Blair-Brown score 4 out of 10 in report

The Liberal Democrats today released a dossier, The State They’ve Put Us In, which sets out what has gone wrong under Labour in specific areas, such as health, education, crime and the environment. It points out how much Blair and Brown have failed to achieve – and in many areas how things have gone backwards. The paper gives the Government a score of 4 out of 10.

The current state of Britain:

• Personal debt is up 160% since 1997. British citizens now owe more than £1.3 trillion
• The income gap between rich and poor is wider in 2007 than it was at any time under Margaret Thatcher
• UK carbon emissions have risen by 2% since 1997 – Labour will not meet their targets
• The cumulative deficit for all NHS trusts has soared past £1 billion
• 500,000 children are still in classes of 31 pupils or more despite Labour’s 1997 pledge to cut class sizes to 30
• Violent crime has doubled since 1998

Launching the document, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said:

“The Blair-Brown government started with so much hope but now we are left with so much disappointment. This Government has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money.

“They have invested in health and education but lacked the courage and principles that would have enabled them to spend it effectively.

“They wasted their opportunity to build a fairer society and instead inequality has increased and social mobility fallen. Labour is still the party of redistribution but in the wrong direction.

“Above all the Blair-Brown government will be remembered for its decision to go to war in Iraq. It was an illegal war waged on false claims. The Prime Minister may have taken the decision to go to war but the Chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through.

“That’s the record for which the Blair-Brown government will be remembered: war and waste.”

To read the complete dossier, click here.