Pick a Prime Minister

[Jourdain11]

Since it seems to be the widely-held view that Boris Johnson hasn't done a great job of handling this crisis, which recent (last 30 years) former PM do you think would have done the best?

Margaret Thatcher
John Major
Tony Blair
Gordon Brown
David Cameron
Theresa May

Throw in the LOTOs for good measure:

Jeremy Corbyn
Ed Miliband
(David Cameron)
Michael Howard
Ian Duncan Smith
William Hague
(Tony Blair)
John Smith
Neil Kinnock

Throw in Ken Clarke for good measure, since he was almost LOTO twice and held two of the Great Offices of State.

I am genuinely curious as to what people think! My guess would be Blair or Thatcher. Not sure if I could cope with the gushy Blair speeches every day, personally, though.

I think my vote is going to Gordon Brown.
(After much deliberation!)

@Daisypps

Maggie without any hesitation, we'll never see another leader like her again. But Boris is superb and doing a great job.

Would you mind expanding on this and giving us some specific examples of ways in which Johnson is ‘doing a great job’.

Given that the UK’s per capita death rate from covid is already among the very worst in the world, what would be your definition of ‘doing a bad job’?

Anyone keeping a tally?

Margaret Thatcher, hands down. But then there’s no arguing with perfection!

Would you mind expanding on this and giving us some specific examples of ways in which Johnson is ‘doing a great job’.

Oh look is the Brexit threads all over again.

Clarke, Brown, Smith or Thatcher would, I think, have made the right decisions based on science, rather than political expediency.

She was responsible for one of the most devastating policies ever - Right to Buy - but Thatcher was a strong leader. Not easily pressured and she was, like Merkel is, a scientist.

I believe she would've closed the borders (or implemented quarantine) and locked down sooner. I also don't think we'd have seen the care home scandal.

Out of the others. Possibly John Smith or Michael Howard. Also perhaps Keir. Definitely not Blair. Nor Brown, and Kinnock was happy for his son to break lockdown, which doesn't suggest he'd have handled it well.

John Smith - best PM we never had, cried when he passed.

Blair GREATLY benefitted from the work Smith had done!

Gordon Brown a close second, I've met Brown briefly. He's taller and slimmer than he appears on tv and he's very charming and articulate.

If I HAVE to pick a Tory John Major - but as he is now

Thatcher as close 2nd Tory. She was a nightmare but she was also a scientist by background and her no nonsense headmistress authoritarianism would have led to an earlier and better enforced lockdown

Wild card: I actually really liked Paddy Ashdown. Not perfect but I liked his candour.

This current shower of shite in the cabinet are all bloody useless or corrupt or both! Certainly ANYONE would be better than the incompetent, corrupt, gullible, deceitful, inarticulate Johnson!

I'm not won over by Keir yet, he seems too oily Blair like for my taste

But that was not a crisis of his govt's making (the cjd crisis) Er...what?! I think you'll find they certainly didn't help matters! The condition has a long history but the change to bse has been linked to changes in Agricultural policy in the 80's. Plus there was that lovely piece of propaganda by John Gummer who was then responsible for Uk food safety notoriously feeding his 4 year old a burger long after the govt knew how it was transmitted!

She’d have swatted that pillock Cummings with her handbag well before he set foot anywhere near Downing St. damn straight!

I find it curious that Major barely looks older now than when he was in office that's largely because he looked bloody old from a relatively young age!

Tony Blair I reckon.

Thatcher would have been competent at it too.

Someone previously mentioned Jeremy *unt. He would have been awful. He spent most of his political career slapping the NHS staff in the face, he'd have zero credibility.

Brown. He led the world’s response during the financial crisis (despite what naysayers and perhaps even myself a bit at the time say).

In this crisis we are failing and flailing not leading.

@AgeLikeWine I also grew up in Derbyshire in the 80s (my grandad was a miner) and much ad I am loathe to admit it, you make a good point. I’d place her second (then spit on the ground and hope I’m not cursed!)

Thatcher.

That said, the choice she would have made on mortality v economy would have been very interesting indeed.

I suppose it depends which of her chancellors were in the frame. Saw Nigel Lawson interviewed the other day & he praised the ingenuity of Sunak’s furlough measures but made it clear he wouldn’t have been locking down for long as it was too expensive!

Lawson makes sense. Thatcher would likely have opted for a shorter proper lockdown. Negating the need for a long period of furlough. We'd have been like other countries who did that. Who are now reopening to low infection rates and consequently will see quicker economic recoveries than us.

Yes that how I see it. Firm short term lockdown, no nonsense.

In comparison, Boris has dithered because he is very big on social libertarianism & so it’s anathema to him to lock people up too harshly, curbing freedoms. We heard it pre-lockdown: ‘If we do it too early, people will get fed up’ etc. And as a result, we’ve ended up with both the dent to the economy and the grim mortality figures.

John Smith or Gordon Brown

If we can choose anyone, Michelle Obama please

Maggie without any hesitation, we'll never see another leader like her again. But Boris is superb and doing a great job.

If he's doing a great job then I dread to think what his bad job looks like.

Can I have Mo Mowlam instead?

Otherwise I'll have to go Gordon Brown or Kier Starmer. I think Maggie would have been good at keeping things clear, precise, and science-based, but it would always have been economy over lives.

Theresa May would have been clear on the rules.
Mrs Thatcher had her science degree so she would have listened more and the country would have followed mostly. At first she was very popular.
Gordon would have also been ok but the press would have been against him so added pressure I think.
Tony Blair would have let his spin doctors handle some of it!
Hard to know really isn't it? Plus our media behaves badly whoever is in charge.
Interesting thread.

Thatcher. For all the reasons others have said.

@Chienloup - Mo Mowlam. Now there's an idea! A good choice.

Gordon Brown by miles, he works almost exclusively in global health now and is highly thought of in developing nations. He has a good balance of practical and compassionate (I know he was a bad manager/PR).

Gordon Brown or John Smith for me.

Gordon we have abolished boom and bust Brown
Yeah right
He extended PFI which is bankrupting the NHS
his numbers were made up
he did not mend the roof when the sun was shining
he's a wazzock

If he didn’t mend the roof when the sun was shining, why are all the Tories continually moaning about Labour profligacy? The roof didn’t need mending when Cameron came to power, then he stripped all the lead off and sold it.