[Cannotbelieveit]

Wow, two poor sods voted for Ed Heath.

[MagicNMedicine]

When academics were asked this question their ranking was here: http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/...9theakston.pdf

(nb that was in 2005 so Brown/Cameron weren't included)

1 Attlee
2 Churchill
3 Lloyd George
4 Thatcher
5 MacMillan
6 Blair
7 Asquith
8 Baldwin
9 Wilson
10 Salisbury
11 Campbell-Bannerman
12 Callaghan
13 Heath
14 MacDonald
15 Major
16 Bonar Law
17 Chamberlain
18 Balfour
19 Douglas-Home
20 Eden

[MagicNMedicine]

(Original post by TopHat)
All the people saying Churchill have clearly forgotten how poor a leader he was in peace time, and how most of the war time planning was orchestrated by the Minister for Defence at the time, Clement Attlee. It rather annoys me how this shell of fabrications is constructed around Churchill. This is the same man who wanted to send a gunboat and cavalry to deal with the Tonypandy incident.

Churchill was more or less a figurehead leader in his peacetime stint from 1951-55, he was in his late 70s at the time and had already had a mild stroke before his return to office, and he had a severe stroke in 1953, he was frail and in a wheelchair at this point.

Churchill had his positive points of course which were invaluable during the war but he was not a top class astute statesman and some of his judgement was erratic to say the least. A lot of modern day Tories would also have something to say about Churchill's policies on social housing and pensions which they would say were totally unsustainable.

I do agree that the aura of Churchill's greatness has come about years after he left office. He was defeated by Attlee in a landslide in 1945 at the end of the Second World War which says something about how the two were perceived by the public at the time (also shows that winning wars don't win you elections despite what people like to say about the Falklands and 1983).

The same has happened to an extent with Thatcher whose popularity is enjoying a rebirth these days when in the late 1980s she was deeply unpopular even in some traditional Tory heartlands. It's easier for time and history to rehabilitate a reputation and build a myth. The opposite case to this was Tony Blair who enjoyed his time having an aura of greatness when he first came to office, from 1997 till around 2001-02, (before the Iraq war started) he rode a popularity wave not seen by any other politician at least since the war, but the scars of the Iraq war scarred his image irreversibly.

[wozza1991]

(Original post by cosmobear92)
Harold Wilson

Seeing someone take the time to say ole Harold Wilson has made me smile!

Hasn't Squiffy been forgotten! Shameful... Does Campbell-Bannerman count as in the last hundred years? I'd like to think so given that he's post-1900 but never mind... Harold it is!

As a quick Edit - how are people defining "greatest" - as in whether they liked what they did? If we're being really subjective, surely its Attlee? Of them all, he came the closest to implementing his manifesto a country mile ahead of any other government leader.

[Morgsie]

DLG, Clem Attlee, Churchill, Wilson are my choices

[DorianGrayism]

I have to say Alec Douglas-Home because of this story about how he foiled a kidnap attempt:

A plot to kidnap Home in April 1964 was foiled by the Prime Minister himself. Two left-wing students from the University of Aberdeen planned to kidnap him. Home met the two students in public and gave them £1 for a charity in return for not kidnapping him, which he took as a joke. T

he students followed his car, intending to force it to crash or block it, and then kidnap the Prime Minister. They lost their nerve and instead went to the house of John and Priscilla Buchan, where Home was staying.

He was alone at the time and answered the door, where the students told him that they planned to kidnap him. Home responded, "I suppose you realise if you do, the Conservatives will win the election by 200 or 300." After packing several things, he offered the kidnappers some beer, which they accepted. Home eventually convinced them to abandon their plot.


Home never publicly spoke of the kidnapping because he did not want to ruin the career of his bodyguard but told the story in 1977 to the former Lord Chancellor Quintin Hogg, who recorded it in his diaries.

[cosmobear92]

(Original post by wozza1991)
Seeing someone take the time to say ole Harold Wilson has made me smile!

Hasn't Squiffy been forgotten! Shameful... Does Campbell-Bannerman count as in the last hundred years? I'd like to think so given that he's post-1900 but never mind... Harold it is!

As a quick Edit - how are people defining "greatest" - as in whether they liked what they did? If we're being really subjective, surely its Attlee? Of them all, he came the closest to implementing his manifesto a country mile ahead of any other government leader.

Hell yeah I'm rooting for Harold! I've done a lot of study on him and his policies, you know him being the first working-class state educated PM, his progressive reforms, so many initial changes leading on to bigger things, such as legalisation of abortion, homosexuality, introduction of open university and other universities and also just a more level headed approach to British foreign policy as opposed to other PM's, no names mentioned.

I'd say Attlee for the introduction of the NHS and his universal state but tbh that was a lot to do with Beveridge and Bevan, then Attlee himself, but that's just my opinion.

[LETSJaM]

(Original post by ras90)
I liked Blair.

Are you sure you've got the right name there. O.o

<3 x

[ras90]

(Original post by LETSJaM)
Are you sure you've got the right name there. O.o

<3 x

I do not understand sorry.

[Stiff Little Fingers]

(Original post by ras90)
I do not understand sorry.

She's (at least, I assume LetsJam is a woman) checking as to whether you meant Blair, what with him being an evil **** who just did whatever Bush told him to with regards to foreign policy, and completely betrayed Labours principles of being for the working class.

Now then, got to be Attlee - that Thatcher is winning is beyond comprehension.

[LETSJaM]

(Original post by Alofleicester)
She's (at least, I assume LetsJam is a woman) checking as to whether you meant Blair, what with him being an evil **** who just did whatever Bush told him to with regards to foreign policy, and completely betrayed Labours principles of being for the working class.

Thank you for explaining my thoughts without even knowing me.

<3 x

[sclez1]

(Original post by nicknick1)
Margaret Thatcher was the best PM, because she not only managed the country well, but the set a precedent that will last for ever that a country can be governed using pragmatic and practical sense rather than shameful dogma.

I completely disagree with her entire philosophy, but she was undoubtedly great at being a politician. I wish others had the same backbone

[wozza1991]

(Original post by Alofleicester)
Blair, what with him being an evil **** who just did whatever Bush told him to with regards to foreign policy

Whatever you think of his policies, this is a very badly peddled myth. Blair led Bush... #justsaying

(Original post by cosmobear92)
Hell yeah I'm rooting for Harold! I've done a lot of study on him and his policies, you know him being the first working-class state educated PM, his progressive reforms, so many initial changes leading on to bigger things, such as legalisation of abortion, homosexuality, introduction of open university and other universities and also just a more level headed approach to British foreign policy as opposed to other PM's, no names mentioned.

I've done a fair bit of study on him too, he's amazing! I nearly did my third year uni history dissertation on him, but kind of backed out in the end for practical reasons... At what level have you studied him?

What I love, is that one of my lecturers last year said out of all the PMs he has a picture of Harold Wilson hanging on the wall. Whenever he's in a bit of a pickle he'll look up and think "what would Harold do?" because of the vast number of challenges he managed to resolve and he managed to square policies despite a hopelessly divided party.

[anarchism101]

I'd go for Attlee, followed by Wilson, and then I don't really know because they're all differing degrees of terrible. Thatcher and Blair at the bottom.

[anarchism101]

Yeah, everyone goes for Churchill because of the war. So what? Stalin was also leader of a country that won the war, does that make him good? Churchill didn't oppose Hitler because he gave a damn about any normal people, he opposed Hitler because he considered him a threat to the British Empire.

[cosmobear92]

(Original post by wozza1991)
I've done a fair bit of study on him too, he's amazing! I nearly did my third year uni history dissertation on him, but kind of backed out in the end for practical reasons... At what level have you studied him?

What I love, is that one of my lecturers last year said out of all the PMs he has a picture of Harold Wilson hanging on the wall. Whenever he's in a bit of a pickle he'll look up and think "what would Harold do?" because of the vast number of challenges he managed to resolve and he managed to square policies despite a hopelessly divided party.

Only for A-level History last year, so not in a great deal and I was studying the 1951-2007 period so even still not as much detail.

Its kind of sad that PM's like Harold Wilson are forgotten, I think he did so much for this country and isn't given enough credit or kudos for it, and I think he managed to stabilise the divide in the Labour party, but knowing Labour .

[Bukhatir]

Iron lady

[Remarqable M]

I don't really like Margaret Thatcher(some of her policies were draconic), but deserves a huge praise in the way she carried herself when the country was in crisis and as well as for her unwavering love to bring prosperity to Great Britain. Wasn't she the one who single-handedly revived UK's economy from the brink of collapse in the 90s?

[BolloTheGorilla]

Good grief, 8 people voted for Brown(great Chancellor but a terrible PM) and one crazy bugger gave Chamberlain the vote!

Churchill gets my vote. DLG, Atlee, Blair and Wilson would have followed.

[Sdiff]

(Original post by Foghorn Leghorn)
I cannot believe people on tsr would consider thathcher better than attlee. I don't necessarily hate thatcher, much of what she did was good, but she is in no way the best. Certainly not better than attlee, loyd george, macmillan and churchill!!!

Attlee moved Britain towards an ideology of envy and theft. Thatcher moved Britain in the opposite direction towards freedom and meritocracy.

The choice for me was clear.