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Main boards => Politics => Topic started by: klondike on October 14, 2022, 09:12:25 PM

Title: Who was the last...
Post by: klondike on October 14, 2022, 09:12:25 PM
Prime Minister of any party you can say deserved your respect both at the time and in hindsight. This was the question that came to mind when I heard we were getting that Hunt as Chancellor.
Title: Re: Whomwas the last...
Post by: Raven on October 14, 2022, 09:14:09 PM
I think someone with experience of the job would be best just now.
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Alex on October 14, 2022, 10:26:41 PM
Hunt was very unpopular when Minister of Health, he's very pro EU and Nigel says his sources told him that Hunt was on his way back from Brussels when he got the call to attend Number 10.  We could end up back in the single market !!!
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: klondike on October 15, 2022, 08:36:54 AM
Yes I know this lot are a pile of doggie doo but my question was when was there a PM who wasn't.Before you say Boris think botched Brexit, Net Zero, immigration, huge tax load and start of roaring inflation. Can't blame Truss for that lot,
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Ashy on October 15, 2022, 09:20:52 AM
probably Harold Macmillan
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Michael Rolls on October 15, 2022, 10:57:10 AM
MacMillan, Hume - only had a sort time, or I might have rated him above even SuperMac, having known someone who worked for both, quite apart from policies
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: JBR on October 15, 2022, 12:58:27 PM
No doubt in my response.
Margaret Thatcher.
The country was safe under her leadership and, fortunately, she was strong enough to stand up to her critics both within and outside of her party.
What we have had since 1990 when her colleagues stabbed her in the back:
Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson
have been something between virtually ineffective to absolutely dangerous to the country (Blair of course).
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Jacqueline on October 15, 2022, 02:01:16 PM
I wonder what Maggie would have done about the dinghy boys?
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: JBR on October 15, 2022, 03:04:35 PM
Quote from: Jacqueline on October 15, 2022, 02:01:16 PMI wonder what Maggie would have done about the dinghy boys?
She would have kept them in prison as illegal immigrants, given them no incentive to come here compared to what they have in France, and given them every encouragement to return to their countries of origin either voluntarily or compulsorily. 
She would have used our assets to turn them back mid-Channel rather than helpfully pick them up and help them to enter our sovereign land.
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Alex on October 15, 2022, 03:33:47 PM
Maggie
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Cassandra on October 15, 2022, 03:43:06 PM
Thatcher, Harold Wilson wasn't bad considering the restraints he faced.
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: Michael Rolls on October 15, 2022, 09:04:21 PM
Don't know why I didn't say Thatcher - getting my timescale round my neck, somehow. Certainly Maggie far above those who have succeeded her.
I was thinking back to friends of my first wife and myself. Carole, the wife, was one of the Garden Girls in Number 10. Started when Churchill was PM, ended with Wilson, and her take on them always fascinated me.
Churchill - highly respected, but often a tad the worse for wear. Had the habit of taking out his false teeth when dictating, and letting a cage bird (budgie or canary, can't remember which) fly around the room.
Eden - again highly thought of, but was broken by the Suez exercise and unwell.
MacMillan - the consummate politician able to sell freezers to Eskimos. Carole kept a handwritten note which she felt summed him up. 'Carole, I shall not require the motor car after luncheon. H'
Hume - his staff adored him and his wife - shame he had so short a time in office. Someone else I used to know met Hume on several occasions and felt him to be the most honest man that he had ever met.
Wilson - thoroughly disliked. One particular memory - the four of us were having dinner and Pete, Carole's husband and I were convinced that devaluation was inevitable and that what we ought to do was to go to Heathrow and offer to buy dollars from American tourists at a slight premium. What we didn't know was that Carole had spent the day typing Wilson's devaluation speech - the infamous 'pound in your pocket' rubbish. Obviously, she was only able to tell us after the event.
Mike
Title: Re: Who was the last...
Post by: JBR on October 16, 2022, 07:43:56 PM
Quote from: Cassandra on October 15, 2022, 03:43:06 PMThatcher, Harold Wilson wasn't bad considering the restraints he faced.
I agree that Wilson was probably the best Labour PM we have had, at least in my lifetime.