SPL : Labour PMs more successful than Tory PMs?
Perhaps more arguable is the fourth-tier position allotted to Harold Wilson and Harold Macmillan on the grounds of high promise unfulfilled. Both, at least, had promise worth fulfilling. Macmillan raised his party and to some extent the country from despair, and did the job in some style. Electorally, 1960s Britain seemed set in a Conservative mould. So Wilson’s re-establishment of the Labour Party as a party of government, and the significant changes in the machinery of government during his first and second administration deserve some mark-up. Both Wilson and Macmillan faced intractable problems of economic decline compounded by additional individual afflictions—in Macmillan’s case, his prostate disease and in Wilson’s, the left wing of the Labour Party. Both are easy prey for the quotation-makers. “Harold”, one of Wilson’s own officials at Number Ten is quoted as saying, “wanted to be a combination of the head of MI5 and news editor of the Daily Mirror.” Nonetheless, he and Macmillan were the most intellectually accomplished of the post-war premiers and the best parliamentary performers, and some might dispute their demotion below Heath and Callaghan.
5: Margaret Thatcher
5: Clement Attlee
4: Edward Heath
4: Winston Churchill
4: Harold Macmillan
4: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
3: Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil
3: Herbert Henry Asquith
3: David Lloyd George
3: Stanley Baldwin
3: James Harold Wilson
3: Tony Blair
2: James Callaghan
2: Arthur James Balfour
1: Andrew Bonar Law
1: James Ramsay MacDonald
1: Sir Alec Douglas-Home
1: John Major
0: Robert Anthony Eden
0: Neville Chamberlain
Most of this is pretty uncontroversial, although I doubt that Ted Heath deserves a 4. On the Hennessy scale, there were four tiers: Atlee and Thatcher came top; then Heath and Blair; then Churchill and Callaghan; then Wilson and Macmillan. Like The Economist, I'd be inclined to promote the latter two:
Minor disputes aside, what interesting party-political conclusions may be drawn from the above lists? On Hennessy's scale, the parties are equal - both Labour and Conservative occupy every tier. In contrast, Beckett's scale gives an average of 2.3 points for Tory PMs and 2.8 points for Labour PMs. Can we conclude from this that Labour PMs have been more successful than Tories at implementing their policies over the twentieth century, especially given that they have had less time in office? Cautiously, yes. The Tory score is skewed by PMs who, given their incompetence, were quickly booted out by their own party (Law, Home, Eden, Chamberlain). Nevertheless, the conclusion holds: Labour PMs have, in general, been more successful than their Tory counterparts.
Discussion and Debate on Westminster, British Politics, Economics and
Current Affairs
3 Comments:
I follow your sound reasoning but it seems an odd conclusion when one considers Labour PMs have not been outstanding in the way Thatcher and Churchill were. Attlee is often cited as being wonderful -and I can sympathize with the view- but he was not distinguished intellectually or as a communicator. Churchill did not like TV but as a younger man would surely have mastered it. One feels poor old Clem would have made Tony Newton or Geoffrey Howe seem charismatic by comparison.
Indeed, although it's probably fairer to judge PMs in the context of their premiership, rather than how they may have performed in today's climate.
Thatcher nor Churchill were distinguished intellectually either - in fact of all the C20th PMs, only Harold Wilson springs to mind as being exceptionally distinguished academically.
I agree that it probably is an odd conclusion, for the further reason that the C20th is often seen as Tory-dominated. Given this, however, I think it would be fair to say that the five Labour PMs have exercised an influence over British political life (particularly re the post-war consensus, thanks to Atlee and nearly-PM Gaitskell) which belies their total number of years in office.
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