Cameron, May or Johnson - worst PM since 2010?
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 9:46 pm
This question has been bugging me for a few months now. I suspect most would list either Johnson or Cameron as the worst, but I always come back to May as the one most to blame for our current travails as a nation.
What does everyone else think? Please show your workings.
3rd worst – David Cameron
CONS - Superficial lightweight who decided the best way to stop his party from “banging on about Europe” was to hold a fucking nationwide referendum on the matter, which he promptly lost. Chillaxed his way through Indyref as well, and set about exploiting (e.g. EVEL, the entire Tory 2015 GE campaign) the divisions it created rather than solving them. Enacted austerity, let the bankers off the hook (“clearing up the mess left behind by the last Labour government”), and rolled over for Murdoch when Leveson looked like it might become reality.
Despite winning the first Tory majority in a generation, was out of a job barely a year later and even whistled a merry fucking tune to himself as he departed the stage for the last time.
PROS - Cameron was at least pretty good at the Serious Stuff when he needed to be, and also somehow managed to get the same-sex marriage bill past his party.
2nd worst – Boris Johnson
CONS - A cynical chancer and a grifter who spotted an opportunity and took it. Lied to the country about Brexit, brought Dominic Cummings into Downing Street, tried to prorogue parliament. Lucked out against the most unpopular LOTO since time began, and eventually screwed up the COVID response. Appoints lackeys and cronies to the Cabinet whilst corruption becomes commonplace. Has utterly trashed the UK’s reputation as serious-minded pragmatists. By a long distance the most ill-suited PM of the three.
PROS –I find it strangely difficult to get too mad at Johnson simply because, unlike David “One Nation” Cameron and Theresa “Serious Politician” May, Johnson has merely behaved exactly how we all expected him to be as PM. I suspect many people will judge him as Worst PM, but he is at least being true to his past form.
1st worst – Theresa May
CONS – was supposed to be the grown up in the room, yet appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Many of our current woes can be traced directly back to the ruinous decision-making made during her time at the helm, e.g. to not only leave the E.U. but to also depart the Customs Union and the Single Market as well. Gave some of the most lamentable speeches ever delivered by a UK PM, such as when she accused the EU of trying to affect the outcome of GE2017, or when she gave a party conference speech so utterly appalling the backdrop started falling apart in protest. Was so dreadful during GE2017 she somehow made Jeremy Corbyn popular (for a while), and ended up losing over thirty of her own MPs. Didn’t take the hint and hobbled on for another two years whilst being propped up by the DUP. Could’ve been the British Merkel, but blew her only chance in order to appease the Spartan headbangers who soon betrayed her anyway.
PROS – is trying reinvent herself as a Respected Backbencher, but it is far too little & far too late.
What does everyone else think? Please show your workings.
3rd worst – David Cameron
CONS - Superficial lightweight who decided the best way to stop his party from “banging on about Europe” was to hold a fucking nationwide referendum on the matter, which he promptly lost. Chillaxed his way through Indyref as well, and set about exploiting (e.g. EVEL, the entire Tory 2015 GE campaign) the divisions it created rather than solving them. Enacted austerity, let the bankers off the hook (“clearing up the mess left behind by the last Labour government”), and rolled over for Murdoch when Leveson looked like it might become reality.
Despite winning the first Tory majority in a generation, was out of a job barely a year later and even whistled a merry fucking tune to himself as he departed the stage for the last time.
PROS - Cameron was at least pretty good at the Serious Stuff when he needed to be, and also somehow managed to get the same-sex marriage bill past his party.
2nd worst – Boris Johnson
CONS - A cynical chancer and a grifter who spotted an opportunity and took it. Lied to the country about Brexit, brought Dominic Cummings into Downing Street, tried to prorogue parliament. Lucked out against the most unpopular LOTO since time began, and eventually screwed up the COVID response. Appoints lackeys and cronies to the Cabinet whilst corruption becomes commonplace. Has utterly trashed the UK’s reputation as serious-minded pragmatists. By a long distance the most ill-suited PM of the three.
PROS –I find it strangely difficult to get too mad at Johnson simply because, unlike David “One Nation” Cameron and Theresa “Serious Politician” May, Johnson has merely behaved exactly how we all expected him to be as PM. I suspect many people will judge him as Worst PM, but he is at least being true to his past form.
1st worst – Theresa May
CONS – was supposed to be the grown up in the room, yet appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Many of our current woes can be traced directly back to the ruinous decision-making made during her time at the helm, e.g. to not only leave the E.U. but to also depart the Customs Union and the Single Market as well. Gave some of the most lamentable speeches ever delivered by a UK PM, such as when she accused the EU of trying to affect the outcome of GE2017, or when she gave a party conference speech so utterly appalling the backdrop started falling apart in protest. Was so dreadful during GE2017 she somehow made Jeremy Corbyn popular (for a while), and ended up losing over thirty of her own MPs. Didn’t take the hint and hobbled on for another two years whilst being propped up by the DUP. Could’ve been the British Merkel, but blew her only chance in order to appease the Spartan headbangers who soon betrayed her anyway.
PROS – is trying reinvent herself as a Respected Backbencher, but it is far too little & far too late.