• FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m not from the UK but from what I have seen the UK seems to really be heading in the same direction as the US where there are two absolutely awful parties to vote for and one is like 10% better.

    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The last labour government that was in power was the most right wing, neoliberal one there has ever been, and yet they still massively improved the country over the shit state that Thatcher and Major got it into.

      • Over doubling of NHS funding, bringing it up to being the highest ranked health service in the world for a time.

      • Homelessness massively cut down, with rough sleeping virtually irradiated (EDIT) eradicated. Bizarre autocorrect there lol

      • The minimum wage and a bunch of other workers rights improvements.

      • Parliamentary processes made more transparent

      • Devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales, NI

      • Massively improved schooling

      • Massively reduced crime, especially violent crime.

      • Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s despite having a rapidly growing economy

      • More years in economic surplus than the Tories

      • Didn’t interfere with the BBC, even going as far as to put in place a Conservative chairman, because he was the best suited for the job, rather than appointing a mouthpiece for the Labour party.

      • Help for childcare costs

      • Drastic improvements for people with disabilities in terms of infrastructure, schooling, care

      • Expansion in LGBT rights, including the right to adopt

      • probably a bunch of stuff I’ve forgotten.

      I’d much, much much rather have an actually competent government that broadly seeks out to improve people’s lives, even if they do have failings (e.g. failure to do much about the housing crisis) rather than the Conservative party, under whom the UK has got worse in practically every single way.

      • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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        1 year ago

        Young naïve me got excited by the hung parliament back in 2010 thinking Lib Dems even in a coalition could get so much good done.

        Then Nick Clegg folded to the Conservatives on literally every issue like the soggy biscuit he is.

    • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Only if you buy into the Murdoch press. Similar thoughts tend to be expressed about Australia’s Labor party also, when the actual reality is markedly different.

    • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I am from the UK and let me tell you, we’ve been there for a while. We had a progressive in the 10% better party that made it actually substantially better but the media decided that supporting Palestine is tantamount to antisemitism and basically crushed his chances. Obviously backed by the stupidity of the average voter, who decided that some vague assertions of antisemitism were more important than the numerous failings (e.g. brexit) and verifiable racism of the other party.

      Aside from that brief period, we’ve been forced to hold our noses and vote for the lesser of two evils for a long time. Starmer is generally disliked and nobody knows what he stands for (Because the answer is basically nothing) but he is still going to wipe the floor with the Tories. That isn’t because he’s good, just because the Tories are really that useless.

      That is where we are now.