And I still say Hugh Gaitskell or Tony Benn would have knocked spots off them all
Thanks to loganberrybunny for drawing to my attention this BBC poll in which we are invited to rank Britain's twelve post World War II prime ministers in order of their ability -- but in order for your vote to be counted you must score all twelve.
This is the sort of debate I could engage in till the cows come home, so I'm reposting my answer
1) Wilson -- For my money he just edges the title over Attlee for winning more elections, taking us into the Common Market, and presiding over the latter half of the 60s when so many of our modern society's foundation stones were laid.
2) Attlee -- The welfare state is this man's legacy and he damn well deserves to be remembered with far more honour than he receives.
3) Macmillan -- Durable, rock solid, sound as the pound in your pocket, despite "laying down his friends for his life" and "one day Macmillan was coming downstairs, a voice in the dark took him unawares, it was Christine Keeler, she blew him a kiss..."
4) Blair -- A bit early to sit in judgment on him yet but I do honestly believe that his first term at least will be looked back upon with nostalgia in ten years' time as a golden age.
5) Churchill -- Would certainly be higher if this poll weren't confined to the post WWII era only. A great man in his way, though not without faults.
6) Thatcher -- This high only with gritted teeth. I still loathe the woman with a hatred verging on pathological, and will party the night away when she finally gets planted six feet under... but you can't deny she changed the face of British politics and of Britain itself more than any other name in this list.
7) Eden -- "He's bought a hat like Anthony Eden, because it makes him feel like a Lord..." Forever handicapped in this race by the crippling millstone round his neck that was Suez.
8) Brown -- Far, far too early to judge properly, but I suspect that if he goes within a year (and I fear he will) history will eventually rate him as the man who inherited all of Blair's problems and not enough of his successes to be able to cope, and didn't show himself to the extent of his potential.
9) Home -- Bailie Vass? Well, better him than
10)Heath -- If Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, here's the chief grocer. Smug and out of touch on his yacht, and yet somehow even that is preferable to
11)Major -- the grey man who liked peas and test cricket.
12)Callaghan -- Someone has to prop up the table, and what better to prop it up with than unburied corpses, uncollected rubbish, and the promise of Thatcherism round the corner? I don't suppose many readers of this LJ are old enough to remember the Winter of Discontent, but I jolly well do.
However, I encourage anyone thinking of voting to cast their votes without looking at my post or Logan's first! (And don't forget they're being ranked on post-war achievements only -- especially relevant for Churchill, that, of course.)
This is the sort of debate I could engage in till the cows come home, so I'm reposting my answer
1) Wilson -- For my money he just edges the title over Attlee for winning more elections, taking us into the Common Market, and presiding over the latter half of the 60s when so many of our modern society's foundation stones were laid.
2) Attlee -- The welfare state is this man's legacy and he damn well deserves to be remembered with far more honour than he receives.
3) Macmillan -- Durable, rock solid, sound as the pound in your pocket, despite "laying down his friends for his life" and "one day Macmillan was coming downstairs, a voice in the dark took him unawares, it was Christine Keeler, she blew him a kiss..."
4) Blair -- A bit early to sit in judgment on him yet but I do honestly believe that his first term at least will be looked back upon with nostalgia in ten years' time as a golden age.
5) Churchill -- Would certainly be higher if this poll weren't confined to the post WWII era only. A great man in his way, though not without faults.
6) Thatcher -- This high only with gritted teeth. I still loathe the woman with a hatred verging on pathological, and will party the night away when she finally gets planted six feet under... but you can't deny she changed the face of British politics and of Britain itself more than any other name in this list.
7) Eden -- "He's bought a hat like Anthony Eden, because it makes him feel like a Lord..." Forever handicapped in this race by the crippling millstone round his neck that was Suez.
8) Brown -- Far, far too early to judge properly, but I suspect that if he goes within a year (and I fear he will) history will eventually rate him as the man who inherited all of Blair's problems and not enough of his successes to be able to cope, and didn't show himself to the extent of his potential.
9) Home -- Bailie Vass? Well, better him than
10)Heath -- If Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, here's the chief grocer. Smug and out of touch on his yacht, and yet somehow even that is preferable to
11)Major -- the grey man who liked peas and test cricket.
12)Callaghan -- Someone has to prop up the table, and what better to prop it up with than unburied corpses, uncollected rubbish, and the promise of Thatcherism round the corner? I don't suppose many readers of this LJ are old enough to remember the Winter of Discontent, but I jolly well do.
However, I encourage anyone thinking of voting to cast their votes without looking at my post or Logan's first! (And don't forget they're being ranked on post-war achievements only -- especially relevant for Churchill, that, of course.)