Is there any point in voting? Seven things governments did that changed life as we knew it
A look back at changes brought in by both Conservative and Labour governments that fundamentally changed day-to-day life in the UK - many for the better.
Wednesday 3 July 2024 10:52, UK
"There's no point in voting. They're all the same. Nothing ever changes anyway."
In the run-up to general elections past and present, you may have heard various iterations of the above from friends, family, colleagues, and strangers.
Repeated political scandals have seen the public's distrust of politicians and voter apathy increase. At the 2019 General Election, roughly a third (32.7%) of the country didn't vote.
But here we look back at changes brought in by both Conservative and Labour governments that have fundamentally changed day-to-day life in the UK - many for the better.
NHS
After two world wars, the UK was in desperate need of reconstruction and economic growth.
Labour leader Clement Attlee had been in a wartime coalition with Sir Winston Churchill's Conservatives up until 1945 - but won a landslide majority that July.
A key part of Labour's manifesto - Let us Face the Future Together - was the creation of a welfare state, including a free health service.
This followed the 1942 Beveridge Report, compiled by the economist William Beveridge, on a new system of social insurance that would support people in times of hardship while helping to reconstruct society after the war.
The establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) on 5 July 1948 was overseen by Mr Attlee's health minister, the Welsh miner and trade unionist Nye Bevan.
It meant hospitals, doctors' surgeries, pharmacies, opticians, and dental practices were brought under a single NHS and care offered to everyone based on clinical need - not ability to pay.
It also made the UK the first Western country to offer such a service - free at the point of use.
Despite overwhelming public support for the NHS, many health and economics experts argue the original model can no longer cope with the demands of the current population, which is resulting in long waiting times, strikes, and retention issues among staff.
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Welfare state
It wasn't just the NHS that was born out of the Beveridge Report in 1942.
The idea was to create a "cradle to grave" welfare system - income for the unemployed, housing for the homeless, and care for the sick and disabled.
Although a Labour project, largely inspired by Attlee's time volunteering in deprived areas of London's East End between the wars, it was eventually endorsed by Churchill.
In 1943, he agreed on the need for a "national compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave".
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It was also influenced by the work of liberal economist John Maynard Keynes, who believed a healthy growth rate and full employment would be more likely under a system of state support.
Today, the welfare state takes the form of Universal Credit, state pension, other benefits, and council housing.
Right to buy
One of the hallmark economic policies of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government was the right to buy scheme.
Introduced as part of the Housing Act 1980, the initiative meant council tenants could buy their homes at a significantly discounted price.
It still exists today - offering a 35% discount on homes for social tenants of between three and five years - or a maximum reduction of 70% or £102,400 for tenants of more than five years.
After seven years of it being brought in, the scheme had seen one million homes bought by their tenants.
It has been widely credited with helping more people get onto the housing ladder and contributed to an increase in Conservative voters among the aspiring working classes.
By contrast many, including the Labour Party, have argued it has severely depleted the supply of social housing for those in need, resulting in years-long waiting lists and hundreds of families in each local authority being housed in temporary hostel, or bed and breakfast accommodation.
Minimum wage
The National Minimum Wage was introduced by Tony Blair's New Labour government in 1997 after it appeared as a key pledge in his election manifesto. It came into effect on 1 April 1999.
Based on the idea of universal basic income, Labour argued it would reduce inequality and stop the exploitation of workers.
Previous Labour governments had been opposed to the idea, fearing it would reduce the need for trade union membership - and possibly disincentivise employers to pay anything above the legal requirement.
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It has since, however, received cross-party consensus and was updated by David Cameron's chancellor George Osborne in 2016. He implemented a higher National Living Wage for workers over 25, which was reduced to 23 in 2021.
Both the minimum and living wage are legal requirements.
While mayor of London, Boris Johnson introduced a London Living Wage to reflect the higher cost-of-living in England's capital. It began just for City Hall workers and contractors but has since been adopted by employers across the city - on a voluntary basis.
Devolution
Another key feature of the New Labour manifesto was devolving powers away from the UK government in Westminster.
The Blair government put the idea to voters in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in a series of referenda in 1998.
All three nations voted in favour of their own devolved parliaments, which led to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Welsh Senedd in Cardiff, and the Northern Ireland power-sharing executive at Stormont.
Devolved issues include health and social care, education, local government, transport, sport and the arts, farming and fishing.
Combined, these devolved powers have created fundamental differences in life across the four nations.
Examples include free prescriptions in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the abolition of university tuition fees in Scotland, and votes for over-16s in local and Scottish Parliament elections.
London was given devolved powers with the creation of the London mayor and the London Assembly in 2000.
Under successive Conservative governments from 2014, a further nine regions of England now have metro mayor systems - Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Liverpool City, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Tees Valley, West of England, and North of Tyne.
Good Friday Agreement
Devolution in Northern Ireland was a far more complex process than in Scotland and Wales because of the Troubles.
Tensions between Republican and Unionist communities resulted in more than 3,000 people being killed in Northern Ireland from the 1960s onwards.
Although there had been some dialogue among Irish politicians beforehand, US President Bill Clinton, with the help of his special envoy George Mitchell, and Labour's Tony Blair and his Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam, are widely credited with paving the way to the Good Friday Agreement.
Two agreements - the Multi-Party Agreement and the British-Irish Agreement - were signed by Northern Ireland's political parties and the British and Irish governments respectively on 10 April 1998. They were then put to the public in two referenda in Northern Ireland and the Republic on 22 May.
The Good Friday Agreement resulted in the power-sharing executive at Stormont, a ceasefire between paramilitary groups, and the release of hundreds of paramilitary prisoners. It also saw a considerable drop in violence in the following decades.
The power-sharing agreement means both sides must be represented in government - so if one side resigns - the whole executive dissolves, as has occurred several times since the Good Friday agreement.
Equal marriage
The Marriage of Same-Sex Couples Act 2013 gave same-sex couples the legal right to marry from 2014.
It was introduced by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who has since credited his wife Samantha for encouraging him to persevere with the legislation.
Building on civil partnerships for same-sex couples, introduced by Labour in 2004, the new act closed remaining legal loopholes that existed between them and marriages.
Lord Cameron faced vehement opposition from several religious groups, particularly the Church of England, as well as more traditional members of his own party.
It was seen as a huge departure from traditional Conservative views on same-sex relationships, given Margret Thatcher's Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned schools from promoting homosexuality.
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Many couples arranged their weddings for the first day the legislation was in force to mark the historic change in their rights.
In Northern Ireland, from 7 February 2020 same-sex couples in a civil partnership have been able to upgrade their legal status by getting married.