From the reports coming through it is beginning to look like the change in the US in 2008 may be of the order of the change in the UK in 1997,
After 18 wasted years of Tory Government the Country turned a corner the feeling in the Air in May 1997 was simply amazing, I will probably never see the like again in my life time, though one of those at the party that night had been active at the time of the Labour landslide of 1945.
After 10 years cynicism has risen and Blair et al made lots of mistakes IRAQ!!, but we have recently produced a list of the 50 things that have made them proud over the 10 years see below the fold.
Just imagine 2016 after 8 years of Obama in the WH and a Democratic Congress.....
- Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s, and lowest Uneployment since 1974.
- Low mortgage rates.
- Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52. ($11 per hour in your terms, we did not have one pre 1998, the Tories campaigned that a minimum wage at any level would cost millions of jobs, it was introduced at a level lower than we wanted but them increased EVERY YEAR.)
- Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales. (We are 60 million to your 300 milion so any figures like this multiply by 5 so 70,000)
- Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
- Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
- Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
- Funding for every pupil in England has doubled. (Per pupil in public schools)
- Employment is at its highest level ever.
- Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
- 85,000 more nurses. (equivalent 425,000 in the already free at the point of use, National Health Service)
- 32,000 more doctors. (equivalent to 160,000)
- Brought back matrons to hospital wards. (To lead in the fight against Hospital Aquired infection, one of the real problems in the historically underfunded NHS)
- Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
- Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly. (Historically Scotland and Wales vote Labour, England more often votes Tory but with a non federal structure and National Gvernemnt 18 years of Tory rule over areas who had not voted for them was inceasingly objectionable, will be a bigger issue when the Tories get back nationally)
- Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time. Paid Maternity leave increased from 6 months to 9 months with a promise of reaching 12 months paid leave by 2010.
- NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice. (Nationwide free helpline service staffed by nursing staff offering clinical advice over the phone and advising parents or patients to acess healthcare by most appropriate route, we are sending an ambulance, to wait till Monday and contact your family doctor)
- Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year. (Change to Tax law to encourage charitable giving, I get the impression on this it is no change for you).
- Restored city-wide government to London. (Mid 1980's, Thatcher is running National Government, Labour keeps running Mayor of London, he regularly embaresses her, rather than win election she abolishes city wide Government, services are provided by 32 bourghs)
- Record number of students in higher education.
- Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997. (Child Benefit is a cash payment to all mothers)
- Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres. (equivalent to 11,000, centres provide local focus for early years childhod education and retraining to mothers or unemployed to get them back to work)
- Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
- £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s. (equivalent $400 and $600, for all households with someone over 65 or 80)
- On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland. (After 30 years, and the army of the streets after 35 years)
- Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants. (180,000 and 1,370,000, the Teachers Unions complain the increase should have gone more to increase their numbers and their salaries)
- All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.,(and will increase to 28 days in 2 years all Part time workers have the equivalent pro-rata)
- A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
- 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
- Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
- Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships. (section 28 banned "promotion" of Homosexuality in Schools or any government service, used by right wing to target provision of services for gay citizens, Civil Partnerships are Marriage in all but name, Elton John amongst the first to get married, We now have openly Gay Ministers in both main parties and the issue has simply gone away.)
- Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard. (Equivalent 5,000,000 public housing had been neglected for 20 years).
- Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997. (The historic problem with a public Healthcare system was we did not invest enough money and waiting times for non urgent procedures became chronic i.e. you could wait 2-3 years for a Hip or Knee replacement, there is now a MAXIMUM wait of 18 weeks and an AVERAGE Wait of 8 weeks, people were dieing waiting for Heart bypass treatment with waits of 2 years plus, it was targetted first and MAXIMUM wait is 12 weeks).
- Banned fox hunting, with dogs.
- Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
- Free TV licences for over-75s. We historical have licence fee per houshold to fund the commercial free BBC Tv and Radio.
- Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
- Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
- Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
- New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work. (Retraining support for long term unemployed, equivalent numbers 9,000,000)
- Over 3 million child trust funds have been started. (equivalent 15 million, Tax free saving account into which Governemt contributes small amount at birth of Child and at 5th 10th and 15th birthday with the hope of encouraging relatives to also contribute so child has some capital when the reach 18)
- Free eye test for over 60s.
- More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
- Free entry to national museums and galleries.
- Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
- Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000. (equivalent to 750,000 and 250,000)
- Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
- Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
- Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
NB Single Payer National Health Care System in place since 1948,