“Labour inherited a mess, hardly a country in pretty good shape” –

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by Sarah in the Desert.

“Labour inherited a mess, hardly a country in pretty good shape” – they didn’t, the economy was in pretty good condition when they came to power. The recession (again global) of the early 1990’s had been over for some years and the country had recovered fairly quickly with a fall in unemployment.

Major factors in the Labour victory were that Tony Blair was very charismatic compared to John Major (who actually won an election in his own right) and Labour internally reformed; sleaze and a public opinion of a need to change after so many years of a Conservative government. Also Europe issues and the withdrawal of the ERM (which actually helped recovery of the recession).

“Also, what’s wrong with helping unemployed people?” – absolutely nothing as long as you’re helping them to get another job.

“What’s wrong with supporting single mothers?” – absolutely nothing provided that you’re not just encouraging them to have loads of children by lots of different fathers because it’s financially better for them to do so; also that the father’s are being forced to take financial responsibility for their offspring and that children are placed with the parent that are best able to provide for them.

“Do you think all single mothers ask to be in that situation?” – All? No. Some? Yes.

“Do you think all unemployed people are lazy?” – All? No, some? Yes

“If you are a working man, what would happen if you lost your job? Would you expect the government to give you no help just to protect other people’s taxes?” – No, I would expect the Government to help me for a short while so I could look for another job whilst also taking responsibility for myself by making sure that I was insured for the loss of income should I lose my job.