# Worst Prime Ministers Of All Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 4, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609 "2003-10-04T22:10:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/21 "2003-10-05T14:55:18Z")
Also, it really does derpend on who you are, to many around the world and in Britain (myself included) Churchill is a hero but in Ireland he is a villian and for small reason, as he was involved with the infamous ‘Black and Tans’ who brutalized that country (to this day ‘black and tan’ remains an extremely derogatory expression for an English person in Ireland). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/22 "2003-10-05T15:05:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MC Master of Ceremonies \* > \*\*Also, it really does derpend on who you are… > > …in Ireland he is a villian and for small reason…\*\* Of course you meant “and **not** for small reason”. The thing about Thatcher, it didn’t matter who you were (British/Irish/Argentinian/French), if you weren’t already immensely privileged or to the right of Attilla the Hun, she was going to peg you anyway. Perhaps that’s to her credit. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/23 "2003-10-05T15:09:26Z")
Personally, I’d think that some of you would like Thatcher, seeing as how she (by purging the party left) singlehandedly guaranteed that the Tories won’t return to power for many a year. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/24 "2003-10-05T15:15:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Governor Quinn \* > \*\*Personally, I’d think that some of you would like Thatcher, seeing as how she (by purging the party left) singlehandedly guaranteed that the Tories won’t return to power for many a year. \*\* It seems to me that New Labour is about as left-leaning as pre-Thatcher conservatives, so no, nothing to thank her for there. But also, the wholesale restructuring of our social institutions has permanently changed the face of Britain, IMO (obviously), for the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/25 "2003-10-05T15:29:19Z")
Does anyone have anything to comment about any PM’s from any countries other than the UK and Canada? ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/26 "2003-10-05T15:52:20Z")
_I did, but he’s still in office._ ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/27 "2003-10-05T16:25:26Z")
Oh, my poor fellow Canadians. You must let go of your hate. Uncle Brian wasn’t _all_ bad. He did, after all, manage to single-handedly destroy the Tories. That probably isn’t sufficient to expiate every one of his sins, but surely it must cover a goodly number of them. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Single\_Serving\_Friend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Single\_Serving\_Friend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Single_Serving_Friend)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/28 "2003-10-05T18:32:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gum \* > \*\*_I did, but he’s still in office._ \*\* Fortunately for this thread his first political adventure only lasted 87 days, so he’s still nominated. 😃 Thank og for small blessings. And for some of the reasons behind his nomination: -He is a an empty suit. He’s visibly shaken up when talking to foreign leaders. Can’t command, inspire or guide our own government. Has no charisma whatsoever, [Just](http://image.pathfinder.com/time/europe/magazine/2002/0916/balkenende.jpg) [look](http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/15/dutch.polls/top.balkenende.jpg) [at](http://www.planet.nl/planet/show/id=62967/contentid=398572/sc=073d93)[him](http://www.rus.nl/Photos/20021017_balkene.jpg). Oh and can’t convey his message to the public in a convincing way. -His first Cabinet failed after 87 days (!), which cost the taxpayer 5 billion Euro or 1/3 of the budget cuts made by his new and improved Cabinet. -The budget cuts are mostly directed at the ‘weaker’ groups in the dutch society. Social benefits are being plundered. Cultural, Art, en youth programs are cancelled left & right. But the thing that really bugs me, is that at the end of all this, _nothing_ will have improved. The problems aren’t adressed but being paid for with poor peoples unfortune. There’s no carrot at the end of it all… and that’s just bad politics and budgeting IMO. -In a year and a half we’ve gone from a progressive country within the European Union to an empty vessel. While he’s still a recent addition to the Dutch PM league It’s the worst I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![Single\_Serving\_Friend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Single\_Serving\_Friend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Single_Serving_Friend)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/29 "2003-10-05T18:38:17Z")
:smack: Sigh. The above would all be about the Dutch Prime Minister **Jan Peter Balkenende**. Shouldn’t have made you scroll to gum’s first post there… ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/30 "2003-10-05T19:49:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > \*\*Of course you meant “and **not** for small reason”. > > The thing about Thatcher, it didn’t matter who you were (British/Irish/Argentinian/French), if you weren’t already immensely privileged or to the right of Attilla the Hun, she was going to peg you anyway. Perhaps that’s to her credit. \*\* No, I meant “For no small reason”😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/31 "2003-10-05T20:23:18Z")
**The Great Unwashed** : If you were to take a bath, I think I could love you. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_In\_Anger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@Not\_In\_Anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_In_Anger)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/32 "2003-10-05T22:01:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gorsnak \* > \*\*Oh, my poor fellow Canadians. You must let go of your hate. Uncle Brian wasn’t _all_ bad. He did, after all, manage to single-handedly destroy the Tories. That probably isn’t sufficient to expiate every one of his sins, but surely it must cover a goodly number of them. 😛 \*\* No. As unsympathetic as I am to the Tories, it was sort of nice to have an alternative government in waiting. Kept our usual governing party on its toes. Now we have a one-party state. There is corruption, but no one else to vote for. Scumbag Mulroney ruined our country in every way imaginable. I will ensure I stay alive long enough to piss copiously on his grave. I have no real words for the breadth and width of my disgust for that horrifying waste of carbon. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/33 "2003-10-05T22:23:24Z")
Ryan\_liam, very interesting for someone who uses a Communist propaganda photo as a LJ icon to call thatcher a “blessing in disguise”… as for Ireland, CJ Haughey I would reckon wins hands down. oversaw the country during the period of greatest recession and emigration in its history, was encouraging the populace to “tighten it’s belts” while he was taking Million pound backhanders from Ben Dunne and buying £1000 charvet shirts at the tax payers expense. Bertie Ahern hasn’t been as bad as him, but he has used the PD’s to stay in power, and a coalition government with the PD’s is akin to a deal with Satan. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/34 "2003-10-05T23:03:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > \*\*Hmm. Do you remember the posters: “Labour isn’t working” (we had unemployment at one and a quarter million)? Within her first term this had doubled, and rose to well over three million by the time she was ousted. Her legacy is the collapse of our Health and Education systems (which were all but universally recognised as being Good Things – the only detractors being the rabid monetartists); the laughable debacle that is our denationalised rail transport system; the abject destruction of out manufacturing base; and, an increasingly socially divided citizenship. I could go on. > > Meanwhile, they funded their piss-poor strictly-for-the-privileged tax-cuts (“cuts” my arse, IIRC there was barely a year under her administration when the tax burden didn’t rise) by selling the family silver and squandering the not insignificant income stream from Norh Sea Oil (the investment burden of which had fallen on previous Labour administrations), all the while blaming the previous Labour government for all perceived ills, slapping themselves on the back for all perceived benefits (even into the Major administration more than 10 years after the last Labour govenment, more ironic when you consider that since the 40s Labour had held power in total for less time than Thatcher’s rule). > > Fuck, this evil harridan won her second term by engaging in a nasty and unjustified war, her bought and paid-for media cronies trumpetting jingoistic and downright fascistic hatred to whip the credulous masses into a feeding frenzy (plus ça change). > > Do you remember how the police became a political tool, they themselves above the law? How she introduced pernicious and Machiavellian laws to crush any credible oppostion? How gerrymandering and electoral corruption were gleefully embraced and covered-up? While all the time we just knew they were laughing their socks off at our malleability and wholesale petty-self-interested greed. > > This megalomaniac, this demagogue, this tiny-minded, bigotted, small-town shopkeeper bitch, wins by a long chalk – it’s hardly any concellation that she is now a brain-addled old bat that embarrasses everyone, and probably pisses herself. \*\* Thank you for that post. I was trying to do something along the same lines, but you have written a more eloquent and perceptive response than the one I was feebly attempting. V ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/35 "2003-10-05T23:05:23Z")
While he’s probably not the worst PM Ireland ever had, I don’t like Eamon De Valera. (Two words: Fianna Fail. Or, if you prefere, a whole sentence: Since 1932, Fianna Fail has held power for 53 of the last 71 years, despite it’s standing for nothing.) We have a lot of Australian Dopers. Who do they think were their country’s worst PM? (BTW, if you care to, you can pick multiple people per country, if you think that they were equally bad.) ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/36 "2003-10-06T03:14:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Governor Quinn \* > **We have a lot of Australian Dopers. Who do they think were their country’s worst PM?** The general consensus is Billy McMahon (March 1971 - December 1972), who by all acccounts was a spiteful, treacherous, deluded nutter. Among his embarrassing gaffes was criticising the then Leader of the Opposition Gough Whitlam (later Prime Minister) for leading a delegation to China in 1971. McMahon called Whitlam a “pawn” of the Communist enemy… then had to eat his words when Richard Nixon annouced his proposed visit to China in the same year. McMahon was criticised as lacking in focus, being a shithouse mediator, a poor chairman, an untrustworthy dolt and being unable to form alliances – simply, Sir Billy was utterly hopeless as a leader. The job was beyond him. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/37 "2003-10-06T03:28:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Not In Anger \* > No. As unsympathetic as I am to the Tories, it was sort of nice to have an alternative government in waiting. Kept our usual governing party on its toes. Now we have a one-party state. There is corruption, but no one else to vote for. Scumbag Mulroney ruined our country in every way imaginable. I will ensure I stay alive long enough to piss copiously on his grave. I have no real words for the breadth and width of my disgust for that horrifying waste of carbon. Well, I posted with tongue firmly in cheek. 🙂 Truthfully, I believe the fragmentation of the national Tories to be far and away the worst of Mulroney’s actions. All of the corruption and fiscal mismanagement pale beside that. Not, of course, that said fragmentation was his intent, but that notwithstanding it’s clearly on his head. Without him, the Bloq and Reform/Alliance would never have become serious political entities, and we could put some fresh blood into office. Though I must admit, with all my disgruntlement at the growing corruption among the Liberals and some few of their specific policies, I cannot fault them on the whole, particularly with regards to economic issues. Thus far we’ve been very lucky with the performance of our one-party system. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/38 "2003-10-06T03:51:20Z")
Thanks to Brian Mulroney, Canada is now a one-party state. But anyway, I don’t see what’s bad about Thatcher. Britian would today be where Germany and France are if not for Thatcher. Even Labor realized the wisdom of Thatcher’s policies. If Thatcher was such a failure, they would have been able to return to power on a leftist platform as they did in the past. But instead they moved to the center and didn’t reverse most of Thatcher’s policies. And thus now Britain has a healthier economy than Continental Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_In\_Anger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@Not\_In\_Anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_In_Anger)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/39 "2003-10-06T04:12:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gorsnak \* > \*\*Well, I posted with tongue firmly in cheek. 🙂 Truthfully, I believe the fragmentation of the national Tories to be far and away the worst of Mulroney’s actions. All of the corruption and fiscal mismanagement pale beside that. Not, of course, that said fragmentation was his intent, but that notwithstanding it’s clearly on his head. Without him, the Bloq and Reform/Alliance would never have become serious political entities, and we could put some fresh blood into office. Though I must admit, with all my disgruntlement at the growing corruption among the Liberals and some few of their specific policies, I cannot fault them on the whole, particularly with regards to economic issues. Thus far we’ve been very lucky with the performance of our one-party system. \*\* Oh, man, I know. We’ve had the best govt. we’ve had in a long time. And the so-called “corruption” is overrated. Like, they said HRDC “lost” $1 billion in 2000. Upon closer examination, iurned out to be $757 ($502 U.S.) I do think that the NDP should be the official opposition, and those other parties should just go away. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609/40 "2003-10-06T04:15:55Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by adaher_ > **And thus now Britain has a healthier economy than Continental Europe.** According to the CIA, there’s not a hell of a lot of difference between the states of the economies of the U.K., France and Germany. ```auto U.K. France Germany GDP/Capita(PPP) $25,300 $25,700 $26,600 GDP Growth 1.6% 1.0% 0.4% Poverty 17% 6.4% NA Unemployment 5.2% 9.1% 9.8% ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-prime-ministers-of-all-time/205609.md?page=3)