Greatest post-war British Prime Minister

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Attlee, because I am a member of the Labour Party. And also because I prefer his style of government.

Of course 'great' is a problematic label because you're combining 'historically significant' with 'I have a positive opinion of this person/what this person did'.

So... let's go off on a really weird tangent. In terms of historical significance on its own, then the top two are easy to work out (and it's interesting that it's very unusual to like both of them), but (hilariously enough) a case for third place can be made for Eden (Suez: see below), Macmillan (decolonisation*), Wilson (humanising legislation and the end of the dream of Planning), Heath (Europe), Callaghan (the end of Keynesianism) and Blair (devolution). Possibly Major as well (we forget too easily that he deepened and made permanent much of the agenda associated with his predecessor; he might have been dull, but he may have been quite important), and quite possibly (despite his short tenure) Brown because of his actions in response to the financial crisis (whether you approve or not), although it's too early to be sure. Cameron, of course, is still in office. Eden might be a surprise as he was a terrible Prime Minister; drug-addled and genuinely incompetent (incompetence is normally a word that we use to describe politicians that we don't like and who aren't in control all the time. But Eden really was incompetent), remembered only as a failure who was responsible for the Suez fiasco... and there is the answer. He's important because it was on his watch that the whole vile fycking ship of Empire sank beneath the waves; that his intentions were the opposite merely adds a layer of deliciously funny irony.

Sorry, what was I posting about again?

*I would add that in terms of domestic politics, Macmillan's main legacy came from his promotion of tower blocks (he - quite brilliantly - did this using the subsidies system) as Housing Minister earlier in the decade. Although he may have been less important than Keith Joseph, the Apostle of System Building in Britain. Depends how you look at things.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Churchill

1950s Churchill? Really? It isn't as though he actually did anything.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

His government did undo one of the strangest (to us living today, anyways) Attlee nationalizations - road haulage.

Which, I suppose, was important given the later role of haulage companies in lobbying for the destruction of much of the railway network.

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Ending of food rationing and the birth of ITV, both in 1954. Former was on the cards anyway, and it's highly questionable whether Churchill himself had much to do with anything during the period...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I always have trouble remembering when the flips between Heath and Wilson were.  I just refer to the early 70s as Heath/Wilson.

Heath was June 1970 until March 1974 (the election was on the 28th of February).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Attlee (boring, I know)

He was actually quite witty in a deadpan way.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

But choosing him as greatest British post-war PM is a boring thing to do. (If you're on the left, that is.)

Oh, I got that. I just wanted to make a joke in the right spirit, so to speak.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Eden is also a great symbol that anyone can achieve anything. He was, after all, a junkie who became Prime Minister of Britain.

Quite, quite. Incidentally my great-grandparents voted against him in his first parliamentary election (Spennymoor, 1922). Signs of his future toolishness were apparent even then; one of the names on his nomination papers was that of a prominent coal-owner.