Best PM since WW2

Who do you think was the best Prime Minister since WW2, Attlee was the first followed by 16 others. And the worst

5 Labour, Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair, Brown

12 Tory, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Hume, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak

Ok, many of you have disagreed with me in the past but for me Harold Wilson, whom I was able to vote for in his 3rd and 4th terms in office.

As for the worst, well it will take some doing to surpass Truss who managed to f ck the nation up in a few days.

Worst has to be Heath.  When even David Icke is correct about you you know it's bad : https://www.independent.co.uk/.....-abuse-a7588101.html

As for the best, I've only lived from Thatcher onwards so it's definitely a case of the least worst. Blair's first term was full of optimism and economic growth, increased spending etc so if we ignore the 2nd/3rd terms I'll go with him.

The best PM from one election to the next has to be Blair followed by Wilson (1st term).

Best Tory, unlike above, I'll say Heath as he had the vision to take us into the Common Market, which more than anything has transformed this country from a relatively backward-looking nation, partly obsessed with WW2, into the entrepreneurial, diverse, socially liberal country that Blair helped take foward, until the country got taken over by right-wing reactionaries.

Next best Tory - John Major - started the NI peace process.

Worst - Truss, then Johnson, then Thatcher, then May, then Cameron.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

The best PM from one election to the next has to be Blair followed by Wilson (1st term).

Best Tory, unlike above, I'll say Heath as he had the vision to take us into the Common Market, which more than anything has transformed this country from a relatively backward-looking nation, partly obsessed with WW2, into the entrepreneurial, diverse, socially liberal country that Blair helped take foward, until the country got taken over by right-wing reactionaries.

Next best Tory - John Major - started the NI peace process.

Worst - Truss, then Johnson, then Thatcher, then May, then Cameron.

Very strong evidence that Heath was a paedophile. You might want to reconsider.

I’ll go Harold Wilson for the post war social contract and Major as the ‘best’ Tory leader, as a moderate and player in the NI peace process. Why on earth he would blemish his own record by cavorting with the hateful liar and sycophant, Edwina Curry is beyond me.

As an extra - I’d say that Tony Benn and Chris Bryant are 2 people who would’ve made excellent Labour prime ministers, (Bryant still could I guess) and Rory Stewart would’ve been a good ‘centre right’ leader as a warm, fair and intelligent/knowledgeable man.

Quoted from chaos33

Very strong evidence that Heath was a paedophile. You might want to reconsider.

Better do so quickly then, hadn't clicked on that link and had forgotten about the allegations - good old cricket-loving John Major then...

Many might baulk at Thatcher not being considered the worst, but at least she was competent and didn't take us out of the EU, which will be shown to be one of the greatest acts of self-harm in the future. Agree on Rory Stewart, Benn had many great qualities but was against the Common Market. His son, Hilary Benn would have been a good labour leader instead of Corbyn, who may have been able to help keep the country at least in the EEA and Customs Union with an alliance with the Tory Centre and Lib Dems, when May was running a minority government with the DUP fascists

The ‘common market’ was a different beast to the modern EU. Not sure what Benn would’ve made of it now. His reason for being outside of it were sound though - he wanted a proper system of public ownership and investment in every one of our assets.

Thatcher knew we were better off economically in the EU and she played that card well. She also knew that the idea that we were somehow ‘answerable’ to them or subservient to them and were forced to squander control of borders or take laws from them was an illusion and an ideological lie. She knew we were better off at the top table, having a say, dictating the game in the biggest free market in the world. Those that sold the population a load of lies that suggested otherwise have conned the ill informed. I’m no Thatcher fan - far from it. What she did in government was hateful and cynical and heartless and destructive - but not as boneheaded and self harming as this collection of appalling liars, bigots and idiots. She knew what was ‘right’ economically at the time. Now, we can’t talk about it. We can’t fix it. We apparently can’t review and reconsider because all parties are scared of being called undemocratic.

Quoted from chaos33

The ‘common market’ was a different beast to the modern EU. Not sure what Benn would’ve made of it now. His reason for being outside of it were sound though - he wanted a proper system of public ownership and investment in every one of our assets.

Thatcher knew we were better off economically in the EU and she played that card well. She also knew that the idea that we were somehow ‘answerable’ to them or subservient to them and were forced to squander control of borders or take laws from them was an illusion and an ideological lie. She knew we were better off at the top table, having a say, dictating the game in the biggest free market in the world. Those that sold the population a load of lies that suggested otherwise have conned the ill informed. I’m no Thatcher fan - far from it. What she did in government was hateful and cynical and heartless and destructive - but not as boneheaded and self harming as this collection of appalling liars, bigots and idiots. She knew what was ‘right’ economically at the time. Now, we can’t talk about it. We can’t fix it. We apparently can’t review and reconsider because all parties are scared of being called undemocratic.

Can't argue with any of that. As you can probably tell I think social liberalism is a fundamental good, and each step in that direction is a step forward for humanity. The right of a young person of any race, man, woman, straight, gay, trans to get on a train and go anywhere in the EU and work and enjoy cultural and expressive freedom is, whilst not work perfect (Hungary!), certainly the least sh!t cross border freedom of scale in the world. Nearly every one of the countries in the EU and EEA is in the top echelons of least sh!t democracies along with NZ, Aus, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the odd other small country (Uruguay?). This was taken away from our young people by a mass leave vote of dribbling pensioners puppets controlled by a right wing sect and a few press barons. My kids can all get Irish passports - I've told them to get on and do it. Irish unity may be getting nearer thanks to Johnson's biggest lie -  listen to Sinn Fein and then the DUP swivel eye loons, there is only one side of that divide spouting hate speil now.    

Agreed.

Harold Wilson was just a brilliant intuitive politician. He united the Labour Party (no mean feat) and had an innate ability to read the room. One of his biggest achievements was to keep the UK out of the incredibly damaging Vietnam War despite huge pressure from the Americans.

Absolutely. Wish we had him now!

Attlee whose government introduced the NHS and the Welfare State and many other great innovations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee

Best Tory is a hard one. Probably Major.

Worst: Cameron. For his complete mis-reading of the public and subsequent caving in to the right wing of his party and allowing the BREXIT referendum which led to all the other idiots like Johnson and Truss getting into positions of power.

Quoted from BlackandWhiteBarmy2

Attlee whose government introduced the NHS and the Welfare State and many other great innovations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee

Best Tory is a hard one. Probably Major.

Worst: Cameron. For his complete mis-reading of the public and subsequent caving in to the right wing of his party and allowing the BREXIT referendum which led to all the other idiots like Johnson and Truss getting into positions of power.

Agreed. Worst is Cameron, not just for the poorly-defined referendum called due to self interest and his pathetic cowardice after losing it, but also for the dreadful austerity implemented which this study reckons may have led to as many as 335,000 excess deaths to 2019:

https://theconversation.com/au.....r-future-cuts-192033

Thanks to this austerity, the economy was still on its knees by the time Covid and Brexit came around so this made things worse even when the next worst PM, Johnson, came in and 'did his thing'. i.e. nothing good.

Thatcher probably next after that as she set the scene for those who followed and I'd then go for Truss after her. I don't doubt Truss would have been higher up the list if she had been in the role longer than 5 minutes, but overall, much more long-term damage and needless deaths caused by the others.

Anyone that introduces austerity, claiming it necessary when in fact it is simply a political choice gets my vote for worst. More people dead from that than the dreaded covid, and the list continues to rise.

Cameron was a bottle job and proves how out of touch he was to even think the public wouldn’t be thick enough to vote for Brexit.

Truss will likely go down as the worst but given the short time she had a go, it’s hard to conspire her to the likes of Johnson and Thatcher who had significantly longer periods of time to intercourse it up and intercourse people over.

Quoted from barralad

Harold Wilson was just a brilliant intuitive politician. He united the Labour Party (no mean feat) and had an innate ability to read the room. One of his biggest achievements was to keep the UK out of the incredibly damaging Vietnam War despite huge pressure from the Americans.

Harold Wilson did brilliantly to keep us out of the Vietnam War. No mean feat when you consider how much money we still owed the US.

Clement Attlee shades it for me though. The welfare state was an outstanding achievement.

Quoted from thornemariner

Clement Attlee shades it for me though. The welfare state was an outstanding achievement.

Yep. Created when the UK national debt stood at 250% of GDP following the war.

Remember this when Hunt tells us There Is No Alternative to swingeing cuts to public expenditure, despite the harm it will cause, in his 'Fiscal Statement' in a couple of weeks.

The question each of these politicians and bankers needs to be asked is whether their planned actions will have a noticeable impact on their own lifestyles. (The answer is, of course, that it won't).

I often wonder whether someone like Attlee who just got on with the job would have got anywhere near the job of Prime Minister in this day and age. Undoubtedly a man for his age though who fought two elections and won against a man in Churchill whose "war-winning" charisma represented a huge challenge.

And don't forget, Atlee only lost to Churchill in the next election due to our broken electoral system. Labour won the popular vote in 1951, but the Tories were returned to power with a substantial majority. I can't help but wonder how the country might look today if we'd had a proper proportional voting system over the past half century.

Quoted from Maringer

And don't forget, Atlee only lost to Churchill in the next election due to our broken electoral system. Labour won the popular vote in 1951, but the Tories were returned to power with a substantial majority. I can't help but wonder how the country might look today if we'd had a proper proportional voting system over the past half century.

You’re not implying that even way back when, the electoral system was essentially rigged and designed to ensure the tories stay in power, providing a minute chance that someone else might get in, but it wills take a landslide almost…

Labour…
1 Attlee
2 Blair
3 Wilson
4 Brown
5 Callaghan

Tories…
1 McMillan
2 Churchill
3 Major
4 Thatcher
5 May
6 Douglas-Home
7 Heath
8 Cameron
9 Johnson
10 Eden
11 Truss

Too early to place Sunak, although he’s near the bottom already.