How the Tories broke Britain

I was actually still living in Hackney when the Tories came to power in 2010. 

Our second son had been born a month previously so we had our hands full. I remember being relatively resigned to the Tories coming to power albeit sad. The air was going out of the New Labour project, the government had been holed below the waterline by the global financial crisis, and despite being a titan as chancellor, Gordon Brown was struggling to project himself as PM.

It seemed like time for a change, and under the youthful Cameron, the Tories did seem to have changed. 

That didn't last long.

First they started to break our services with the vicious assault on spending that was austerity and the results of which are still playing out. George Osborne remains unrepentant that there was any alternative but there was - less savage cuts that didn't demonise the poor and cast them adrift.

As new parents, one of the greatest policies of New Labour was Sure Start which provided us and all parents with a great support at a time when you don't know your arse from your baby's elbow. There's an argument that it was too middle class but from experience I'd say there is little class distinction when you're trying to deal with a meltdown after a sleepless night. Sure Start was great and we definitely benefitted from it but those who followed didn't as it was cut to the bone.

Then, having heartily pissed off half of Scotland with his peevish IndiRef Day After rallying cry to English Nationalists, Cameron gambled on the EU referendum to placate the wingnuts in his own party.

Never forget what a non-issue it was for the majority of people. This was Tory party over country and it backfired spectacularly breaking our links with the EU that will unfold for years with none of the supposed benefits.

Cameron walked followed by his successor May who was succeeded by lying incompetent Boris Johnson who claimed to have delivered Brexit which crumbled in his hands.

He then mishandled the pandemic response, lining the pockets of rich cronies, reacting too late to circumstances, and breaking rules he imposed on others. 

Without Liz Truss who broke the economy, he'd be regarded as the worst PM ever.

I have no animosity for Rishi Sunak - thanks for furlough support, although it is our money and we will have to pay it back - and he's done a job of sorts in stabilising a ship that was in danger of over turning. But it's time for change.

The Tories have done enough damage. Let's start rebuilding.