Who was the best prime minister?

[cookiemonster]

I can only really speak about PMs in my living memory. So Thatcher up.

No one can be perfect but here is my scores out of 10.

Thatcher did some things well, but wasn’t living in ex industrial areas so I was fairly insulted from her worst bits. 6/10

Major seemed a safe pair of hands except for his affair. 7/10

Blair did well other than the gulf war. 8/10

Brown had done his best work as chancellor He was handed the dying embers as PM and had little room to manoeuvre 7/10

Cameron seemed to do well at the start , probably a bit too heavy with austerity, But Brexit will be his legacy. 6/10

That's an understatement if I ever saw one.

Austerity. A policy that was designed to kill poor people and did exactly that. Probably a bit too heavy is not how I would describe it.

 

[briantrumpet]

I mean, if you can't even organise an umbrella... it really was the perfect metaphor for the end of the Tory government. However disappointed I am in Starmer, I'm not going to forget what they did, or the fact that they've never admitted what an utter shitshow it was from Johnson onwards.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

That's an understatement if I ever saw one.

Austerity. A policy that was designed to kill poor people and did exactly that. Probably a bit too heavy is not how I would describe it.

Let's not forget the central role George Osborne played in it as well, they were both as culpable for austerity.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Thatcher has some of the best quotes.

 

[icowden]

Thatcher only became popular when she went to war. Luckily for her, Reagan agreed to covertly support the UK military.
Other than that, she attacked workers' rights, started the destruction of British industry, then, fortunately, fell under the poll tax bus.

The measure of a good PM isn't popularity necessarily. Her achievements were economic prosperity, establishing London as a global finance hub through deregulation of financial services, introducing right to buy for Council tenants, hugely reducing inflation, and increasing access to Private Schools through assisted places. She also secured a budget rebate from the EEC and contributed toward the break up of the Soviet Union through both policy and support for the USA.

She did also smash the control of Scargill and the Unions although arguably that could have been managed better, and with a lot less Police brutality. Yes, the Poll Tax was her downfall - it was poorly implemented and failed to differentiate between rich and poor. If it had been better thought out with thresholds and scaling, it would have been successful.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I mean, if you can't even organise an umbrella... it really was the perfect metaphor for the end of the Tory government. However disappointed I am in Starmer, I'm not going to forget what they did, or the fact that they've never admitted what an utter shitshow it was from Johnson onwards.

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This would be my sentiment with Sunak. Reading back over his resignation speak (and I said this at the time on BR forum), he actually struck a tone of reflection and humility which he never showed during his Prime Ministership. He had the opportunity post Johnson to reset the Tory party and try and steer it back towards some degree of accountability and respectability but IMO he just carried on with the same old mess. I actually expected better from him and I think he wasted the huge opportunity he had.

 

[icowden]

Over on CS, there was a general hope that Sunak would be considerably better than his two predecessors (a low bar, admittedly), as he seemed to be neither nuts nor a deceitful charlatan, but the hope evaporated in a few months, as it became apparent that he and the party were completely out of ideas, their flagship policy (Brexit) having foundered on the rocks of reality. He spent most of his time trolling the opposition and denying reality rather than governing. A deep disappointment.

Yes, he was really just a puppet for the 1922 committee.

 

[BoldonLad]

Thatcher only became popular when she went to war. Luckily for her, Reagan agreed to covertly support the UK military.
Other than that, she attacked workers' rights, started the destruction of British industry, then, fortunately, fell under the poll tax bus.

Perhaps Starmer should start a war to increase his popularity.

Thatcher didn’t start the destruction of UK industry, she administered assisted dying to a terminally ill patient.

 

[Pblakeney]

introducing right to buy for Council tenants,

I'm going to give massive BZzzzzzzzz! on that.
The loss of affordable housing and the creation of unaffordable housing started right there.

 

[Ian H]

The measure of a good PM isn't popularity necessarily. Her achievements were economic prosperity, establishing London as a global finance hub through deregulation of financial services, introducing right to buy for Council tenants, hugely reducing inflation, and increasing access to Private Schools through assisted places. She also secured a budget rebate from the EEC and contributed toward the break up of the Soviet Union through both policy and support for the USA.

She did also smash the control of Scargill and the Unions although arguably that could have been managed better, and with a lot less Police brutality. Yes, the Poll Tax was her downfall - it was poorly implemented and failed to differentiate between rich and poor. If it had been better thought out with thresholds and scaling, it would have been successful.

Economic prosperity for the few, and the destruction of social housing stock. I don't see smashing of the unions as a good thing.

 

[Poacher]

Thatcher only became popular when she went to war. Luckily for her, Reagan agreed to covertly support the UK military.
Other than that, she attacked workers' rights, started the destruction of British industry, then, fortunately, fell under the poll tax bus.

Perhaps Starmer should start a war to increase his popularity.

A war that came about due to her "money saving" withdrawal of naval protection in the South Atlantic!

 

[Poacher]

She did also smash the control of Scargill and the Unions although arguably that could have been managed better, and with a lot less Police brutality. Yes, the Poll Tax was her downfall - it was poorly implemented and failed to differentiate between rich and poor. If it had been better thought out with thresholds and scaling, it would have been successful.

The regressive nature of Community Charge was deliberate. Just what she wanted.

 

[icowden]

The regressive nature of Community Charge was deliberate. Just what she wanted.

I don't think it was.

The point of the poll tax was to replace the Rates system which was unwieldy and heavily biased. It was supposed to be a small supplemental tax. The problem was that renters could get away without paying it, and the 20%/100% split was badly administered. You paid 100% if you were in employment, 20% if not. Councils had to pursue defaulters but didn't have the resources to do it. Opposition built, the riots happened. The ultimate result was that Major reversed the policy and introduced Council Tax which many would argue is far more costly and is still unfair/unbalanced.

 

[Psamathe]

I mean, if you can't even organise an umbrella... it really was the perfect metaphor for the end of the Tory government.

One aspect to Sunak's premiership that to me highlights his failing was/is his love at using helicopters for trips easily made by other means and normally paid for by us taxpayers. Highlighted his failure to appreciate Climate Change, his failure to appreciate that he was spending other people's money, failure to recognise the public perception ... basically totally out of touch with UK real world.

 

[Ianonabike]

I actually liked Rishi standing in the rain. An easy metaphor, but to me he was like "Fuck it, it's just rain." Non-fair weather cyclists everywhere understood. Granted, most of us would have worn waterproofs.

I kind of respected Thatcher even as I deplored most of what she did. Also think John Major was underrated.

As for John Smith, who knows what the political landscape would look like now if he hadn't died too young.