How Does History Judge Prime Ministers?
Political reputations are forged by actions, but the long view of history can be hard to predict.
‘Increasingly, the question is one of basic competence’
Emily Jones is Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester
For some UK prime ministers, their fate travels no further than your local pub quiz: who was the only prime minister to have been assassinated? Spencer Perceval. 1812 for a bonus point.
A rare few are elevated to the status of national (even international) hero – or villain – because of their involvement in global conflicts. Winston Churchill, most obviously, has been mythologised as the prime minister who rescued Britain and her allies at their ‘darkest hour’. His precursors meanwhile – Neville Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin – were long cast as ‘Guilty Men’ who sought to appease Hitler. We might add Tony Blair and Iraq. But international conflict is not the only grounds for legendary national status. Institutions matter, too: the Attlee government and the construction of ‘our’ NHS.
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