Best Prime Minister in your opinion.

Yusuf has been asked and has said that he sees gay relationships as equal.

Theresa May is CofE which has been one of the most progressive Christian denominations and she was Home Secretary in the Cameron government which brought in marriage equality; I shouldn't think it occurred to anyone that she needed to be asked.

I agree with you @MissLucyEyelesbarrow that it was all rather unfair on Farron given that he generally supported gay rights, but in 2017 he was out of step with the mood in the country being uncomfortable with the idea of gay sex (and abortion) and also by wearing his religion on his sleeve and talking about it so much. Ruth Kelly, who served in Blair's cabinet, was a member of the conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei, but she didn't talk about it. Sadiq Khan is an observant Muslim who fasts during Ramadan, but insists that his religion is a personal matter.

Farron drew attention to his religiosity, it wasn't that his particular form of Christianity was seen as weird but more that he was seen as weird. Sorry, I just can't have him as a great lost political talent when the Lib Dems also had Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy to choose from.

Come off it. Why hasn't Yusuf been asked it? Or Theresa May (CoE vicar's daughter)? Or Rishi Sunak? (most non-Hindu Brits won't know what Hinduism's teaching is on gay relationships)

Farron was asked it because his form of Christianity was seen as a bit weird and OK for the media to pick on.

Why was Farron asked the question and not Rob Flello? Because Farron was theoretically standing to be PM.

I'm an atheist and supporter of gay rights but I don't agree.

Farron was honest about his beliefs when asked directly. Otherwise, he kept quiet about them.

There are hundreds of politicians who are practising members of religions that believe that gay sex is sinful. This is a belief in Islam and in many strands of Christianity and Judaism.

Why was Farron asked this question and not, say, Rob Flello, who at the time was both a Labour MP and the convenor of the Catholic Legislators' Network? Why isn't Hamza Yusuf asked it now?

Farron was picked on by the media because he was from a relatively fringe branch of Christianity. He would never have been asked the same question by the media if he'd been a Muslim. I don't make that as an anti-Islamic point, but to highlight the hypocrisy of the media.

@stuckdownahole , he didn't say that he believes that gay sex is a sin. He said that gay sex is a sin, and later he said he regretted saying it because it went against what the Bible says.

Unfortunately, due to the religious convictions which drive him and I'm sure are at least partially responsible for his integrity, he believes that gay sex is a sin and is prepared to say so.

That's a wacky belief in the modern British context and in the same way that a flat-earther is not suitable for high office, nor is he.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow , you are probably right.
I think the prejudices go deeper than you suggest though.
Charles Kennedy was definitely likeable.
I liked Neil Kinnock but I can see why not everyone would.

I can't fault Tim Farron but he didn't have the 'personality' that people look for when voting. I admire him for his principles. I don't necessarily agree, but he did well to not bow to pressure.

BJ was not a good leader but he was a good campaigner.

With the charisma of wilted spinach, which is why he had no impact.

I agree he is a good person, but he was not an effective leader. You don't need to be a Lord Flasheart-type like Boris - Angela Merkel was a very different type of leader (thank god) and highly successful - but you need that undefinable something that effective leaders have.

Basically, if you can't imagine the person persuading a roomful of people to do something they don't want to do, that person is not going to succeed as PM.

If I wanted someone to look after my cat, I'd choose Farron, or May, or Sunak, over Johnson, who would probably lose the cat and/or shag it. However, as much as I despise Boris, if my back was against the wall, and I needed someone to persuade my team to go over the top into gunfire, metaphorically or actually (in the WW1 sense), I would choose Boris over Sunak or May, every time.

Tim Farron (ex LibDem leader). He's an outstanding constituency MP, hard working, with good morals and no whiffs of sleaze nor corruption about him. He's exactly the kind of person we need to be running the country. He's also not a career politician who'll bugger off once he's lined his pockets and got lucrative jobs lined up after he's made enough contacts.

TBH, I think people who disliked Kinnock anyway used his Welshness and ginger hair against him, rather than those things being the root of their dislike. No one used to slate Charles Kennedy for having ginger hair and being Scottish, because he was generally liked.

That's not to say that prejudice against red-haired people and against the Welsh doesn't exist.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow , there's some prejudice against both ginger hair and being Welsh. There shouldn't be, and it's appalling, but it exists.
NK had way more charisma but JM seemed like a safer pair of hands.

TM had being an older woman going against her, and wasn't right-wing enough.
There should not be prejudice against women or being older, but it exists.

I agree that it's a close run thing between Major and Kinnock on who would have been the more charismatic as PM. Kinnock definitely had more ability to project pure charisma, but Major arguably inspired greater confidence as a leader.

exceptions:
May beats Corbyn - hung parliament, Corbyn wasn't popular outside his fanbase, Brexit
Major beats Kinnock - ginger-haired, Welshman, seemed a bit too sure of himself
Heath beats Wilson in 1970 - economy

"I agree. She sees being an MP as a duty to do her best for the people, not an opportunity to rake in the cash as a celebrity once done and dusted. As our local MP she has been outstanding. "
This.

I agree. She sees being an MP as a duty to do her best for the people, not an opportunity to rake in the cash as a celebrity once done and dusted. As our local MP she has been outstanding. So sad she is retiring. Have you read her book, 'The Abuse of Power'?

Again, people say that, but history says otherwise. At almost every election in recent history, the more charismatic candidate has won:

Boris beats Corbyn
Cameron beats Milliband
Cameron beats Brown
Blair beats Howard
Blair beats Hague
Blair beats Major
Thatcher beats Kinnock
Thatcher beats Foot
Thatcher beats Callaghan
Wilson beats Heath x3
Wilson beats Douglas-Home

exceptions:
May beats Corbyn
Major beats Kinnock
Heath beats Wilson in 1970

So, 14 out of 17 since 1960 went to the more charismatic candidate.

Exactly. After Saint “oh, but he’s so funny!” Boris, I never want a funny prime minister again. Give me boring, any day.

People always say that, but they don't vote for leaders who lack charisma.

Was Theresa May a worse PM than David Cameron?
Was John Major worse than Margaret Thatcher?
Was Gordon Brown worse than Tony Blair?

The missing element for the first three was charisma. It's not just their relative lack of electoral success, compared to their more charismatic predecessors (clearly there were other factors at work as well) - it's how they are regarded in retrospect - May and Brown as disasters, Major as a bit of a joke when, in reality, all three were at least as competent as the PM they succeeded.

Agreed !! I've had enough self promoting 'personalities' for a lifetime. I want a boring hardworking person who doggedly gets on with the job.
Me too.

I would have been interested to see a Rory Stewart / Ruth Davidson combo for (a completely new, half decent?) Tory / coalition Party. But the Starmer / Rayner combo cominh this autumn has potential. I hope their first act is to repeal the shameful Rwanda bill.
Half-decent politicians don't appeal to the Tories. They're not right-wing enough.

Agreed !! I've had enough self promoting 'personalities' for a lifetime. I want a boring hardworking person who doggedly gets on with the job.

I would have been interested to see a Rory Stewart / Ruth Davidson combo for (a completely new, half decent?) Tory / coalition Party. But the Starmer / Rayner combo cominh this autumn has potential. I hope their first act is to repeal the shameful Rwanda bill.

All these places are so difficult, Northern Ireland, Crimea, Gaza, Gibraltar and yes the Falklands.

Don’t the population of the Falklands get a say?

And Argentina is the product of colonialism, just as much as the British Empire.

Invade The Falklands??? I think you’ll find the U.K. are the ones that stole the Islas Malvinas.
I’ll be voting Starmer. Honesty and decency matter more to me than charisma.

I agree with policies not personallies. I was reminded of it this morning when I read in the Guardian that "Some medicine shortages are so serious that they are imperilling the health and even lives of patients with serious illnesses, pharmacy bosses warned". And it's going worse. We got here because people believed that Boris Johnson was fun or cool or worse. People are actually dying now, the article says. Cheers, Brexit.

That is where personality politics leads.

John Major 😁