From 1997 to 2007 things became very good indeed. When Labour took over from the Tory years, things were in a sorry state. NHS waiting times were measured in years, schools were on their knees and the homeless littered our streets - a bit like now come to think of it.
Blair got in promising reduced class sizes, and Brown was only prepared to borrow to invest. They royally f**ked up over Iraq but as far as the country went, lots of new schools got built, many town centres were revamped after years of neglect and the gentrification (love it or not) that has seen many down-and-out areas come back to life was started. I feel that the Tories are simply taking us back to the early 90s and things really were a bit grim back then.