And I still say Hugh Gaitskell or Tony Benn would have knocked spots off them all

[klepsydra]

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

Comments

[paka]

I'm probably old enough, but I'm definitely not British enough to remember the Winter of Discontent. May I trouble you for an explanation, please?

[klepsydra]

A good place to start would be the Wikipedia page on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_discontent

The things most people seem to remember are "Rubbish piling up in the streets" and "you couldn't even bury the dead", though I recall most the power cuts because they always seemed to come when Dr Who was about to be shown on TV...

(And reading that page: dear lord, was inflation really 26.9% in 1975? You kids today don't know you're born.)

(You may also recognise the source of a Supertramp album title in there...)

[dingotush]

I think I remember Heath's Three day week more than the Winter of Discontent, which didn't seem nearly as bad (oh, lookee, it all started with poor government, a spike in the oil price, and a war in the Middle East - joy). Of course, I rather enjoyed using candles, cooking toast in front of the coal fire 'cause there was no electricity, and seeing more of my dad. We had coal fired heating, but I don't remember us ever running out of coal. It was also the time that I discovered Heath Robinson's illustrations in the newspaper. For a while I thought we had a cartoonist running the country since he only signed them "Heath".

[klepsydra]

This seems very strange, since as far as I knew Heath Robinson's period of activity was many years before that. *checks* Yes, apparently he died in 1944. I wonder which 1970s paper was rerunning them?

[hrrunka]

I can only remember anything much about the ones after '72, so I couldn't begin to rate them all with any sense of fairness. Of the ones I do remember, only Thatcher and Blair stand out, and they'd both have done themselves a favour by stepping aside two or three years earlier than they eventually did...

When did your mood icons get dropped in the bit-bucket?

[klepsydra]

A few days ago, I think. I keep hoping they'll come back but it seems increasingly unlikely. Need to rejig them...

I only have any memory since becoming a political animal of Thatcher onwards, but political history (like all history) fascinates me.

[hrrunka]

...while I failed History O-level quite comprehensively. I suspect I'd have done better if it had been presented in terms of archaeology and narrative rather than as an endless string of date/event pairs.

[t_h_squirrel]

Happy birthday. :)