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[Politics] Who was the best British Prime Minister of the last 60 or so years?
- Thread starter Biscuit
- Start date
BRIGHT ON Q
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 9,104
Power Ranger Major
Last edited:
attila
1997 Club
None of the above. Especially not one particular one. 
jasetheace
New member
- Apr 13, 2011
- 712
Been reading Ken Clarke's political memoir this week to soothe my shredded Thameslink related nerves (now that is incongruous!). He relates how Cameron and Osborne would often refer to Blair as "The Master"...
I would genuinely love to be able to say Thatcher. But the more one examines her life, the more despicable she becomes.
For example, her supposedly strong stance on the Falklands was nothing of the sort. She wanted to leave well alone, saying "let the Argies have it" but was advised by her cabinet to take action and secure another term in power. And what she did to communities in the North of England is unforgivable and the way in which she did it should have seen her in court.
And she didn't even have anything to do with inventing Mr.Whippy :-(
For example, her supposedly strong stance on the Falklands was nothing of the sort. She wanted to leave well alone, saying "let the Argies have it" but was advised by her cabinet to take action and secure another term in power. And what she did to communities in the North of England is unforgivable and the way in which she did it should have seen her in court.
And she didn't even have anything to do with inventing Mr.Whippy :-(
Behind Enemy Lines
Well-known member
Blair - yes, Iraq was a terrible mistake but otherwise he remains streets ahead of the vast majority of politicians.
Cameron the worst.
Cameron the worst.
jasetheace
New member
- Apr 13, 2011
- 712
75% Maggie or Blair! Just shows, Britain operates from the Centre. Surely that would encourage those thinking of setting up a new party given the extremity of choice we currently have?
GT49er
Well-known member
Maggie 'there is no such thing as society' and let's destroy the miners was centre? Wow!
Yeah, what we should have is the minors still going to work and getting paid. Not actually mining of course, because the coal was running out and becoming uneconomical to mine, but **** it, let's keep them anyway.
KingKev
Well-known member
It was f&cking grim.....
GT49er
Well-known member
We passed laws to stop minors being put to work long before the Milk Snatcher came on the scene - mind you, she'd probably have liked to change that, and probably would have done if there'd been enough chimneys to sweep.
Yes, coal is a finite resource, and would have run out eventually, but anyone who thinks the attack on the mining industry wasn't political is living in cloud cuckoo land (or they're such a total Thatcherite that they can't see through their Maggie-tinted glasses).
ManOfSussex
We wunt be druv
Nonsense. Complete and utter. Blix was never allowed to inspect properly by Saddam. This went on for 10 years in defiance of UN resolutions. Colin Powell outlined the situation eloquently. He persuaded me the intervention was correct (I was instinctively against it before that). There was no need later to 'sex up' the data later (that was a crass error) just as there would have been no beed to doctor the VAR footage of Murray's goal. Separatly had Blair not backed Bush it would have been the end of him (you can imagine the Sun and Mail headlines). Perpetual smearing of Blair by the left is one of the reasons labour will never get in again for the forseable future. Tories will read your post and 'love your work'.
70% public support for the invasion at the time too.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,303
in seriousness, why do you believe there was a political attack on an industry, rather than accepting of economic obsolescence? were the hundreds of pit closure in previous decades, under every Prime Minister and party, political too?
GT49er
Well-known member
Yes, of course mines were closed before Thatcher - natural progression; when a mine was worked out it was closed. The Thatcher assault wasn't so much an attack on the industry as such - although Thatcher clearly wasn't in favour of dirty, mucky heavy industry (with Trade Unions), not when people could get rich doing nice clean jobs like working in the City - but it certainly was a vicious political attack on the NUM, with the aim of smashing it once and for all, even if it did mean closing down a large number of mines (particularly in the Midlands) that were still viable - and probably would still be viable today, and a better alternative to importing all our coal.
Mellor 3 Ward 4
Well-known member
ManOfSussex
We wunt be druv
Pits that were exhausted of their coal though. Pits that were closed down with the agreement of the NUM and NCB. Pits that were merged with other collieries. Pit closures that didn't have compulsorily redundancies.
In the early 70's The NUM and NCB came to an agreement over gradually closing pits that weren't viable to lessen the impact on the local communities affected - She reneged on that and accelerated closures and the conflict with The NUM took off. As she said in her memoirs: "it was only by ensuring that they lost face and were seen to be defeated and rejected by their own people that we could tame the militants."