this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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UK Politics

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Ranking of your top 3 PMs (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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What would you say are the top 3 prime ministers, mine would be :

  1. Clement Attlee - This is the guy who got the NHS founded and started up, this shit would NEVER happen under a tory led government.

I thank him for making the public health service as in my experience it had made my life easier in acquiring hearing aids more easily than private funded ones.

  1. Winston Churchill - For getting us through the war years with keeping our morale up as the Nazi menace goose stepped across Europe and tried to take us over.

Now I am aware that Churchill has some flaws of his own, bit of that 40s racism and the bengal famine, but as a Briton there's a reason why he's still celebrated as a hero akin to the U.S's FDR or Charles De Gaulle of France.

  1. Gordon Brown - So Gordon Brown has the personality of a bowl of a dull bran flakes, but I think personally had some good economic candour and few scandals (At least from what I've seen).

The gentleman might have not been quirky or villainous or most modern PMs but he certainly showed to be somewhat effective steering the nation.

And that is my top 3, what are your picks lads and ladies?

(Keir doesn't count, he's really done anything yet)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

As a massive partisan of the Labour party, I'm inclined to pick the three Labour PMs prior to Starmer (who, as you say, hasn't done anything yet), who won majorities: Attlee, Harold Wilson, Tony Blair.

However! That would be silly, even for me.

So:

  1. Attlee - you're right, he was the greatest, especially if we include his pre-PM career as deputy to your second-greatest!
  2. David Lloyd George - finished off the First World War, enacted the People's Budget, extended suffrage to women, first major programme of council housing, more education - loads of good stuff.
  3. Earl Grey - for the Great Reform Act, which was a necessary precondition to Britain becoming a modern democracy

I'll also offer a friendly critique of your other selections:

  • Churchill: judged on his War Ministry alone, I'd agree. But he was also PM later, and was a bit rubbish.
  • Gordon Brown: was the perfect person to lead us through the GFC, but otherwise was fairly inconsequential at the time prior to that when he could've made more of a difference. Also, he sold the gold (I'M JOKING, OBVIOUSLY).
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Earl Grey - for the Great Reform Act, which was a necessary precondition to Britain becoming a modern democracy

Also tea. His. Hot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Gordon Brown: was the perfect person to lead us through the GFC, but otherwise was fairly inconsequential at the time prior to that when he could’ve made more of a difference.

The problem for Brown was that Blair had made a deal with him to step aside and hand over to him but he hung on like grim death, so Brown only got to be PM right at the end of Labour's run when everything was a mess and there wasn't much he could do to fix it.

He's been doing good work advising Starmer on reforms and policies, so some of the things he wanted to do will be getting done now. I think he could be bolder, eg with HoL reform (I aldo acknowledge that nothing short of sortition would make me happy at this point), but it's better than the alternative.