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Past or present. We've made it pretty clear who we detest over the last few weeks but what about your favourites. For me it's John Smith. Robbed of being our prime minister . We'll never know but I think he would've been brilliant for this country.
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Your favourite politicians on 21:31 - Jul 5 with 2000 views
Your favourite politicians on 21:55 - Jul 5 by Churchman
I know what you mean about Owen and Kennedy. Kennedy made me laugh - rare for a politician.
If you like hairy backsides, Gordon Brown is your man. I saw it a good few times in the late 2000s and can confirm!
To paraphrase Michael Caine, I imagine not a lot of people know that. Were you/are you a big cheese in the Civil Service, sounds like you had/have a very interesting career?
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Your favourite politicians on 22:36 - Jul 5 with 1831 views
Your favourite politicians on 22:09 - Jul 5 by tcblue
He'll never get the credit he deserves, Gordon Brown was the best PM in my lifetime
He really wasn’t.
But please don’t ask me who was. Margaret Thatcher was certainly the most powerful in my lifetime and influential. Shame I disagreed with everything she did or stood for, bar recovering the Falkland Islands and weighing in with recovering Kuwait before she was thrown out.
I was on a conf call in a room facing Parliament Street when the box went by. The people on the other end asked if I wanted to go out and pay my respects (they could hear the procession). I said ‘only if I can check she’s in the box’. We carried on.
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Your favourite politicians on 22:56 - Jul 5 with 1808 views
Your favourite politicians on 19:10 - Jul 5 by J2BLUE
Barack Obama
What we would give for him to come back for a couple more terms (I know he can't)
I always thought Nick Clegg was decent. I know many will disagree.
Andy Burnham.
Barack Obama is terrible if you look into him. The problem is that the system selects for the worst type of person. I like Andy Burnham despite his politics. That is a good test for a good politician. Paddy Ashdown was a good one.
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Your favourite politicians on 23:42 - Jul 5 with 1750 views
Your favourite politicians on 22:31 - Jul 5 by monkeymagic
To paraphrase Michael Caine, I imagine not a lot of people know that. Were you/are you a big cheese in the Civil Service, sounds like you had/have a very interesting career?
Haha, I was barely a Dairylea triangle, but I seemed to wind up in strange places, like George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman (great books). I was there when Blunkett’s dog cr@pped on the floor and some poor bloke slipped over in it. That sort of thing.
Back to Gordon Brown, I wish it was an interesting tale. It’s not. When I worked in Parliament Street/Treasury, my work meant I could only get to the gym for a time (there’s one in the basement) early in the morning. It coincided when he was Chancellor and before he was PM and would use it - mainly the treadmill, rather sensibly.
He’d have his security man and PS with him and while the best I got from the Brownmeister was a ‘good morning’, I did get to know them a little and that was interesting.
The irony was my boss had a lot of contact with him after he became PM and us nobodies with Brown’s office on a Friday pm when we were dealing with the Child Benefit disc loss event - now there’s an interesting story.
Actually, I think I was less Flashman and more Uncle Albert, but the reality was that I, by chance, wound up with a window seat and toes well and truly immersed in a few ‘events’ 2007-2019, not least Brexit.
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Your favourite politicians on 23:52 - Jul 5 with 1736 views
Toss up between Jim Hacker and Alan B'stard..... Oh you mean real ones.
In that case Willie Whitelaw and a fondness for John Stonehouse, the one who disappeared in an attempt to fake his death and turned up in Australia, I think.
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Your favourite politicians on 00:13 - Jul 6 with 1712 views
Your favourite politicians on 00:10 - Jul 6 by mellowblue
Toss up between Jim Hacker and Alan B'stard..... Oh you mean real ones.
In that case Willie Whitelaw and a fondness for John Stonehouse, the one who disappeared in an attempt to fake his death and turned up in Australia, I think.
Also a lot of respect for Enoch Powell, a very principled man, though his principles on race weren't his best facet. A fine debater and parliamentarian.
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Your favourite politicians on 09:22 - Jul 6 with 1625 views
Your favourite politicians on 23:49 - Jul 5 by Churchman
Haha, I was barely a Dairylea triangle, but I seemed to wind up in strange places, like George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman (great books). I was there when Blunkett’s dog cr@pped on the floor and some poor bloke slipped over in it. That sort of thing.
Back to Gordon Brown, I wish it was an interesting tale. It’s not. When I worked in Parliament Street/Treasury, my work meant I could only get to the gym for a time (there’s one in the basement) early in the morning. It coincided when he was Chancellor and before he was PM and would use it - mainly the treadmill, rather sensibly.
He’d have his security man and PS with him and while the best I got from the Brownmeister was a ‘good morning’, I did get to know them a little and that was interesting.
The irony was my boss had a lot of contact with him after he became PM and us nobodies with Brown’s office on a Friday pm when we were dealing with the Child Benefit disc loss event - now there’s an interesting story.
Actually, I think I was less Flashman and more Uncle Albert, but the reality was that I, by chance, wound up with a window seat and toes well and truly immersed in a few ‘events’ 2007-2019, not least Brexit.
It must have been thrilling to witness seismic events first hand. I’m conjuring up The Thick Of It type images of you being involved in expletive ridden rows and keyboards thrown in anger wizzing past your head!
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Your favourite politicians on 09:31 - Jul 6 with 1608 views
Your favourite politicians on 09:22 - Jul 6 by monkeymagic
It must have been thrilling to witness seismic events first hand. I’m conjuring up The Thick Of It type images of you being involved in expletive ridden rows and keyboards thrown in anger wizzing past your head!
It’s strange but sometimes when you are in the middle of stuff you don’t see it as anything beyond ‘what next to do’. A odd example - When the child benefit discs were lost, I wound up providing a lot of the content for Alastair Darling’s announcement to the HoC (long story).
The people that convert normal speak into speech speak were amazing. I was asked to talk, questions etc and watched this bloke type into speech mode as I was talking. After he’d stood up in the HoC and spilled the beans, we were working late into the evening, as we’d done for about a week.
As I walked out into Parliament Street there were dozens of reporters and cameras going off. I’d had no idea that would happen. Fortunately I’d waltzed out with two or three others and as a nobody I could scuttle away with ease.
Back to anger and keyboards, there was certainly a bit of that. Plenty of panic, how are we going to to do x and y. Funnily enough, despite my capacity to lose my temper badly, I never did in the workplace. I was thought of as the calmest person around. My mother was an actress - must have inherited a bit of it!
I was at the time working on budget/fiscal projects and I was actually approached when one of the Brexit teams was formed. I said yes really because I knew I would retire in a few years and thought why not see first hand the most momentous of events. And so I did, but it was tough, stressful but fascinating work. No regrets though. Life is about experiences.
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Your favourite politicians on 09:56 - Jul 6 with 1557 views
Abraham Lincoln. His Gettysburg Address still stands out as succinct bit of communication
John F Kennedy knew how to make a good speech too - and seemed impossibly glamorous from afar
Amidst n’est more recent politicos I rather like Kier Starmer. As yet he has not said he’s got a mandate from the British people - and is sensible enough to realise less than 2% of voters thought he was any better than Corbyn’s lunacy,
Your favourite politicians on 23:49 - Jul 5 by Churchman
Haha, I was barely a Dairylea triangle, but I seemed to wind up in strange places, like George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman (great books). I was there when Blunkett’s dog cr@pped on the floor and some poor bloke slipped over in it. That sort of thing.
Back to Gordon Brown, I wish it was an interesting tale. It’s not. When I worked in Parliament Street/Treasury, my work meant I could only get to the gym for a time (there’s one in the basement) early in the morning. It coincided when he was Chancellor and before he was PM and would use it - mainly the treadmill, rather sensibly.
He’d have his security man and PS with him and while the best I got from the Brownmeister was a ‘good morning’, I did get to know them a little and that was interesting.
The irony was my boss had a lot of contact with him after he became PM and us nobodies with Brown’s office on a Friday pm when we were dealing with the Child Benefit disc loss event - now there’s an interesting story.
Actually, I think I was less Flashman and more Uncle Albert, but the reality was that I, by chance, wound up with a window seat and toes well and truly immersed in a few ‘events’ 2007-2019, not least Brexit.
I'm sorry he wasn't a very sociable chap but his navigation through the economic crisis was admired and copied across the world.
That's the only reason I put him as the best PM in my lifetime, even though he wasn't especially well-liked
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Your favourite politicians on 07:54 - Jul 13 with 1229 views
Your favourite politicians on 07:41 - Jul 13 by tcblue
I'm sorry he wasn't a very sociable chap but his navigation through the economic crisis was admired and copied across the world.
That's the only reason I put him as the best PM in my lifetime, even though he wasn't especially well-liked
It could be argued that in creating the FSA and dividing financial regulation between it and the Bank of England worsened the financial crisis, from a U.K. perspective. It is noticeable that the FSA was dissolved a few years after the disastrous events of 2008. That was created on Brown’s watch.
In terms of dealing with the crisis, Alastair Darling (i rated him) was Chancellor and did much of the navigating I believe. However I am probably being harsh on Brown. He was the PM and is ultimately accountable so should also get the credit. I would add that whatever his shortcomings, Brown was by no means the worst Chancellor we’ve ever had - the last 14 years’ worth for beginners!
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Your favourite politicians on 08:18 - Jul 13 with 1206 views
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