Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Today Mrs May has been Prime Minister for as long as Gordon Brown and is about to overtake the Duke of Wellington

Today Theresa May has been Prime Minister for as long as Gordon Brown. 

Prime Ministers care about such things. Churchill was careful to make sure, when he resigned, that he had held the office for a few days less than Asquith, to whom he owed so much.

Mr. Brown was a disaster in so many ways, most of all because he presided over astronomic levels of immigration, but he did one thing to earn his countrymen's undying gratitude. When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) he saved the country from the euro. 

Had we joined the Euro, Brexit would have been impossible. Had he permitted a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon it would not have been necessary.

Theresa May will overtake the Duke of Wellington, another failure as Prime Minister but not nearly as bad as her and a very great man, later this week. 

In July, she should overtake Neville Chamberlain, who was a very able man in a terrible spot. 

No-one can say that of her, and not just because she is a woman.

Will her successor last as long as she did? It's not certain at all.

Charles Greville, the diarist, records that when Lord Melbourne, the most languid Prime Minister we ever had, was offered the job he said to his secretary, Tom Young:
"I think it's a damned bore. I am in many minds as to what to do." 
To this Young replied:
"Why, damn it all, such a position was never held by any Greek or Roman: and if it only lasts three months, it will be worthwhile to have been Prime Minister of England."
"By God, that's true. I'll go!"

Theresa May marks this milestone by attending the EU summit. And yet despite the humiliation of attending as a powerless cypher and meeting people who comprehensively destroyed all that she tried to achieve, she is desperately sad that she cannot continue in the job. 

I wrote here about how she compares with other terrible Prime Ministers like Edward Heath and Lord North. Plot spoiler: badly.


  1. 'Will her predecessor last as long?'

    You mean 'successor', obviously.

  2. Mays legacy - the current Private Eye cover:


    Ha, ha, ha, - worth buying the rag for the cover alone this issue.

    1. It would be funny except that she is no joke. I thank God that she had no achievements as they would all have been malign.

  3. Churchill was in the same "terrible spot" as Chamberlain but was somewhat more successful. The whole appeasement thing was a fiasco... what makes Chamberlain so "able"...?

    1. Churchill was in a very much worse spot than Chamberlain and was rescued from it by Germany invading Russia and declaring war on Japan. The latter was completely unforeseeable and the former was surprising. Chamberlain until 1936 had been a remarkably successful Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was much more than what Lloyd George called him, 'a good Lord Mayor of Birmingham in a bad year'. Some blame Chamberlain for Munich, but the French would not have gone to war for the Czechs. Others blame him for giving guarantees to Poland and Romania in 1939 and then going to war. Halifax and Chamberlain had both hoped that Germany and Russia would end up fighting each other and wanted to be out of their way when they did but Halifax executed a volte face just before the Munich conference. Chamberlain saw Halifax and Churchill as political threats. Maurice Cowling thought the unfought election of 1939 or 1940 explains why we went to war.