Britain’s Greatest Prime Minister: Gladstone, Lloyd George, Attlee, Thatcher
By George Chamier
Winston Churchill often tops the polls in regards to the Greatest Briton, or Greatest Prime Minister – but if one argues that Churchill is an exception due to his being a wartime Prime Minister, who then can we say is the greatest?
Historian George Chamier discusses four great Prime Ministers. William Gladstone, the ‘Grand Old Man’ of the Victorian age – four times Prime Minister, an MP for an astonishing 63 years and unique as a politician in that his ideas became more radical as he grew older. David Lloyd George, the ‘Welsh Wizard’ and the ‘Man who Won the [First] War’ – a fiery orator and a fighter for social justice whose dynamic leadership was accompanied by an often scandalous private life. Clement Attlee, the unassuming socialist who held together the talented but difficult individuals in Labour’s first majority government and created the modern Welfare State. Finally, Margaret Thatcher, the first woman Prime Minister and the longest serving of the 20th century, the ‘Iron Lady’ whose policies shook up every institution in the country and who dedicated herself to putting the Great back into Britain.
All four changed the political weather of their own day and left a rich legacy behind them. This short book makes a case for each as the greatest, looking at their personal style, their political skills, their policies and their impact on the country, before coming to a conclusion about who was the greatest of them all.
George Chamier was formerly Head of History at Bradfield College and now works as a tutor, editor and examiner. His publications include ‘When it Happened in Britain’ and ‘When it Happened in Scotland’.
