Arbitrary List Of The Day- Best To Worst Republican Candidates For President.

Still active candidates in bold:

1. Gary Johnson (former governor of New Mexico)
2. Mitt Romney (former governor of Massachussetts)
3. Jon Huntsman (former governor of Utah)
4. Tim Pawlenty (former governor of Minnesota)
5. Rick Perry (governor of Texas)
6. Ron Paul (Texas congressman)
7. Herman Cain (Businessman)
8. Rick Santorum (former senator for Pennsylvania)
9. Michelle Bachmann (Minnesota congresswoman)
10. Newt Gingrich (former speaker of the house)

The Ten Most Irritating Politicians Since The War

I missed Rod Liddle's poll to find the most irritating politicians since the war so he is my list. Obviously there is a strong bias towards politicians whom I am old enough to actually remember with only Bevan and Williams being from before the 1980s. I don't suppose being irritating makes someone bad at their job, I suspect I would have found Gladstone insuuferable had I been alive in the 19th Century but he was still a great figure. None of these people are though:

1. Shirley Williams- sanctimonious, hypocritical and destructive.
2. Denis Macshane- Hyper partisan and a compulsive liar.
3. David Mellor- Useless, incompetent, arrogant and hypocritical.
4. Edwina Currie- John Major has my sympathy.
5. John Bercow- Horrible little man, models himself on Mr Toad.
6. Harriet Harman- Don't worry Hattie women won't be underrepresented on this list thanks to you.
7. Alan Clarke- No he wasn't a "character" or a "wit" he was a boorish, insecure charlatan with an mystifying level of belief in his own abilities.
8. Mo Mowlam- Despite carefully cultivating a "people's politician" image she was just another politician with a deluded sense of her own importance.
9. Nye Bevan- To me he sounds like "Kinnock Mk 1" rather than an inspirational figure. His voice grates.
10. Lembit Opik- A very cheeky boy.

Honourable mentions for: Tony Benn, Tam Daylell, Patricia Hewitt, michael Portillo, Douglas Hurd, Simon Hughes, Charles Kennedy, Chris Huhne, David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Stafford Cripps and Virginia Bottomley.

Gordon Brown Is Not The Worst PM Ever.....

.....just the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The historians poll of post war prime ministers that rates Gordon Brown as the 3rd worst PM since the war is as silly and argument provoking as all these surveys. My own ranking of British PMs since the Reform Act of 1831 is here. However as Joseph Tagaki points out, much of the problems of Brown's tenure were to do with his previous stint as Chancellor under Tony Blair, say what you want about Brown but his Chancellor was much better than Blair's. There are too many Chancellors to rank easily for the whole post war period, but if the starting point is 1979 then I'd rank them in something like this order:

1. Geoffrey Howe
2. Ken Clarke
3. Norman Lamont*
4. Alastair Darling**
5. Nigel Lawson
6. John Major
7. Gordon Brown

How far back would one have to go to find a Chancellor who was worse than Brown? At least as far back as Anthony Barber in the 1970s but possibly all the way back to before the War.

* Norman Lamont is often seen as a failure but he gets a lot of unfair blame for the shortcomings of John Major and Nigel Lawson and doesn't get enough credit for the success during Ken Clarke's tenure.

** Had one hell of a mess to deal with.

Completely Arbitrary* List Of The Day.

Best to worst British Prime Ministers since the Great Reform Act:

1- Winston Churchill, 2- William Gladstone, 3- Margaret Thatcher, 4- David Lloyd George, 5- Lord Salisbury, 6- Viscount Palmerston

7- Clement Attlee, 8- Robert Peel, 9- Earl Grey, 10- Benjamin Disraeli, 11- Henry Asquith, 12- Stanley Baldwin

13- James Callaghan, 14- Harold Macmillan, 15- Earl of Derby, 16- John Major, 17- Henry Campbell Bannerman, 18- Lord John Russell

19- Tony Blair, 20- Alec Douglas Home, 21- Andrew Bonar Law, 22- Harold Wilson, 23- Ramsay MacDonald, 24- Arthur Balfour

25- Lord Melbourne, 26- Edward Heath, 27- Earl of Aberdeen, 28- Lord Rosebery, 29- Neville Chamberlain, 30- Anthony Eden.

Obviously the great leader Gordon Brown can't yet be considered for this list until he completes his term but I think he might be in the top 30. Also for a few of the more obscure PM's my judgement on them is based on very few sources.

* Actually arbitrary is probably the wrong word, subjective is more like it.

Presidental Rankings.

Seeing as everyone likes lists and my previous post was about ranking US presidents here is my highly authoritative ranking of 20th century Presidents. I won't include any explanations just yet (because it is half past two in the morning) although I have thought through all of them and may add brief explanations tomorrow.

First Rate.

Reagan- After a sustained period of poor to middling government he restored intelligent leadership to both foreign and domestic policy. Faced down Soviets whilst reviving the moribund US economy.
Truman- Plunged in the deep end, but was able to make the right decisions in WW2, and later implemented the Truman doctrine to prevent Soviet expansionism in the face of opposition within his own party. Surprisingly unpopular during his time in office.
Eisenhower- Apart from a fondness for coups his foreign policy was strong in facing up to the Soviets and he oversaw a steady boom period. Also pushed through racial desegregation of the army.
Coolidge- Resisted calls to involve the federal government too heavily in the economy and helped restore the dignity of his office.

Middling

Bush- Reasonable domestic policy and handled the major crisis of his tenure, the invasion of Kuwait, brilliantly.
Kennedy- Buggered up over Cuba, but passed big tax cuts which helped invigorate the economy.
Clinton- End of Cold War meant that his weakness on foreign policy was only a limited handicap. Domestically he appointed a good treasury secretary, passed NAFTA and let the Republicans reform welfare.
Taft- Meh.
Nixon- Good on foreign policy but way to the left domestically with policies including Affirmative Action, wage & price controls and the extension of big government.
Ford- Amoral foreign policy combined with average domestic policy.

Poor.

T. Roosevelt- Started unnecessary wars and demonised business. Almost as overrated as the other Roosevelt.
Harding- Not as bad as he is usually considered, the way he dealt with a severe economic downturn puts Franklin Roosevelt to shame.
Wilson- Buggered peace negotiations after WW1 by failing to keep USA involved in world affairs.
Carter - Only reason he is in the poor rather than disastrous category is because he was too useless even to fuck up properly.

Disastrous

Hoover - Raised taxes and reintroduced massive tariffs into the world economy.
Johnson - Failure in Vietnam, and massive expansion of welfare state and crime levels. In fairness he passed the civil rights act but that was more symbolic than effective.
F. Roosevelt- Prolonged the depression and failed to prepare for war.