Mick Hartley

The Times has a feature today on the worst governments of the century. Daniel Finkelstein picks the return of Harold Wilson in ’74 to ’76.
Other writers choose to differ: Anthony Howard goes for John Major, Boris Johnson for James Callaghan, and Michael Dobbs for Anthony Eden. They all make compelling cases, though Michael Dobbs provides perhaps the most inappropriate Iraq comparison I’ve yet come across:

The Suez crisis was a massive diplomatic disaster. Britain, France and Israel were halfway up the canal when the Americans stepped in and made them pull out. It was an imperialist war and therefore unacceptable. The demonstrations on the streets of London were not dissimilar from the recent protests against the war in Iraq. The fact that Eden was ruined soon after might be a warning to Tony Blair, were he not already too far gone to heed such admonitions.

But I was thinking, how unlike the government of our own dear leader. Yes, he’s just made a speech going on the offensive about Iraq, and I have to say once again I find myself in the strange position of admiring him. It’s never happened to me before, admiring a Prime Minister, and it wasn’t an option I’d seriously considered when he was elected in ’97, at which time I found him unappealing. Nor of course do I agree with everything he does now; but about Iraq, the most important issue of the day, he’s not only been firm and consistent, but he’s also been extremely eloquent.