Hello United Kingdom! Who are your favorite Prime Ministers throughout history?

Question

All 14 educated Americans, and even then rest, have a favorite President. Just tell me your favorites and why. You can even add a King or Queen to your answer, just to make it more fun for us Yanks.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Good question Boomer Wisdom. There is only one person that gets my vote: Winston Churchill. He would never survive today as Prime Minister because of his many flaws - the press would crucify him - but as a wartime-leader he was second to none. He was the main reason this country came through WWII.

One of his many flaws was his misuse of his famous two fingered v-sign. Here in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland it means the same as your one-fingered sign if used with the back of the hand towards you.

My Uncle, Billy Dungle (one of the cockney Dungle’s from Bethnal Green), gave Winston a good telling off for gesturing at him in such a fashion when he was touring the bombed out East End of London. “ ’ere Winnie,” he shouted “don't come around 'ere insulting us, keep your bloody Germans in your sky unless you want a bunch of fives in your boat race!” (This translates as 'keep your hands in your pockets unless you want to be punched in the mouth'). Winston quickly explained what he meant by the gesture and after several pints in the local battle cruiser and becoming totally Brahms and Liszt, they became the best of friends. Thanks to Billy, Winston never used the v-sign round the wrong way again.

Here’s a picture of Winston here doing the sign the wrong way around before he met Uncle Billy.
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/VSign.Jpeg

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Winston Churchill.
Churchill was a statesman, orator, author, historian and Prime Minister who rallied the British people in the Second World War and took them from the edge of defeat to victory.

Churchill’s leadership during the war is legendary. He became Prime minister when the Cabinet were on the verge of seeking terms with Hitler and Germany. But Churchill would not contemplate defeat or even a honourable truce. His saying was ‘We will never give in’. Churchill is credited with conducting the war single-handedly. He made himself Minister for War as well as being Prime Minister and delegated the running of home affairs to junior ministers. Churchill sat at his desk in the Cabinet Office, dictating memos and orders and giving instructions but letting others get on with it. Churchill’s true talent was leadership, not performance. Churchill had a bed in his office suite and habitually slept in the afternoon. He had by a side, in his office, a mixture of brandy and water, which was continually refreshed. Critics say that this put him in a continuously drunken state.

Churchill was a historian. He wrote The History of The English Speaking Peoples, an account not just of English history but also of the British Empire and United States. This work was designed to demonstrate that the British people and their colonies are a unique culture distinct from European civilisations.

Churchill was an author. His book My Early Life, although outwardly an autobiography, is in fact novel with the young Churchill as one of the characters. In the book, Churchill sits the entrance examination for Harrow but on taking the Latin paper, carefully wrote the title, his name and the question number 1. After further thought, he adds brackets to the number but cannot think of anything to write and his paper is smudged by an inkblot. Churchill’s comments on the wisdom of the headmaster in accepting him despite this is an ironic comment not on the inability of his younger self but on the educational system of the time.

Churchill was known for his eloquence and his ready wit. On being accused of being a turncoat for changing parties twice, Churchill reposted ‘anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat.’ When an official criticised other writers for ending sentences with propositions, Churchill added a note ‘This is the sort of English, up with which I will not put’. On one occasion a lady heckler shouted ‘Sir, you are drunk’. Churchill replied ‘And you, madam are ugly, but I shall be sober, tomorrow!’

Answer 3

David Lloyd George,

Answer 4

I love Blair, because I voted for him and he won - the only time this has ever happened!

I love Harold Wilson, because he was the secret liberalising force presiding over Beatles-era Britain

I love Lord Palmerston, because he was not afraid to kick foreign powers' asses in the name of the British Empire - kind of like a 19th Century Bush, but with gravitas.

Last of all I love - to hate! - Maggie Thatcher, because she blighted my schooldays with her incessant whining voice, and because she tried to do the palmerston thing about 100 years too late.
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I love Queen Elizabeth 2nd too of course. She's just always been there - I can't imagine what the world will be like if she ever dies!

Answer 5

This is complicated to reply considering there were a few first-class PMs (sorry, Tone is not among them). Churchill was once evidently the finest PM of the final century, however I am additionally very torn among Pitt and Disraeli. These 3 relatively did go away a legacy for which we will have to be thankful.

Answer 6

LOL, at the Billy Dungle story, although I think you 'alf-inched it from Alf Garnett. Sounds like you've been tellin' porkies, aintcha, mate.