Originally Posted by huxleypiguk

In the 70s we had huge public spending, with all the utilities and many other industries in the public sector and haemorrhaging money. The Labour government at the time had to go to the IMF cap in hand and get a loan. In return they insisted our utilities had to be privatised.

Labour get kicked out and Conservatives enter. Put in place an austerity budget to get rid of the debt and loads of jobs are lost as a result. Unemployment hits 3m +. After two elections the economy gets back in the black and unemployment falls.

The privatisation Labour signed up to is carried out with shares sold mainly to individuals (my sister still has her two shares in BT framed in her loo). Further privatisation follows to get the public purse down.

Enter New Labour who do OK for a while, but then borrow, borrow borrow and end up screwing the economy.

Enter the coalition and the cycle begins again.

Now that is a brief overview and many will wish to slant this to fit their own political viewpoint (Labour was run by the unions v Thatcher ate children for example).