Peace in Northern Ireland too (OK, so the Good Friday Agreement is more-or-less defunct now, but it was a huge landmark).
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Who was a better Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher in your lifetime - if anyone?
- Thread starter Steve Foster
- Start date
Peace in Northern Ireland too (OK, so the Good Friday Agreement is more-or-less defunct now, but it was a huge landmark).
keaton
Big heart, hot blood and balls. Big balls
- Nov 18, 2004
- 9,972
I am going to start a poll with the question "Who was the kindest child killer?"
Ninja Elephant
Doctor Elephant
- Feb 16, 2009
- 18,855
Tony Blair was a fantastic PM, and everything Brown and Cameron could only dream of being.
Well said.
Tubby Mondays
Well-known member
History remembers everyone, good or bad.
Dandyman
In London village.
Who was a better Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher in your lifetime - if an
Attlee is the best PM and deputy PM this country ever had. I would also take Wilson over any other PM of the last 50 years.
Attlee is the best PM and deputy PM this country ever had. I would also take Wilson over any other PM of the last 50 years.
wilko1
Active member
Not the best....but definately the worst
Conviction without Compassion
Conviction without Compassion
Lord Bracknell
On fire
Another vote for Attlee.
Can't comment about Attlee though I lived through 2 years of his rule (obliviously) but Harold, or "Darlin' 'Arold" as Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett so famously christened him was someone who managed to hold his own Party together, which 2when you had George Brown, Ian Mikardo, Denis Healey, Wedgie Benn nominally singing from the same hymn-sheet was a mirackle. And keeping us out of Vietnam.
And (allegedly) having our own security services believing him to be a Communist double-agent!
Gregory2Smith1
J'les aurai!
but nobody really remembers Attlee,he left office in 1951
you'd have to be 80 years old to actually remember
apoligies to those who are
you'd have to be 80 years old to actually remember
apoligies to those who are
If she was a lift attendant she took the country from the first floor (already going down) to the basement IMHO.
Hotchilidog
Well-known member
- Jan 24, 2009
- 9,120
Jim Hacker.
Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
Pitt the younger
Most of my childhood was during Attlee's Premiership and I thank him for the Welfare State which unfortunately started to lose its way under Thatcher and the present lot are seeking its demise. I also have a sneaking respect for Harold MacMillan under whom "we never had it so good".
sydney
tinky ****in winky
you can't really compare todays' politicians with those of yesteryear, in the old days the prime-minister was put forward as the best man/(woman, rarely) for the job by his peers and did it for the love of his country and a need to do the best for his nation and his people , today we have a bunch of university educated , self serving , pedants ,who are in politics for financial gain and to get their coiffured bonce on the telly and in the papers , the older i get the more i realize what a load of absolute bollox politics is and what a bunch of sniveling toads most politicians are ,they are all as bad as eachother , there are very few interested in the public good.
makes me want to have a go at it to be honest.
makes me want to have a go at it to be honest.
Superphil
Dismember
Who was a better Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher in your lifetime - if an
I just had to look him up to see if he was the PM directly before MT, turns out only a 75+ year old could really have any justifiable opinion on him as a PM.
For me, every single PM I remember in my 47 years has been a lying, cheating, selfish, corrupt and arrogant ****, and none would (did) ever get my vote twice.
I just had to look him up to see if he was the PM directly before MT, turns out only a 75+ year old could really have any justifiable opinion on him as a PM.
For me, every single PM I remember in my 47 years has been a lying, cheating, selfish, corrupt and arrogant ****, and none would (did) ever get my vote twice.
Not a patch on his Dad though.
Prime Ministers during my lifetime:
Sir Winston Churchill (1951-1955)
Sir Anthony Eden (1955-1957)
Harold McMillan (1957-1963)
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1964)
Harold Wilson(1964-1970 and 1974-1976)
Edward Heath (1970-1974)
James Callaghan (1976-1979)
Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990)
John Major (1990-1997)
Tony Blair (1997-2007)
Gordon Brown (2007-2010)
David Cameron (2010-)
I remember the State funeral of Churchill but the first PM I was aware of was Harold Wilson, who was seen as a witty, modern, working-class PM, as opposed to the old- school aristos, Home and Eden. Wilson liked The Beatles and the "white heat" of technology and presided over the Swinging Sixties. He was the right PM at the right time. At school, we held our own General Election in 1964, and Wilson won. We didn't know it then, but he was a crafty manipulator of the soundbite and networking.
Heath was a toothy twonk who liked sailing and the organ, both hobbies as boring as his tenure of No 10. He was responsible for the 3-day week and a complete lightweight who subsequently sulked his way through Thatcher's tenure.
Callaghan was seen as another lightweight, or at least, that's how I saw him. I was too involved with my new boyfriend, and my wedding and baby to be bothered with anything he did. But I remember the strikes, the strikes, and some more strikes. Crisis? What crisis? he asked.
Thatcher made a real impact. She made necessary changes, because the country did have to be hauled into the 20th century. Wilson had paved the way, but he overspent, leaving debts Callaghan couldn't cope with, which Thatcher managed to reduce. On the other hand, she sold off too many national assets, from State-owned utilities to Council Houses. She failed to compromise with the unions, though the unions also failed to compromise with her. But this left a manufacturing void, which she made no effort to fill, except by encouraging banks and insurance companies to make money out of our money, with little in return. Her monetarism opened the doors to too many foreign countries who rushed to buy too many of our assets, which should have remained British-owned, if not State-owned. On Europe, she was right, and it destroyed her. In fact, at the time, her stance on Europe was the only thing where I was actually in agreement with her.
John Major quietly got on with things, but I always had a sneaking admiration for him. A working-class Brixton boy without a formal higher education, he was the embodiment of the American ideal, that anybody can become Prime Minister, which Thatcher had encouraged and developed. He left a vibrant economy for the next Labour Government to inherit, and destroy.
Tony Blair was attractive, but a disaster. He acted his way through his No 10 years, saying the right things at the right time, but often doing the wrong things at the wrong time. While the Heath Government dug in to the destruction of the British Education system, Blair continued it, by letting everybody pass their exams and go to university, but to achieve this, the whole system had to be dumbed down. Now, there is so much ignorance around, it is terrifyingly sad, yet an entire generation thinks they've had the best education, ever. When they mature, they will realise just how little they really know. The ten years of education under Blair has produced a mixed generation of unemployable feral youth and youngsters who expect high wages and are unprepared to start at the bottom of the career ladder.
Cameron was an effective Opposition Leader, but has proved impotent as a Prime Minister, and I lay that at the door of the highly unintelligent Clegg and Cameron's lack of conviction. The Millibands are career Marxists, trained from birth to be politicians and receive high office, which means they will say whatever the Left-Wing wants to hear in order to secure power. The reality of this was demonstrated when one brother betrayed the other, more politically-talented, brother and we are left with a little baby as our next prospective PM. If I am worried about what has gone on before, then it is nothing to what will happen if Ed Milliband becomes the next PM.
The best Prime Minister in my lifetime? Probably John Major.
Sir Winston Churchill (1951-1955)
Sir Anthony Eden (1955-1957)
Harold McMillan (1957-1963)
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1964)
Harold Wilson(1964-1970 and 1974-1976)
Edward Heath (1970-1974)
James Callaghan (1976-1979)
Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990)
John Major (1990-1997)
Tony Blair (1997-2007)
Gordon Brown (2007-2010)
David Cameron (2010-)
I remember the State funeral of Churchill but the first PM I was aware of was Harold Wilson, who was seen as a witty, modern, working-class PM, as opposed to the old- school aristos, Home and Eden. Wilson liked The Beatles and the "white heat" of technology and presided over the Swinging Sixties. He was the right PM at the right time. At school, we held our own General Election in 1964, and Wilson won. We didn't know it then, but he was a crafty manipulator of the soundbite and networking.
Heath was a toothy twonk who liked sailing and the organ, both hobbies as boring as his tenure of No 10. He was responsible for the 3-day week and a complete lightweight who subsequently sulked his way through Thatcher's tenure.
Callaghan was seen as another lightweight, or at least, that's how I saw him. I was too involved with my new boyfriend, and my wedding and baby to be bothered with anything he did. But I remember the strikes, the strikes, and some more strikes. Crisis? What crisis? he asked.
Thatcher made a real impact. She made necessary changes, because the country did have to be hauled into the 20th century. Wilson had paved the way, but he overspent, leaving debts Callaghan couldn't cope with, which Thatcher managed to reduce. On the other hand, she sold off too many national assets, from State-owned utilities to Council Houses. She failed to compromise with the unions, though the unions also failed to compromise with her. But this left a manufacturing void, which she made no effort to fill, except by encouraging banks and insurance companies to make money out of our money, with little in return. Her monetarism opened the doors to too many foreign countries who rushed to buy too many of our assets, which should have remained British-owned, if not State-owned. On Europe, she was right, and it destroyed her. In fact, at the time, her stance on Europe was the only thing where I was actually in agreement with her.
John Major quietly got on with things, but I always had a sneaking admiration for him. A working-class Brixton boy without a formal higher education, he was the embodiment of the American ideal, that anybody can become Prime Minister, which Thatcher had encouraged and developed. He left a vibrant economy for the next Labour Government to inherit, and destroy.
Tony Blair was attractive, but a disaster. He acted his way through his No 10 years, saying the right things at the right time, but often doing the wrong things at the wrong time. While the Heath Government dug in to the destruction of the British Education system, Blair continued it, by letting everybody pass their exams and go to university, but to achieve this, the whole system had to be dumbed down. Now, there is so much ignorance around, it is terrifyingly sad, yet an entire generation thinks they've had the best education, ever. When they mature, they will realise just how little they really know. The ten years of education under Blair has produced a mixed generation of unemployable feral youth and youngsters who expect high wages and are unprepared to start at the bottom of the career ladder.
Cameron was an effective Opposition Leader, but has proved impotent as a Prime Minister, and I lay that at the door of the highly unintelligent Clegg and Cameron's lack of conviction. The Millibands are career Marxists, trained from birth to be politicians and receive high office, which means they will say whatever the Left-Wing wants to hear in order to secure power. The reality of this was demonstrated when one brother betrayed the other, more politically-talented, brother and we are left with a little baby as our next prospective PM. If I am worried about what has gone on before, then it is nothing to what will happen if Ed Milliband becomes the next PM.
The best Prime Minister in my lifetime? Probably John Major.