Reply #6: Attlee, hands down.

[cheeseit]

Establishment to the core and way too timid, but still easily the most progressive PM this country's ever had- he forged a genuinely social democratic consensus, the NHS (primarily Nye Bevan's achievement, but central to Attlee's programme) and the narrowing inequality seen in the years between his and Thatcher's administrations testify nicely to the success of his government.

To be honest though, I think most of our 20th century PMs have been lousy. Churchill was a great war leader- although in all the hoopla it gets forgotten that it was usually Attlee or Ernest Bevin's job to speak to the British people and keep their morale up during the war, and his peacetime premiership was totally unspectacular.

Lloyd George was a superb Chancellor of the Exchequer, but a hopelessly corrupt and self-serving Prime Minister; though I concede he pursued the war effectively and his electoral reform act was an achievement, he didn't deliver much for those returning from the trenches, especially compared to what Attlee did 30 years later.

Asquith's government instituted alot of important reforms, but Lloyd George was the real star of that administration and Asquith floundered horribly once war broke out. Baldwin just sat on his hands while Britain descended into crisis- although at least he didn't stab his own people in the back to do so like MacDonald, I suppose.

Thatcher was the worst Prime Minister of the century, without question. Thanks to her we live in a society where Tony Blair passes for left of centre. Not to mention a society riddled with inequality, social division and an overriding sense of selfish individualism. Having said that, I think the compalcency and lack of imagination of people like Wilson and Callaghan paved the way for her, by sucking the dynamism out of a social model which was fundamentally sound, but obviously had to move with the times.