Who has been the UK's worst PM?

It would be interesting if posters could look beyond very recent history.

Not all of us know the history of previous PM's beyond our lifetime and don't have the time to research.

A little research suggests Anthony Eden is thought to be the worst Prime Minister of fairly recent history. I think one poster did mention him. Primarily it seems it was his handling of the Suez crisis that earned him this label.

It would be interesting if posters could look beyond very recent history. The question is who was the worst Prime Minister in the UK ever. The majority of the replies have thrown up the usual suspects, all comparatively recent, having held the position during the last 40 years or so.This country has a long history, is no one willing to look beyond their own lifetime for the worst Prime Minister? Obviously it’s easy to point to the perceived failings of politicians that we know from recent history, but it would be interesting to hear the views of posters on people who held this position before the very recent years. I volunteered Neville Chamberlain as a very poor quality Prime Minister and said why I think that. I don’t know that he was the worst in history, there are probably a few who could legitimately qualify for that dubious honour, but just reading Thatcher, Blair, Johnson is getting a bit tedious. Are there no historians on here who could enlighten us?

Dear GagaJo, it is not at all widely held in the US, where we actually live with the policies and rub up against the politicians, that Trump has been the worst President. In recent history, Jimmy Carter has won that title, hands down, before Biden's election. Biden is now quickly coming up the rear and gaining fast. He did get elected, but not by a great margin, and ever so many are suffering from his policies now. Just saying.?

I'm another for Tony Blair!

What power Blair had, to force other countries into Iraq,

What a difficult question. Thatcher (selling off the family silver), Blair (the Iraq war), Cameron (Brexit, austerity and running down the NHS and state education, ending free tuition for student nurses), and May (her Brexit 'deal' and calling an unnecessary election) have all got their serious failings, although Johnson was the first one where I lost total respect for the office of prime minister with all the corruption (contracts and peerages for mates) and Brexit at any cost and general ineptitude (vaccines excluded) and booting any half decent Tory out of the party / not promoting talent. I also reserve much contempt for all those in opposition in 2019 who didn't work together for the greater good of the country; especially Jo Swinson for allowing her own ego to help force a general election that subsequently allowed Johnson and the Tories such a free reign, despite getting less than 50% of the vote. I could go on about the current opposition leader who needs to seriously up his game, especially as the next PM is likely to be even worse than all of the above.

I'm 72. The first PM I was really aware of is Macmillan. Not that I was actually politically aware at that age. Interestingly, my parents took the Daily Express and Giles, and sometimes Osbert Lancaster, was quite a political cartoonist.

So I've seen SuperMac, Douglas-Home, Heath, Wilson, Callagahn, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and the last 3. Have I missed any?

Johnson is the absolute worst. Thatcher a very close runner up.

I’m not going to jump in with one of the modern Prime Ministers because I didn’t like her/his policies, although I can think of a number of more recent ones who could be legitimately criticised.

I’m going to say Neville Chamberlain. It seems to me that he had little resolution and jumped for the easiest solution, which ultimately led us into WW2. We will never know what might have happened if he had shown more resolve, but he totally lacked the backbone that was required in order to prevent Hitler from thinking the world didn’t care. Chamberlain lacked any moral compass in my opinion because he was willing to overlook the partition of what became known as Czeckoslovakia, also the taking over of Austria by Hitler’s henchmen although it could be argued that the Austrians wanted that development. Appeasement was Chamberlain’s middle name, he negotiated with the devil, and sold out millions of Jewish people and others.

Peace in our time

he said after returning from negotiations with Hitler.

Ultimately we were led into WW2 and all that it brought, death, destruction, racism, murder. At least Chamberlain wasn’t leading us through the war because God knows what the outcome would have been if he had.

Susieq62

I am 72 today !!

Many happy returns. I hope you are having a lovely day. It's good to get past the three score years and ten.

"Amelegra" In March 2003 the US state Department issued a list of 31 countries who joined the War coalition. over the next few days that number increased to 49. They must also have believed the reasons for going to war. With that number, I hardly think that the UK was devalued in the eyes of many in the world.

I am 72 today !!

There's quite a time lag between my writing and then posting the above - 16.56.29 and I have now read the intervening posts.

Many are complaining about the losses during the Iraq War but, if you look at the numbers, the UK did not lose that many. (Admittedly each one is one too many). At the time Saddam Hussein seemed to be ruling an "enlightened" regime in that girls were allowed to be educated and women to work and dress as they wished, which is in complete contrast to the situation in Afghanistan at that time.

However, we were/are not able to see into the future and we do not know how the situation might have changed in Iraq.

The Iraq War came shortly after the conflict in former Yugoslavia and it's possible Blair thought a regime change would be beneficial. Obviously we have no right to inflict regime change.

I'm 75 and was opposed to the Iraq War as we shouldn't be interfering. My DH was in the large samba band that marched through the London streets in the demonstration. I could not go because of my health. I remember having many arguments with friends who agreed with the UK's intervention. Memory however, is a funny thing and I suspect that most of them would deny their stance at that time.

Thatcher, for giving away our previously publicly-owned water, gas and electricity producers. And breaking up British Rail. We're reaping the problems with these policies now. Also for forcing the sale of so much of our social housing stock which has never been fully replaced.

Amalegra

Tony Blair. Devolution, a ‘gift that keeps on giving’. Mass, uncontrolled immigration. Ditto. ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ which so devalued the United Kingdom in the eyes of many in the world.

Devolution is a bad thing Amalegra? ?
You have to be English.

Dinahmo and Gagajo I agree . Mrs Thatcher was so destructive to our society and culture.

A few facts about the Iraq War:

The Chilcot report states that Blair was advised by the chief of the defense staff that civilian casualties would likely be in the low hundreds.

British Armed Forces deaths were 179. Casualties were 2703 up to October 2004.

Estimates for PTSD vary but recent figures suggest 17% of veterans in combat in Iraq and/or Afghanistan have PTSD with a further 30% predicted to develop a mental health condition. I don't know how this compares with earlier wars.

A survey carried out in 2013 estimates 461,000 excess deaths occurred between 2003 and 2011. There have been many surveys carried out and they all reach different conclusions. Basically it is almost impossible to get at all records.

Blair followed Bush into Iraq, possibly because of the supposed "special relationship" which appears to exist just for America's benefit.

Tony Blair. Devolution, a ‘gift that keeps on giving’. Mass, uncontrolled immigration. Ditto. ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ which so devalued the United Kingdom in the eyes of many in the world.

I'm 63.

I'd love to know the ages of the contributors. I'm 61, narrowly missed out on voting against Thatcher in 79 so she's the first PM I remember as an adult. Vaguely remember Wilson & Heath - power cuts, the 3 day week et al.
But I'm wondering if those pitching against Blair remember much before him. The reasons I'm seeing are that thousands of lives were lost due to the Gulf war. But the same can be said for Johnson - and don't say the pandemic wasn't his fault: No, he didn't cause the virus but the way it was dealt with sent thousands to the same end.

stewaris

The Labour government extended the outsourcing to the other services, Casdon. I too worked for the NHS as have most of my family. He may or may not have intended to start privatisation but instead of investing heavily in the NHS after lack of funding from previous governments, he chose to extend the outsourcing to include non diagnostice services etc.
Still shameful and disappointing for a Labour government.

Blair didn’t start privatisation stewaris. PFI schemes and private companies providing ancillary and estates services all started under Thatcher, many schemes were dismantled when Labour were in power, others took much longer because of contract lengths and clauses. Outsourcing of specific elective treatments and diagnostics was not privatisation, it was outsourcing to achieve a specific goal of reducing waiting lists, not to provide profit opportunities to private companies. There’s a world of difference. You can hang other blames at Blair’s door, but not messing up the NHS.

The Labour government extended the outsourcing to the other services, Casdon. I too worked for the NHS as have most of my family. He may or may not have intended to start privatisation but instead of investing heavily in the NHS after lack of funding from previous governments, he chose to extend the outsourcing to include non diagnostice services etc.
Still shameful and disappointing for a Labour government.

So ,are we going to ban catholics from all public office now? Just as Scotland is finally getting the religious divide uner some kind of control is England about to become a catholic free zone...again?
I have never read so much rubbish* Neilspurgeon *quite why Blairs religion .lack of religion or new religion was brought into this thread is beyond me .As if there isn't enough division in England with the Brexiteers ,now you want to blame Afghanistan on someone converting to catholicism ?????
Didn't the Blessed Margaret quote St Francis as she entered Downing St ? Do you have an opinion on that?

Thatcher decimated the mining industry, the manufacturing base, sold off Council houses but the money made went elsewhere, took us to a totally useless war in Argentina, interest rates at 17%, said there was no such thing as society, spoke with a plum in her mouth etc. Blair also took us to an unnecessary war however we have some wonderful schools @nd hospitals as his legacy and there was HOPE when he was PM! I have lost all of it now with this shower!

I have no time for Blair and "New Labour" - I'm very much Old Labour - and I can never forgive him for taking us into that war. However, as a bad PM, he pales into insignificance beside Thatcher.

She enabled the privatisation of the utilities and the railway, supposedly on the grounds that competition would lower prices. What happened, of course, was that the private companies pushed the prices higher and higher, giving massive bonuses to the people at the top and ever greater profits for the shareholders. We're still caught up in that spiral. It would cost £2.85 billion to bring the Big 5 - British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power, Ovo and E.ON - back into public ownership. It would make more sense to do that than to waste £1 billion trying to prop up Bulb, which recently collapsed. It won't happen, of course, as we're getting Margaret Thatcher impersonator, Liz Truss, as our next dismal PM.

Thatcher sold off the council houses at ridiculous prices, with no plans to replace them. She didn't create a nation of homeowners, she created a land of people with insecure tenancies, B&B emergency accommodation, and sleeping bags in shop doorways.

She was determined to break the strength and solidarity of the unions. She didn't wholly succeed but she certainly weakened them. Before anyone starts on about strikes and winters of discontent, they might take a minute to think about sick pay, holiday pay, the minimum wage, maternity/paternity pay, pensions, health and safety at work... All the things that the unions fought so hard to win.

She brought in compulsory competitive tendering for NHS contracts, beginning the process whereby more and more services are provided by private companies. This began with Domestic, Catering and Laundry services, with an immediate and visible decline in quality, as hospitals were compelled to accept the lowest bids. Privatisation has gradually crept further and further into the NHS, usually resulting in paying more and getting less.

"There is no such thing as society" said Thatcher, and I think she believed it. She didn't understand the concept of caring for people, including strangers, and feeling a duty to help them. She claimed to be a Christian but the idea that the strong should protect the weak and the rich should aid the poor was alien to her. She encouraged greed and selfishness, and sent the Tories lurching more and more to the right. So much that is wrong in this country can be traced back to her withered claws.

I am not a fan.