Blair's Real Legacy

[lets get it right]

Listening to the box today it would appear we have been graced by the presence of a God from Olympus in 10 Downing Street for the last 10 years. They all keep trumpeting the same old drivel about how much the country has improved.

I want to write this lot down in case a passing journalist looks in. They might just wake up from their 'let's worship Tony' hysteria and think about what has really happened:

House prices have trebled in his tenure, pricing many young people out of the market.

There has been a huge rise in investment in property - with no thought or care for the social consequences - again pricing young people out of the market.

Pensions have been decimated - Gordon Brown has taken a cumulative £100 billion from our pensions - final salary schemes are almost extinct - many people face working until the day they die.

Income tax has risen inexorably year on year as a result of fiscal drag - the freezing of the allowances. A much greater number of people now pay higher rate tax - not because they earn a lot more but because (although their salaries have risen with inflation) the tax allowances have not.

Council tax has doubled in many parts of the country in the last 10 years. You can't take this back - in many places the council tax on a small detached house accounts for half of the old age pension.

Personal borrowing has doubled. Bankruptcy is rampant. Collectively we all owe the banks a hell of a lot more than when he came to power.

Education is a joke - worse and worse every year without fail. Many youngsters leaving school cannot read, write or spell.

We are now a watched people. Huge increase in CCTV usage. The most watched people in the world.

The rise of the Chav culture continues relentlessly. The behaviour of many people in public is deplorable. I am talking about yobs in a park full of families on a sunny weekend afternoon, playing football with cans of beer in their hand - swearing at the top of their voices.

Not a policeman to be seen throughout the land.

Massive increase in legislation - 2 new laws a day for 10 years.

Massive increase in complexity in taxation.

Massive increase in the number of people working in the public sector.

The Private Finance Initiatives used to finance some of the massive increase in public spending will be being paid for by our children for a generation.