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.

To be controversial - like other times of national crisis they should have done this via a coalition cabinet. It’s not a time for partisan decision making.

I do think as well that the inexperience of the current cabinet has really shown and not helped by the fact that they are opposed to the civil service expertise that can be useful in terms of providing a background ‘steady hand’.

Margaret Thatcher would have shafted your community in a heartbeat.
Stop calling her Maggie. Stop calling him Boris. These people are not your mates.

Gordon Brown. He proved himself with the financial crash.

John Smith

Another vote for John Smith. Huge loss to British politics.

Mo Mowlam, brilliant suggestion.
Excellent communicator who connected with people from all backgrounds.
Great personality, sense of humour but incredibly tough and tenacious.

Perhaps rose tinted specs, but the calibre of many of today’s politicians is woeful.

@bellinisurge

Margaret Thatcher would have shafted your community in a heartbeat. Stop calling her Maggie. Stop calling him Boris. These people are not your mates.

And how exactly would she have done that? Every community in the country is facing the same challenge. I absolutely detested the old bat but even I concede that we’d be in a far better place now if she’d been PM.

@slug , I completely agree. Challenge for the entire world and he dealt with it without relying on being called "Gordo", quoting Latin and giving blustering support to his knobhead pals. He actually did the thing.

Stop calling her Maggie. Stop calling him Boris. These people are not your mates.

That's a good point actually. I usually refer to Blair and Major yet John Smith and Gordon Brown. BJ even went as far as using his middle name to create the Boris character. I wonder if just "Johnson" would have been elected.

Styling them all the same way is more neutral.

A lot of people in the 80s liked calling Mrs Thatcher ' Maggie' as she helped them become rich even if they were not all from privileged backgrounds. It stopped the elite being seen as another breed apart.
I was never a fan of hers , but her background was much more humble than Boris Johnson's one is.
I think she would have coped alright with a pandemic but I agree the economy would have been important too to her but she might have controlled it better.

I can absolutely remember the moment I heard when John Smith died & I did well up a bit

I cannot take Gordon Brown seriously after this ( I know I know , only one bad moment and a snapshot but even so ) I am sure the man is brilliant ..... but you could not make it up could you - I think Armando Iannuchi said he stopped making the Thick of it when satire could not keep up with the reality .

Theresa May or Gordon Brown. I think they would both put the greater good over their own popularity and they both have good attention for detail.

I was just amazed when I heard a cabinet minister yesterday saying that it is OK to borrow to pay for furloughing etc and then borrow more to fund the public works announced in the Budget- because when the work is done, it will enable the economy to flourish.
But wasn't that the problem with Labour and Lib dems manifestos at the last 2 or 3 elections ??? They were being profligate to borrow to spend on public works?

It’s going to be highly entertaining if we end up with the Opposition castigating the government for its profligacy. Watching Clavinova and CendrillonSings turning themselves inside out to defend it will be even better.

Gordon Brown lost a lot of voters by calling a lady a bigot in 2010. It was a pivotal moment for the more traditional labour base supporters to think ' you have no idea'.
I was a fan , but I cringed as I knew that people would remember what happened and turn against labour. Whatever your views this didn't go down well.
Added to the banking crash fallout and the Iraq war and the writing was on the wall , even if the Tories had to form a majority with the Lib dems!
I thought about that day when DC was in the rose garden and how different the world looked then even if I think ' call me dave 'and Nick Clegg were not that wonderful it was still better than this current government. There was a bit of optimism back then but then I do like a lot of the Lib dems policies.

It's sad so many governments end in failure.
It's always the people that suffer in the end ( unless your incredibly rich of course!)

According to my count, Thatcher and Gordon Brown are in the lead, followed by John Major, John Smith and Tony Blair.

A surprisingly good showing for Ed Miliband, David Cameron and Theresa May.

Bumping along the bottom with no votes at all: Jeremy Corbyn and IDS!

The question of cabinet "quality" is interesting. It's widely accepted that the Blair/Brown era was very centred on the two of them and there were no other true political giants (although Robin Cook could've been one, but he was out of favour). Ed Balls, even pre-parliament, was probably the 3rd most important in terms of policy-making.

Whereas Thatcher had a cabinet of political "big beasts", as did Callaghan when he was PM. The Coalition govt also had some very capable ministers. For Major and May, they had an issue with party indiscipline, but still many big guns within their cabinets. Johnson's cabinet is basically everyone who he promised a job to if they supported his leadership campaign.

Mag Thatch. Detestable when in power but she would have had this sorted and no doubt about it.

My friends and I were discussing this recently actually and we were saying that although we are all die hard left wingers, we miss the days when the Tory government actually seemed passionate about anything. We always thought they were vile, but at least in the 80s and 90s they really believed in what they were doing and went for it all guns blazing. They are laughable now. I would never have voted for them then or now but when I look at the government we’re faced with these days it’s just an embarrassment.

Can I choose Nicola Sturgeon?

I wonder how Thatcher would have dealt with Trump?

I will say Blair for communications/leadership or Thatcher for crisis management and leadership. John Smith for people.

Most would be better than the current leader.

I met Neil Kinnock once - a lovely, genuine man.

I never call him "boris" he's deliberately chosen to use a "comical" name to seem friendly, approachable but benign and harmless - when he's anything but!

I feel certain he didn't start using "boris" until it suited him, I'd love to know what name he went by as a teen/young adult

@BasiliskStare while that incident was unfortunate in terms of PR the woman concerned was a bigot! And frankly I'd rather a pm who knew his own mind and disliked such views than a fence sitter or bigot themselves

"I wonder how Thatcher would have dealt with Trump?"

Same way she dealt with Reagan. Sycophantically.

Keir Starmer and David Milliband would be my choices but as they're not on the list it's not to be
Bellini totally agree, do they remember what she was like??? Hateful woman.

Gordon Brown or John Smith.

I hated Thatcher but I actually think she would have done a good job too. Cameron at a push would have been a safe pair of hands too.

Anyone but Boris really!

Another vote for Gordon Brown.

I never rated him much but learnt recently that he was the instigator of the global response to the financial crisis and realised countries needed to work together on this. I don't think covid would have gotten out of control had he been in charge.