Your favourite pm in recent history

[Justwastingaperfectlygoodafternoon]

Yay, I'm on PM number 9 since I've come to the UK (early 2000).

Tony Blair: all right and clever except for the Iraq war fiasco. I think in the long run focussing on mostly banking and services has not served the UK well (ironically) but I am not sure if that was down to him or his two predecessors.

Gordon brown: brilliant and a decent person. I still wonder what the country (or maybe even the world) would look like if he had won the election in 2010.

David Cameron: the worst of the lot and caused the most damage to the country with Brexit and austerity. Some researchers put the number of deaths due to austerity at a few hundred thousands. His measures and rhetoric also normalised the hate spouted by the far right and made this country a more unpleasant place to live for everyone. As far as I know the only good thing he ever did was to legalise gay marriage. And Nick clegg isn't any better. An opportunistic chancer who sold both the country and his party (let alone his supporters) down the river for a stab at power.

Theresa May: pushed us into a harder Brexit than required with her red lines. She was a terrible and evil home secretary but as PM I felt sorry for her. I think she was unfairly subjected to a lot of sexism.

BJ: I mean what I can say? The country wanted a clown and they got a clown. He was 100% selfishness impersonated but he never made a secret out of that.

Lizz Truss: she lost the country about 30bn but she was in power for too short a time to cause more damage. If she had stayed longer I'm sure she would have costed us a lot more.

Rishi Sunak: populist like all Conservatives. Still, I think he could have been decent if he hasn't been surrounded with absolute loons. And his mum ran the local chemist. I mean that has to mean something, right?

Keir starter: I had so much hope for Keir starmer but he turned out to be another populist. People say he was a decent man who got unlucky but he wasn't decent. A decent person doesn't think that any country has the right to cut off water and power to another country. (I don't want this thread to become about Israel / gaza but I'm just curious about what other people think of the line up of PM s we have had recently).

Andy Burnham: like with Keir starmer I had a lot of hope for him but now I'm worried he will be as populist as most of his predecessors and I don't like most of his cabinet. However, if he is genuinely focussing on ending rough sleeping as his first big challenge then more power to him and good luck!!

What do you think of the prime ministers in your life time? Who is your favourite? Who do you think was the worst?

Jeremy Corbyn is a Marxist and as such was pro Brexit

Worst Boris Jonson

Best Keir Starmer (gutted 😢)

But what is clear is that when Blair came into power, the country was already in a stable state - a massive achievement in the context of Black Wednesday. New Labour was able to get things done because of the Tories.

Agreed. So much of the good stuff that New Labour did, eg sorting out the NHS, was only possible because they inherited a strong economy from John Major & his chancellor Ken Clarke.

Of the ones in my lifetime I'd say Gordon Brown and John Major were the best. Cameron probably worst as he allowed the brexit referendum then fucked off away from the shitty aftermath.

Completely agree about John Smith. He always talked sense and came across as measured and competent. Such a tragic loss to politics. No doubt he wouldn’t have been exciting enough. Because obviously exciting is what we need.

Tony Blair best ever

I’m hoping I’m going to like Andy Burnham too.

Worst- David Cameron. Had a lot of time to do a lot of damage.
Favourite- Gordon Brown.

Stupidest choice? Liz Truss.

I don’t know about best but the one I’d have most time for is Gordon Brown followed by Rishi Sunak . Worst probably Johnson . I’m not sure Truss or Burnham can be fairly judged as she didn’t last long enough and he hasn’t had a real go yet .

It’s hard to imagine now when we have news instantly but I remember coming out of work and seeing the Evening Standard board with the headline ‘John Smith dead’. It was like a punch in the stomach and people were standing around in disbelief. A sad loss, we will never know how good he might have been.

Since the year of my birth there have been 13. I dont think any of them deserve the label favourite.

I agree, that was a real shock. I’d been very hopeful at the time that he might be the one to beat the Tories.

Although curiously, looking back, I can say that John Major, who was in power at the time, was the best recent PM (though not that recent admittedly). Boris Johnson was definitely the worst with Liz Truss a close second.

Agreed.

The strangest thing now is how many former ones there are to stand next to the current one ... for instance, at the Cenotaph. They usually have a good reason not to be enamoured with the one on their left. It must be nearly a football team now?

Keir for fave
Boris for most entertaining
Andy Burnham for least fave - he's gonna destroy out fucking NHS, you watch

Most Fuckable: Johnny Lee Miller playing John Major on The Crown.

1. Gordon Brown
2. Theresa May
3. The lettuce that out lived Liz Truss

A lot of people have mentioned John Smith as "best PM we never had" and it would be interesting to see an alternate reality in which he didn't die and contested the 97 election. Would he have done as well as Blair? Probably not. Politics could have been so different. Maybe he'd have lost (Blair's aggressive rebrand got him a lot of Tory wet voters that Smith wouldn't have got), resigned, and Blair would have come in anyway. Maybe he'd have won but on a much slimmer majority.

Personally I thought Rishi Sunak was good - he was pro-business and understood it. I also didn't think he was just out for himself like some of them seem to be.

Whatever happens with Burnham I hope he has an integrated and coherent plan. So far we've had 3 pieces of "good news" (one a day!) but how does that fit into what the overall plan is for boosting the economy and how will we pay for it.

She my local MP 🫣🤬

I agree with most of your OP.

Im typically centric and have some right and left leanings equally and I quite liked Sunak too and thought Starmer would be similar.

I agree with Brown. I liked him and listened to him a lot during Covid when he seemed to be talking sense amongst the bollcoks!

im pinning my hopes on Burnham. He very popular and I’m hoping this time - for the right reasons.