Rod Liddle Needs To Read A Book.

Rod Liddle denounces Harriet Harman as being thick. This is true enough although I'm not sure why the Spectator consider it to be a worthy cover story. Perhaps next week I can make the front cover with an edgy opinion piece arguing that Ronnie Corbett isn't very tall.

Anyway there is a rather odd sentence in the piece:

The reason we should have disquiet about Harriet is because she is either thick or criminally disingenuous. My guess is thick. Being a bit thick should not disqualify someone from leading their party, I suppose, as both Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Salisbury would concur.

Lord Salisbury thick? This the man whom Churchill described as "that mighty intellect" and is generally regarded as one of our most astute PMs ever.

I was going to write more on this subject but having just googled the subject I see that Jonathan Pearce at Samizdata has noticed the same bizarre sentence, so go and read his post instead.

I suspect that Liddle has seen an aristocratic PM and assumed that he must be some Bertie Wooster type of upper class twit but hasn't thought it necessary to actually know learn anything about Lord Salisbury before developing an opinion.

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.