The Tory years How it all went down - and down, and down...

Come with me to another country far away, where things are a little bit different. In this fantastical land, young people can live and work in any country in Europe.

- Esther Addley

You can swim in a river without catching Weil's disease, you can see your doctor when you need to.

Things aren't perfect in this country, but 40,000 people rely on food banks instead of 3.1 million in Britain today. People live half a year longer. Five-year-olds are taller.

Reader, you'll never guess: that country is Britain! Or it was until 2010, when a parade of five Conservative prime ministers, seven chancellors and eight home secretaries (two of whom were Suella Braverman) climbed behind the wheel of Britain's temperamental but mostly reliable family hatchback, and drove it into a hedge.

If you're feeling nostalgic, or just possibly a little angry, here is a recap of the lurches, plunges and nausea of 14 years on the Tory rollercoaster.

2010 A coalition?

On 6 May 2010, the election delivered a hung parliament, ushering in frantic horse-trading in which Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats emerged the winners as kingmakers. (Or possibly, judging by the party's near wipeout five years later, the losers.) They joined David Cameron's Conservatives in coalition.

It would be characterised, their leaders said in their loved-up appearance in Downing Street's rose garden, by "freedom, fairness and responsibility". Which may or may not be how you recall that particular government.

A significant achievement was the legalisation of same-sex marriage. One notable victim of the coalition arrangement, on the other hand, was the Lib Dem pledge on tuition fees, for which the party is still apologising.

Austerity - don't blame us