Who has been the UK's worst PM?

Thatcher. Her legacy lives on in so many ways; none of them good.

DaisyAnne

Thatcher. Her legacy lives on in so many ways; none of them good.

I will wait a while to see if Johnson has been worse. I believe he may well be.

I wonder what scandals will emerge when
Johnson leaves public office. His happy happy fake persona has conned many. With Thatcher, it was easy to see who/what you were dealing with. No pretence there
I fear Liz Truss will be awful in many ways

Boris and Thatcher. Blair did do a great for the country certainly at the early years and nhs waiting lists came right down.

1) Tony Blair - his policies caused my redundancy. ☹️
2) David Cameron - for disappearing after the EU referendum.
3) Boris Johnson - for being such an upper-class, over-privileged twit.

Thatcher for me. She did so much damage to communities and to the country. The decimation of industry is harming us now, so many years later. I don't think she meant so much harm though, I think she lacked imagination and empathy, and was unable to conceive of a different result to the one she intended.
For instance, she thought that selling council houses to tenants would result in most people owning their own homes, which she saw as very desirable. She was unable to put herself in the shoes of people who were better off with a secure tenancy and a reasonable rent, and unable to imagine that the houses would be sold on to private landlords and be rented out with much, much higher rents and less maintenance, which is what has actually happened.

She thought that privatisation of utilities would lead to greater competition and lower prices, she was unable to imagine that other governments could end up owning our utilities and charging what they like, which is what has actually happened.
Just too blinkered really.

Yes I agree with you on Thatcher, Boris just beats her by a whisker for being a lying, lazy, self serving b…..s

Pittcity - love the Lord North argument, but they would have had to go at some point!
And as for a good one, I will defend Attlee, whose long-term vision was never fulfilled. And at a personal level his integrity shone.
I'd also put in a plea for Wilson - he kept us out of Vietnam, when the USA was saying we needed to join with them, to show our 'gratitude', and WW2 was still in near memory. Would that Tony Blair had shown similar strength.
Wilson also showed fortitude in handling the economy - you can dispute (as economists will) his decisions, but he didn't shirk from making unpopular ones.

To go back much more than 100 years, you find an entanglement of different measures that make it a bit more difficult to assess (good for whom?)

I go with Wilson for all Nannarose points. Ordinary man from working-class roots. Grammar school and Oxbridge Educated got to the top in a world of "Posh toffs".He had the guts to stand up to the Americans and not go into Vietnam when he had seen what happened in Korea.
He also was not frightened of having strong-minded intelligent people in his cabinet, Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins and Barbara Castle to name a few.
I think Atlee would be on my list as well he gave us the NHS and he was voted in right at the end of WW2 when people were becoming disillusioned with Churchhill.
Churchills debacles when listed make you really wonder,
At the Admiralty, he led us into the carnage of the Dardenelles, in WW1.
He broke the General strike by putting troops on the streets and left the miners standing alone many with worse conditions than before and many without jobs.
In WW2 he wanted us to draw the Germans into Norway which they eventually invaded.
Sent ships without air cover to help Singapore and they were sunk.
He did not stand up to Stalin at Yalta which led to the occupation by the USSR of Poland the reason we went to war was to keep Poland's neutrality.
He also agree to send all prisoners of war back to Russia which lead to the deaths of thousands including Cossacks captured in Italy and many more being sent to the Gulags.
If you look closely non are perfect how can they be they are only human.

Tony Blair was far worse than anyone. He and Gordon Brown did so much damage to this country which is why people turned to the Tories.

Yammy Churchill also didn’t. Want the NHS and how on earth anyone say Blair was terrible when we have Boris and Thatcher

Gillycats

Tony Blair was far worse than anyone. He and Gordon Brown did so much damage to this country which is why people turned to the Tories.

I guess that you haven't read the explanations given here and elsewhere.

Barmeyoldbat

Yammy Churchill also didn’t. Want the NHS and how on earth anyone say Blair was terrible when we have Boris and Thatcher

No Churchill probably didn't see the need for the NHS he would have to money to go private.
Atlee and Anurrin Beven were the founders of the NHS basing a lot of Ideas on Welsh slate miners' self-help groups. maybe that's why Atlee won the khaki election.
My grandfathers wouldn't contribute to the collection for Churchhill, one was in the Carnage of the Dardanelles the other what happened to the miners after the General strike. My Father was in Singapore when it was liberated and saw the English who had been prisoners of the Japanese.

The two Bs....Blair and Boris.

Yes my mum was the same, hated Churchill and said we should have street parties to celebrate his death not a state funeral. My father was on the last boat going to Singapore but he had to be put ashore in South Africa to wait for a boat back to the UK as my mum was very I’ll. a lucky escape for him as everyone on the ship became a prisoner of war in Singapore

Henry Addingtom

There may well be those who have personal reasons to dislike Churchill but he was the one outstanding leader of the 20th century.
If he had not stood up for democracy in Britain would have been occupied by Germany like France was, then it would not have been possible for the allies, to liberate Europe.

Interesting that there is a lot of agreement here- if someone can be bothered perhaps the maths might be informative.

Looking across the Atlantic, it is good to see that the state is showing its muscles against Trump who considers himself above the law.

I hope the same happens to Johnson.

Kinsi10

Tony Blair, followed closely by Thatcher

these are my choices too.
much as it pains me to say it, because I vote Labour and he did accomplish some good things, Tony Blair would be the top of my list.
quite apart from the awful war in Iraq, and yes I do know that the US were going in there anyway and the same results would have ensued, we did not have to agree to do the same.
education is another matter and Mr Blair wanted 50% of school children to go to university.It is obvious that a huge percentage such a that would never be able to do that. so standards were lowered and third rate universities created along with third rate degree courses.
this resulted in a high degree of student debt for many and did not lead to the jobs they were hoping for either.It also took away from the jobs they may otherwise have gone into which were useful to society and their own earning power too.It did a huge disservice to that young generation in my view.
also, social spending is a good thing but it went far too far and created a why do I bother to work when I can live on benefits easily scenario, which I saw first hand many times.
There was also the distinct feeling that Mr Blair would do anything to be popular, something he had in common with Mr Johnson.

Katie59

There may well be those who have personal reasons to dislike Churchill but he was the one outstanding leader of the 20th century.
If he had not stood up for democracy in Britain would have been occupied by Germany like France was, then it would not have been possible for the allies, to liberate Europe.

this message is so true.
whatever Mr Churchill did or said prior to 1939, he was just the PM that we needed at the time.

Dinahmo

Gillycats

Tony Blair was far worse than anyone. He and Gordon Brown did so much damage to this country which is why people turned to the Tories.

I guess that you haven't read the explanations given here and elsewhere.

Dinahmo
unfortunately you are doing here what many on social media do when faced with opposing views they do not like, which is to
suggest that others do not understand or have not read enough.
the member who started the discussion asked for our thoughts on who we saw as the worst PM.This, Gillycats has done.

Worst so far? Tony Blair.

But Liz Truss is almost certainly bound to overtake even him for this dubious title.

In a Union where we still have law-breaking, lazy, irresponsible, useless Johnson in Number 10, I am constantly amazed that people think Tony Blair was a worse Prime Minister. ??

Prentice

Dinahmo

Gillycats

Tony Blair was far worse than anyone. He and Gordon Brown did so much damage to this country which is why people turned to the Tories.

I guess that you haven't read the explanations given here and elsewhere.

Dinahmo
unfortunately you are doing here what many on social media do when faced with opposing views they do not like, which is to
suggest that others do not understand or have not read enough.
the member who started the discussion asked for our thoughts on who we saw as the worst PM.This, Gillycats has done.

Do you think you could refrain from being patronising. We do not need lectures on our behaviour on social media.