I was a Labour Party member for about ten years. I left the party about six months after the 97 election, I saw the writing on the wall even then. I felt the Party was about to ride roughshod over its core support and it has proven to be the case.
One of the first things the MP's did 1997, was to award themselves a whopping 20 odd % pay rise. A few months later Gordon Brown made a speech in which he said, "Local Authority Workers will have to accept inflation or less than inflation wage rises for the foreseeable future". Having listened to this same statement from the Tories for eighteen years and now eleven years on from the 1997 election, I, as a Local Authority Worker have seen my earnings deteriorate year on year. It's not all bad news though, some public sector workers have had some really good salary deals, over inflation wage rises, limousines to get ferried about in, expenses to go to work and to furnish their second homes, and would you believe it subsidised bars and restaurants at their place of work. As you have probably guessed by now, these public sector workers are none other than the MP's of our great country. I would never have believed, I would live to see the day a Labour Government, could tax the ordinary person in society til the pips squeaked. Changed days.