that the world markets could go belly-up (which they did)

- Spending money in the wrong places

- Lax border controls that allowed far too many people in who could not be vetted.

 

Yeah, Labour weren't the greatest. But the worst kind of administration in history? Don't make me fvcking laugh.

[Zingari]

 

Hmm , our national debt seems to be rising faster and higher than ever before .

 

 

It doesn't look that good since 2010 to me 

[Jon the Hat]

 

 

Hmm , our national debt seems to be rising faster and higher than ever before .

 

 

 

It doesn't look that good since 2010 to me 

 

Jesus, imagine going through this recession with Mr Ed "Too Far Too Fast" Balls in charge???  Doesn't bear thinking about does it?

[Guest MattP]

- The Dome functions superbly now as the O2 Arena

- The financial crisis was not in any way caused by NL: though more on that in 'The Bad' below

- Took us from the economic downturn under Major into a massive massive economic boom

- Spent much-needed money on both the NHS and education, including areas which this article conveniently misses - inner city school regeneration being one. (But again see 'The Bad'.)

 

The Bad:

 

- IRAQ. Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Should never have gotten involved in any way shape or form

- Spent too much public money in a time of boom without thinking that the world markets could go belly-up (which they did)

- Spending money in the wrong places

- Lax border controls that allowed far too many people in who could not be vetted.

 

Yeah, Labour weren't the greatest. But the worst kind of administration in history? Don't make me fvcking laugh.

 

Should have been an 02 arena immediately. Much needed money that didn't really make education or the NHS better from what you see and read. No idea on Inner City schools, a lot of them have metal detectors now, never used to, though that's probably more down to clas of people.

 

Lax Border Control? Behave, it was deliberate and you all knew it.

 

 

Zing - Yep, that just shows the mess we are in doesn't it, for all the "CUTS" people talk about, well, wait until the real cuts start to come in when we have no choice, whoever is in government. No amount of growth is clawing that back without it.

[ADK]

All governments can be picked apart really, especially ones that were in office a long time. This Tory government is worse than the previous labour one in my eyes.

[Guest MattP]

Go on....

[Alf Bentley]

Shamelessly uplifted from another site but thought it would be interesting to see the defence from the Labourites on here (Yes I'm looking at you Alf! )

 

My usual rambling, verbose response will have to wait until next week, I'm afraid, Matt. Too busy doing profit-making private business (for a British business organisation wanting to know about French public transport systems, as it happens!) 

 

My overall verdict on New Labour 1997-2010 would certainly be mixed - some good (e.g. public spending on health/education, minimum wage, balanced approach to Europe, social liberalism); some bad (e.g. illegal war in Iraq, private finance initiative, financial market deregulation, running a small deficit during a boom). I certainly expect the Miliband Government to do much better after 2015, especially if they end up in coalition with the Greens!    (It's good to dream sometimes!)

 

Certainly, it was a massive under-achievement given the large majorities they had for most of that period. If your question had been about the most underachieving government, I might actually have agreed with you - probably a mid-ranking government overall, though. Blair was a very timid PM. This is going to be controversial, but I'd expect history to be kinder to Brown, even if he does sound like a very warped individual in personality terms...

 

Contenders for a worse government? Chamberlain in the 30s? Eden and his Suez fiasco in the 50s? Heath & Callaghan in the 70s....though that was an almost impossible time to be in government and there were some successes (notably Heath getting Britain into Europe....come on, you Eurosceptics, flame me! )

 

There must be some pretty bad ones in the 19th century, surely? 

 

If I'm at a loose end next week, I might send another offering, but must work now - and busy over weekend.

[Alf Bentley]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

[Harry - LCFC]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

 

Didn't know you were that old.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alf Bentley]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

 

Didn't know you were that old.....

 

 

Just feel it and look it.....don't behave it, though.

 

Harold II's government didn't last too long, and had some major problems with his defence policy in 1066...but that was England (more or less), not Britain...

[Webbo]

 

 

 

But how about the big stuff? Like the economy? How did Labour do there? Sit down with a bottle of scotch before I tell you. Labour presided over the slowest growth in 50 years, they produced the fastest decline in British manufacturing since manufacturing began, they left us mired in the longest recession since the war, they bequeathed maybe the largest deficit in peacetime history, and they handed over a debt so huge we will still be repaying it when the earth is swallowed by an expanding sun, a cosmological termination which might therefore come as some relief.

 

These are such important points and ones that Mrs Thatcher's critics tend to ignore. Anyway you look at it the last Labour Govt was a disaster.

[leicsmac]

These are such important points and ones that Mrs Thatcher's critics tend to ignore. Anyway you look at it the last Labour Govt was a disaster.

 

Don't be absolutist. There are points above that illustrate that it wasn't a disaster for some. 

 

Agree with Alf on this in that they could have done a hell of a lot better, though.

[ousefox]

I'm sure the Millennium Dome was Major's idea? Labour may have changed it though I can't remember...

[Mike Oxlong]

As they're all scrambling for the middle ground I find it harder to differentiate between the self serving toadies on the right and those on the left.

At least when it was commies v fascists there was a proper choice to be made.

[The God Emperor]

has any post war government been any good though? 

[Guest Bilo]

It was far from the worst in British history if we're honest.

 

How about the Callaghan government for starters?

 

John Major's Tory government between 1992 and 1997 was a major reason why Labour won with the kind of landslide that kept them in power for 13 years. The Eden government that took us into the Suez crisis wasn't much cop either and Churchill was an ineffective peacetime PM.

 

These are just post-war governments, plenty of pre-war and pre 20th century governments have been a lot worse.

[Rincewind]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

too many cuts.

 

I have no love of politicians and call me cynical but why has there been a sudden rise in certain sections of the media Labour /Labour Leader Bashing? What has happened to the praising of Tory policies now and future proposals?

 

Just wondering like. Perhaps Zingari will know.

[Guest MattP]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

 

I'm going to start a Cromwell thread one day, probably the only person in British history who divides opinion more than Thatcher.

 

 

As they're all scrambling for the middle ground I find it harder to differentiate between the self serving toadies on the right and those on the left.

At least when it was commies v fascists there was a proper choice to be made.

 

The spitting image era of politics looked like a fantastic time to be interested in it.

 

The Tories sounded like real pantomime villians and Labour's actually looked like people who had came off a shopfloor from a few years back.

 

It became a career choice at some point and that's probably what ruined it, more millionares on the Labour front bench than the Tories these days and so called Conservatives shifting through things like gay marriage.

[Zingari]

The Charles I government ended pretty badly in 1649, as I recall... 

The unacceptable face of decapitalism. 

[Deucalion]

And this is why I don't bother looking at General Chat.

 

It is all too predictable.

[Guest MattP]

I knew you were going to say that.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

Keep calm D.T., and don't go off on a rant!--- Yes, without doubt. An insidious government, bereft of all decency, and moral fibre.