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Where are all the Statesmen/Great leaders?

(116 Posts)
nanna8 Wed 17-Feb-21 00:45:27

I can’t think of any just now in either the UK or Australia or the USA come to that. Where are the sort of people we used to look up to and respect as wise and effective leaders? Perhaps it is because with social media we see different sides of their personalities but I don’t think so. Perhaps they are not sufficiently rewarded for their leadership ? In the good old days, for want of a better phrase, we had leaders like Bob Hawke, Whitlam, Keating in Australia . All flawed in their way but definitely leaders and worthy of respect. Even the likes of Thatcher, whom I didn’t like one little bit, was a leader. Churchill, perhaps, certainly had leadership qualities.

silverlining48 Fri 19-Feb-21 09:10:59

Oops ? missed a page.

silverlining48 Fri 19-Feb-21 08:57:56

That is also my understanding of why AM is affectionately called Mutti . She has served Germany well for many years and will be missed.

suziewoozie Fri 19-Feb-21 08:39:39

Witzend

I never thought of biddy as a demeaning term, not that it’s something I hear every day. I once heard a Scottish boy of about 15 referring to someone’s ‘wee biddy wife’ - which I took at the time as affectionate, if a wee bitty patronising!

But you have to admit that the way it was used on here by Nell was both demeaning and insulting and intentionally so.

Witzend Fri 19-Feb-21 08:37:11

I never thought of biddy as a demeaning term, not that it’s something I hear every day. I once heard a Scottish boy of about 15 referring to someone’s ‘wee biddy wife’ - which I took at the time as affectionate, if a wee bitty patronising!

MayBee70 Fri 19-Feb-21 00:41:36

Maybe being a great leader is just being the right leader at the right time. Perish the thought but, had the U.K. been booming in every way possible Johnson might have been the perfect leader and would have been thought of as great. As it is, he’s a total disaster. Bidens speeches, both in the run up to the election and afterwards, had me in tears: I can’t recall the last time that has happened recently. Robin Cook’s resignation speech perhaps. James Callaghan’s speech at a Labour Party Conference many years ago. We saw Michael Heseltine at a people’s vote meeting the other year and he was unbelievably ministerial. I felt I should have curtsied in his presence. Did it all start to go wrong when the criteria fir choosing a party leader was that they were funny on HIGNFY?

Ro60 Fri 19-Feb-21 00:34:40

I'll be perusing my career as a lap ?

Ro60 Thu 18-Feb-21 23:52:31

Likewise thanks for the entertainment. Don't worry come the end of lockdown I'll be out-a-here & normality can reign once more

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 23:01:47

Goodnight huff- snuffs, and thank you for a most entertaining day.

nanna8 My sincere apologies for my part in derailing your thread. I shall leave it well alone now and hope your discussion can get back on track.

nanna8 Thu 18-Feb-21 23:00:58

Talking of age, which most of us weren’t, how old was Trump? How old is Biden? That’s half the problem, too old, should be sitting next to the fire with slippers on other trying to run a country like the USA. Running and ducking for cover ......

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 22:52:41

? ? ? Here are a few for you :

Pot
Kettle
Black

suziewoozie Thu 18-Feb-21 22:39:41

NellG

janeainsworth Thank you for channelling your inner Susie Dent and for (in the context of today's conversation involving me on this thread) accurately describing my word choice. Fussy older women with irritating habits about sums it up I think. Who's turn is it next in Dictionary Corner?

Here’s a few Susie Dent words that I saw and thought of you

ultracrepidarian
mumpsimus
bloviator
smellfungus
ipsedixitism

HTH

Frobly-mobly

nanna8 Thu 18-Feb-21 22:31:06

Maybe refer to the other post ‘there’s always one’.
Maybe we need a few strops in government rather than some of the weak ones we have ?

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 21:48:59

Oh, I'm sorry Grandmabatty, I didn't realise that "unpleasant" posts were solely the province of other posters. I think you may be clutching at straws here, Scottish women are no different to any other women and all of us are capable of being ridiculous at times.

I do apologise for derailing the thread though, but I had help, including yours.

Grandmabatty Thu 18-Feb-21 21:35:16

Nell At no point did I say I wanted independence. I was commenting on your rather unpleasant posts. Given your later statements you clearly have an issue with Scottish women. Everything you have ranted about today says more about you. I'll leave it there as you have been insulting and offensive and obviously either don't realise it or don't care. It's a shame that you detailed an interesting thread.

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 21:30:58

janeainsworth Thank you for channelling your inner Susie Dent and for (in the context of today's conversation involving me on this thread) accurately describing my word choice. Fussy older women with irritating habits about sums it up I think. Who's turn is it next in Dictionary Corner?

janeainsworth Thu 18-Feb-21 21:02:19

Age doesn't make us exempt from censure or prevent any of us exhibiting stupid behaviour, enough threads on here prove that
Of course it doesn’t Nell, but here is one definition of ‘biddy’
Biddy, as a demeaning term for an old woman, is recorded in the 1700s. It comes from a nickname of the popular Irish given name Bridget, originally used to address female servants. Biddy became a name for a kind of fussy, older woman that had the irritating habit of sticking her nose in matters where it didn't belong
No-one has to defer to us or give us special consideration just because we’re older.
But if anyone were to make a sweeping generalisation that gransnetters as a group were ‘old biddies’, I’d say that was ageist and sexist.

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 20:50:18

Alegrias Thank you for asking, I've been crying in the corner all afternoon feeling desperately picked on and wondering where I too can go to have my sense of humour removed so that I can fit in here...

janeainsworth I don't think anyone is obliged to see us in a good light just because we're older. Age doesn't make us exempt from censure or prevent any of us exhibiting stupid behaviour, enough threads on here prove that.

janeainsworth Thu 18-Feb-21 20:23:06

I imagine that most people think we're a bunch of over opinionated pointless old biddies
Would they? Wouldn’t that be rather ageist and sexist of them? confused

Alegrias1 Thu 18-Feb-21 20:08:26

Lassie, are you feeling victimised and picked on? The wee woman's name is actually Mrs Jeannette Tough. Maybe you could take a leaf out of her book?

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 19:19:39

I aim to please Hetty58 wink Unless you're Nicola Sturgeon, or any other female politician - because I hate them with a passion, being riddled with both misogyny and an aversion to Scottish nationalism as has been so ably argued and demonstrated by our resident feminists and people who don't read posts properly - just think of me as some kind of Grans Net Gollum, sitting here nursing my antipathy, muttering 'We HATES them' whilst throwing darts at pictures of Jeanette Krankie...

I could be a mascot!

Hetty58 Thu 18-Feb-21 19:06:03

Spot on, NellG - nobody cares what we think - but it's all very amusing!

LauraNorder Thu 18-Feb-21 19:01:44

?

NellG Thu 18-Feb-21 18:58:57

Unfortunately not LauraNorder, the bottle was empty by the time I got here - I might be a bit high on the fumes though.

LauraNorder Thu 18-Feb-21 18:46:45

NellG have you been at the gfery juice?

Galaxy Thu 18-Feb-21 18:46:06

Lots of odd stuff going on at the moment grin