'Which Prime Minister would you resurrect?' poll

Gordon_the_Moron

I can't believe 54 people think the answer to the country's troubles is Ted Heath :huh:

:iloveyou: Thatcher please come back !!!

Hardav

What Thatcher did for this country was unbelievable, you cut her in half and she had the union jack right there.....

You cannot say that about any of the one since her, they were all out to line their own pockets, specially Blair, now a multi millionaire many time over, consultant to Gadaffi etc, etc

It seems you cannot argue with the votes she is getting over 4 times the votes as her closest rival

redux

RedFaced wrote: »

Thatcher!!! The most popular!!! seriously are you completely MAD?

It's like some Russians pining for communism

Things might have been bad, but at least you had some certainties in the world, and someone to tell you what to do, even if you didn't like them.

pennypinchUK

Say what you will, Mrs Thatcher had spine - probably more than any other Prime Minister since Churchill. She knew what she wanted to achieve and went hell for leather to achieve it. Perhaps the most divisive name on the list (closely followed by Blair) but in the context of her time she completely turned around this country from the sick man of Europe to become an economic powerhouse.

More than others, she understood that doing the right thing didn't necessarily make you popular. Compare her to the Labour years of 1997-2010, when they wouldn't sneeze unless a focus group approved.

It's the fate of every political leader for their term to end in perceived failure, whether by losing an election or (as in Blair) the major decisions they took while in office unravelling. But the true test is to look at what they did when in office, and whether the country is better off when they leave as to when they started out. Britain in 1979 was on it's knees. Britain in 1990 stood proud and strong. That's Thatcher's achievement.

pennypinchUK

In what possible way could 549 (to date) people think Gordon Brown is the person to solve the country's problems? This is the man, let's not forget, who:
1. Sold Britain's gold reserves at the bottom of the market, losing the country many billions of pounds;
2. Failed to regulate the banks, thus providing the root cause of the financial crisis we're in now;
3. Destroyed final salary pension schemes for many millions of people;
4. Spent wildly during the good times, leaving nothing in reserve for the bad times;
5. Laughingly, said he'd broken Britain's cycle of boom and bust. Hardly.

And that was just when he was Chancellor. Added to that while Prime Minister was his clear inability to lead, complete failure to communicate, petty internal politics at the price of strong government and his desperate attempts to cling on to power despite a clear rejection by the electorate.

Gordon Brown is easily the worst Prime Minister this country has had in the past 50 years, probably much longer. 549 people voting for him? They're having a laugh.

redux

pennypinchUK wrote: »

Perhaps the most divisive name on the list (closely followed by Blair) but in the context of her time she completely turned around this country from the sick man of Europe to become an economic powerhouse.

She pushed unemployment up to 4 million or so.

The aftermath of her lack of understanding of the economic concept of added value, her misguided belief we can get by on just services, and her contempt for and wipeout of a proportion of the country's manufacturing sector is still with us.

She shifted almost a million people on to long-term sickness benefits, as a ploy to bodge unemployment figures downwards, and even now politicians are still struggling to get to grips with that.

pennypinchUK

In 1979 Britain was at the mercy of the unions and the IMF, who were having to bail out the country due to the economic mismanagement of the previous Labour government. It's easy to forget the context of the mess Mrs Thatcher had to sort out upon becoming Prime Minister. Let's never forget that every single Labour government has left office with unemployment higher than when they left. And Labour managed to increase unemployment to similar levels, and the country was in surplus at the time!

"Wipeout" of manufacturing? Manufacturing is still the 3rd largest sector in this country. What is more, the Conservative government of the 1980's heralded the introduction of high tech manufacturing, rather than low skill basic manufacturing.

So what did Labour do about sickness benefit during their 13 years of government. They increased the numbers on sickness benefit. Only this current government is actually now doing something about this long term issue.

snh121

60% of you are fools. Thatcher destroyed manufacture in the UK, moving the focus of growth to the banking sector. Had she not done that, Britain would now be in the same position as Germany, providing billions of pounds worth of machinery for China. She also introduced the 'right to buy' which arguably triggered the housing boom in Britain.... that bubble has now burst and has put the UK in a worse position than was necessary. All of Britain's financial woes can be traced back to her tenure as PM.

pollypenny

widdy11 wrote: »

Can't believe there some votes for Brown!!!! This is the guy who had hold of the nations purse strings whilst personal debt sky rocketed and he never once sought sensible regulation! :mad:

Who was it who deregulated the banking system,sold off the country's assests and did everything for a fast back? Thatcher.

It's short-termism that has ruined this country.

christmas_bells

I'm so depressed, didn't know who to vote for. But knew I didn't want to vote for Thatcher!
Could any of them get us out of this mess? Was it of our making? NO but we're the ones paying the cost!
Many of our troubles started with privatisation (Thatchers to blame for that!) and turning our country into money grabbing obsessed individuals. Harry Enfield had it right in the 8o's with 'loadsa money'. We lost sight of community and sharing, creating jobs so that people could work and have dignity. Now most people are out for themselves and if company's make less profit they cut jobs so they can make more money again! Companies used to be more ethical.

Who can sort this out? Who knows?