The Student Room Group

Favourite Prime Minister?

Favourite Prime Minister and why
(edited 10 months ago)
Original post by RLSIO23
Favourite Prime Minister and why

Churchill for war reasons.

for civilian use, I would say Atlee and his legacy with the NHS.
Reply 2
Disraeli or Gladstone.

Of more modern times, Thatcher has a marginal victory over Major and MacMillan. All had flaws but were superior to the alternatives.
Reply 3
Original post by jacksmith23
Churchill for war reasons.
for civilian use, I would say Atlee and his legacy with the NHS.

Interesting that you reward him for a scheme planned by a Liberal and approved by a Tory PM.
Reply 4
Clement Attlee, for the NHS and leading a government of competent ministers as a genuine first among equals.
Truss - obvious reasons 😅
Boris Johnson was deeply flawed on some levels but nevertheless he understood much of what the electorate wanted and unlike other PMs appointed by their party, he submitted himself to the ultimate test - a General Election - and won by a landslide.
He tried to implement the same system he'd successfully used during his time as Mayor of London - that of not trying to be in control of everything but to delegate to trusted colleagues and to have oversight of what they did.
All of the plans and strategies went out of the window when Covid struck. Along with much of the developed world, plans had to be made on the hoof and without the normal research. Some of these he and his government got right and others wrong. That is part of being human, but I think that the electorate forget sometimes that their representatives are only human and not some separate species where they can't make mistakes.
Many people were looking for someone to blame for the deaths of loved ones and he was their chosen figurehead. With conflicting medical opinions and no experience in the management of a pandemic, I'm not convinced that having anyone else as PM would have delivered different results. We'll never be absolutely sure.
He kept the economy afloat by borrowing billions so that businesses that were closed could afford to continue to pay their staff, and so still exist once the medical situation improved. It was, economically, one of the least Conservative things that he ever did and although not widely recognised, it was a courageous move.
One of his flaws was an old-school loyalty to his friends and this eventually caused his downfall.
Nevertheless, he delivered on the main issue of the day which was to see through Brexit which was designed to return certain areas of decision-making and power from the unelected and undemocratic EU to the sovereign will of the UK Parliament.
I feel privileged to have been a child during Tony Blair's premiership.

It really did feel like the government was looking after you and things were running well. We moved out of the mobile classrooms and into a new building under Building Schools for the Future and it did feel like things were only getting better!
Reply 8
Original post by Saracen's Fez
I feel privileged to have been a child during Tony Blair's premiership.
It really did feel like the government was looking after you and things were running well. We moved out of the mobile classrooms and into a new building under Building Schools for the Future and it did feel like things were only getting better!

It’s interesting that if you separate Blair and Brown (I.e take away the stealth taxes and growing deficit) then actually there is good reason to look well on Blair if you can live with Iraq and the consequences of his constitutional changes.

It’s also interesting that he was probably the one PM you can separate from the treasury because of how well defined the Treasury split was.
Reply 9
Truss

For comedy value and for exposing the poverty of British conservatism.

Quick Reply