Who is the worst PM we actually did have?

Started by klondike, February 25, 2022, 10:15:30 AM

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klondike

Lots of contenders here. In fact just about all of them had serious failings of one sort or another.
An aide memoire below. Many of these are before my time or only vaguely remembered.

Clement Attlee         1945 – 1951     Labour
Winston Churchill      1951 – 1955     Conservative
Anthony Eden           1955 – 1957     Conservative
Harold Macmillan       1957 – 1963     Conservative
Alec Douglas-Home      1963 – 1964     Conservative
Harold Wilson          1964 – 1970     Labour
Edward Heath           1970 – 1974     Conservative
Harold Wilson          1974 – 1976     Labour
James Callaghan        1976 – 1979     Labour
Margaret Thatcher      1979 – 1990     Conservative
John Major             1990 – 1997     Conservative
Tony Blair             1997 – 2007     Labour
Gordon Brown           2007 – 2010     Labour
David Cameron          2010 – 2016     Conservative
Theresa May            2016 – 2019     Conservative
Boris Johnson          2019 – present  Conservative

Some negative points that I recall..

Wilson
Allowed growth of union power to the point the unions were pretty much calling the shots

Heath
Tried to curb union power failed dismally. 3 day week and power cuts.

Wilson again then Calaghan Allowed union excesses to continue

Thatcher Destroyed the unions and most of our manufacturing too.

Major Ineffectual. Signed Maastricht treaty without any referendum allowing the United States of Europe.

Blair Promised everything gave us PFI destruction of the Public finances, opened the floodgates for mass migration,  support for Bush and flagrant lies about WMD lead to the current mess in the Middle East and the waves of illegal migrants and Jihadis.
For my money a sure winner in this competition.

Brown Blair's chancellor - destroyed our public finances leading to the austerity years

Cameron useless, just useless

May Her failure to properly honour the referendum result has left us with a very poor Brexit treaty.

Johnson A complete chancer who looks like not lasting til the next election but as there is no other obvious talent around probably will. Biggest let down is the Net Zero targets nobody voted on.

Michael Rolls

my choice is Blair as well, although Heath and Brown are contenders
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

Sheila

Blair is the worst and he still keeps popping up and polluting our tv!  :waiting:

crabbyob

mines is [surprisingly to some] Ted Heath, who sold us down the river and started the rot that has continued since...

GrannyMac

Its not how old you are, but how you are old. 💖

1955vintage

I think Blair just shades Wilson. Two leaders who walked into No 10 with high hopes , and left with corruption and failure
The problem with being retired is that you never get a day off

Jacqueline

Margaret Thatcher lost us our industry and our decently paid working class  jobs. Ted Heath put us into the Common Market/EU and didn't tell us the truth. Tony Blair finished everything else off, lied and caused war and unrest in the middle east/lumbered us with eastern Europeans and god knows who else from all corners of the earth, changed the make up of the British people for all time.  So Blair gets the No 1 spot, no contest, evil little man who has made a fortune out of contacts etc. since leaving office but instead should be tried for war crimes - who says crime dosen't pay?

1955vintage

If asked , who was the best of the list, I would suggest ' None of the above' would be a popular answer.
The problem with being retired is that you never get a day off

Alex

Majority vote seems to be Blair, I'd go along with that .   I had such high hopes when he became PM too.

Raven

Quote from: Alex on February 27, 2022, 12:24:10 AM
Majority vote seems to be Blair, I'd go along with that .   I had such high hopes when he became PM too.

I did too, I remember thinking what a lovely breath of fresh air he was, I can't believe how wrong I was.  :cry:

Michael Rolls

there was nothing wrong with Tony Blair that never having gone into politics wouldn't have cured!
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

crabbyob

Blair and Brown were John Smiths Desciples, the worse thing that has ever happened in politics was the death of John Smith... the country embraced this bright young pair...mmmm... deffinately a big mistake he was more tory than tHATCHER...

klondike

He was a good politician though. He lied his way successfully through three elections and few others have managed that.

GrannyMac

Quote from: Raven on February 27, 2022, 07:27:27 AM
I did too, I remember thinking what a lovely breath of fresh air he was, I can't believe how wrong I was.  :cry:

And me. I never voted Labour in a GE before Blair, and I haven't since.
Its not how old you are, but how you are old. 💖

crabbyob

is there a truth out there why Wilson resigned  :?: