The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn

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John Smith is the man who would have been prime minister, and Blair could not have got into office if it hadn't been for the great work done by Mr Smith. New Labour today would have been very different under his leadership. He was a decent man, but what most people seem to forget is that he single-handedly did more to lose the 1992 general election for Labour than anyone else - with his "Shadow Budget" which helped the Conservatives secure the largest number of votes for a political party in British history. As you’d expect, the chapters on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the jewels in the crown, but the entire set glitters. Richards has a nice line in pithy summaries of the politicians who cross his stage – David Cameron, we are told, “possessed a sunnier personality than most leaders and yet his ending was uniquely dark”, while Harold Wilson’s deputy, George Brown, “was a formidable character when sober, but too often he was drunk”. Eccleshall & Walker 2002, pp.213, 221; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.205–210; Mosley 2003, p.3505; Pryde et al. 1996, p.47; Sandys 1910, p.287.

Mr James Callaghan". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Archived from the original on 23 June 2018 . Retrieved 30 August 2018. March 27, 1912–26 March 2005. Wingate, Sophie (6 September 2022). "Liz Truss to become UK's third female prime minister". independent.co.uk. Independent . Retrieved 25 October 2022. The analysis is fascinating. The role of the media in reducing some great political heavyweights to cliches is highlighted, as is the worrying tendency for people to get to the ‘top job’ because (rather than despite) their having little front bench experience. I wouldn’t agree with Roberts’ suggestion of introducing presidential style elections in the UK, but in posing the question he raises some interesting issues. Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.54; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.45–50; Kebbel 1864, p.143; Venning 2005, p.93.

How unusual is it to have a Prime Minister without an election?

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Vol.55. London, UK: Royal Statistical Society. 1948 [First published 1892] – via the Internet Archive. a b The British Magazine and Review 1782, p.79; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, pp.46, 50; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.39–43. Cook & Stevenson 1980, p.11; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.28; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.16–21; Pryde et al. 1996, p.46; Tout 1910, p.740. I felt sorry for the nation but also sadness for the man as he did so much to unify the left and right factions of the Labour party. His legacy was to leave the party in a robust state to finally take on and finish the Tories. Butler & Butler 2010, pp.61, 270; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.392; Seldon 2007, pp.77, 371, 647; UK Parliament 2017b.

To take some recent examples, Tony Blair and David Cameron came in due to elections in 1997 and 2010, while Gordon Brown, Theresa May and Boris Johnson all entered office following the resignation of their predecessors. The country would be a vastly different place with John Smith in office. He was a politician with true conviction, a rare breed in the modern world. Pryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (3rded.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-56350-5.Mr Edward Heath". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Archived from the original on 16 June 2018 . Retrieved 14 July 2018. July 9, 1916–17 July 2005.

What Prime Ministers could the UK have had? What made them potential leaders and what stopped them from getting to their ultimate goal? These are the questions explored in depth in this book.The 20th anniversary of the death of this reforming Labour Leader has just passed. The Guardian ran a piece by Tony Blair's former Director of Political Operations John McTernan to mark the occasion, under the headline "John Smith would have led us to a decent world" (we won't ask what sort of world he thinks his old boss led us to). Most importantly, Smith would have had a better chance than anyone else at containing the separatist feeling in Scotland which now—for better or worse—threatens to throw Westminster into chaos. A lifelong advocate of the Scottish Parliament and opponent of Scottish nationalism, he memorably set out his opposition to the separatists in 1976, saying: “I say it as a Scot myself, representing a Scottish constituency, born and brought up in Scotland, living and wishing to continue living in Scotland, a member of a Scots profession, with children at Scottish schools, and having roots too deep in Scotland ever to wish to sever them. I think I am as entitled as any separatists to speak for my fellow countrymen.”