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Is Being the UK Prime Minister an Impossible Job? · Mark and Pete

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  Is being the UK Prime Minister an impossible job?
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. Being the Prime Minister here is
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  a bit like being captain of thy Titanic these days.
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  Yes, this is Mark and Pete's two blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. Prime Minister's tipple politics
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  is riddled with ministerial malice.
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  So before you set off to Buckingham Palace, raise a glass
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  to the King, but beware what he could bring to drink from a
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  poisoned chalice. Yes, the very idea of being
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  British Prime Minister would certainly be something that most
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  members of Parliament would aspire to.
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  But in the 21st century, we've seen a lot of change.
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  Now, Mr. Pete, here we go yet again with the shenanigans of
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  politics. We've seen numerous prime
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  ministers come and go, or one time they used to last several
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  terms. In fact, in some cases they
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  would either be ousted and come back.
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  But no, the tenure of a Prime Minister today in the United
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  Kingdom seems to be very short. Is this just simply that we
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  don't have the right calibre politician?
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  Is it something else that's influencing it?
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  What say you about being a British Prime Minister?
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  Well, just in outline, it does seem to be that the the we have
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  a poor calibre of politician just generally because, and I'm
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  this is not talking about competence, although certainly
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  in some cases Keir Starmer, there are people who not that
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  competent, even though that's their only claim to fame.
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  It's it's more that they don't seem to be in just generally
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  speaking, what we used to call used to be popular to have
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  conviction politicians. So they have ideas, they have
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  thoughts. They come into the office in
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  order to make a change of something very specific, not
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  just to get the job and the professionalisation, you know,
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  as it it becomes one of the professions to be a Prime
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  Minister or to be an MP, becomes just a job, has changed things.
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  And that's sort of that sort of change has been really going on
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  since the time of Blair when he was Prime Minister and has been
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  accelerating ever since until we get into the current palace
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  place that we are now. Yeah.
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  That is reflected by the length of time people say that say that
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  because people just get dissatisfied with what is
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  basically an an, an entity who has no ideas and the ideas that
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  they try and implement have been tried before and don't work.
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  Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair both did about a decade each as
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  Prime Minister, whereas, well, in recent years we've had, of
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  course, we've had Liz Truss who did only 49 days, but generally
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  their their ten years got less and less.
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  And it seems like our current Prime Minister, the venerable
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  Mr. Starmer, is going to do less than one term.
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  We'll see, of course. But it does seem that the
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  poisoned chalice imagery that you put forward in your poem is
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  the case that you who would take on that job answer someone who's
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  a conviction politician. Yes.
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  Well, there's another aspect to this, because when the the
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  candidates, they sort of rise to the surface, whether the, you
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  know, they're replacing somebody else that's been elected or
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  whether they do become elected like Sakir Starmer, they face a
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  number of challenges. One obvious one is the divisions
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  within their own party. So if we take something like,
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  yes, I'm afraid we're going to have to say it again, Europe,
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  yes. The fact is, is that some people
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  are divided over this. Some people want to be in
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  Europe, some people don't want to be in Europe.
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  Sometimes what that means is on a given topic, the Prime
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  Minister is sort of in an awkward position.
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  They almost become a lame duck in some ways that they're
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  presiding over Parliament, but they really can't make the
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  difference. And, and is it that maybe that
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  it's not just necessarily the individual or maybe with the
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  exception of secure Starmer, but the fact is, is that it could be
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  this principle of it's an impossible job because the
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  nation is so divided now. In the past, we had a much more
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  unified approach. I agree with you about the
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  vision. This is very much where you
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  know, if you look back, say for example at Harold Wilson, he had
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  a very clear vision in the late 60's, the white heat of
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  technology. Now some people disagreed with
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  it. Maybe they felt they should go a
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  different direction, but the fact is it was very clear.
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  Then you look at Margaret Thatcher, which is we're going
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  to go for a service based approach.
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  You know very much the focus on the financial industries,
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  insurance, banking and things. Now, again, just to be clear,
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  we're not endorsing that. We know the good and the bad
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  behind it, but it was very, very distinctive.
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  It had a very clear strategy and those prime ministers were also
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  very strong in the way that they actually ran their cabinet.
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  I don't see that from the the prime ministers that we've had
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  this century and it, dare I say it seems to be this century that
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  has been the problem. Yes, that's true.
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  Yes, it has been. Yes, absolutely.
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  You mean after Blair? Yes.
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  Yeah. This century.
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  Yes. You brought up a few examples
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  there. There's two things that you're
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  saying, as I say, which I agree with, that there's two sides to
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  it. 1 is that you, you've got someone with a clear vision, the
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  conviction, yes, not just conviction, but actually a clear
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  vision of, of what's going to happen, what needs to happen in
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  order to change the country for the better.
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  This. And the second thing you're
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  saying is there's, there's more of a divided country, both of
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  both of which I think do play into this in terms of the having
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  a vision. I think you can show the
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  difference here with with Harold Wilson and his 2 terms.
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  The first term, yes, he had a very clear idea and clear
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  vision. Second term, he didn't expect to
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  get in and he didn't know what he was doing and he fumble and
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  bumbled around and the end was we got Thatcher as Prime
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  Minister. So and he left before the end of
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  course term then. So, you know, you could see
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  that's sort of playing out today that, you know, Harold Wilson is
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  an object lesson in what happens when you lose your vision and
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  you don't really know what you're doing.
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  It's it's just terrible for people that that you need
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  someone who has a clear vision, even if it's wrong.
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  It's better to be going in a certain direction.
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  But the divided country aspect, I think is, is very important
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  because that being the case, you end up with a compromise person,
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  again, often getting ahead because they're the one who is
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  not disliked enough by each of these different factions.
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  So I would say that's why we got a Hiro Keir Starmer.
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  But in looking in that the reason he was elected was people
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  who didn't like the Conservatives.
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  And he was. So he was the least, he was the
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  most inoffensive, let's put it that way.
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  But if you take Liz Truss, sorry for those who are unfamiliar
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  with British politics, we're we're dotting around different
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  prime ministers. So just to say Liz Truss was put
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  in place, Prime Minister by the Conservative Party.
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  She wasn't elected into that position by the populace, but
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  she was put into place. And when she took over, she did
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  have a very clear vision and she did have a strong view of how
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  she would run the cabinet. But the problem is there.
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  She had what I would probably call him.
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  I don't know if you'd agree with this, Mr. Mark.
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  A complete lack of talent and ability.
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  It seems to me anyway, that she didn't the plot the she had a
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  clear plan, but it was it was so wrong and so it.
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  Was yes. But let's put it this way, it
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  wasn't budgeted right? I suppose that's the best way to
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  play. So you.
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  Were talking about it for cutting.
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  Rations, but not spending. Yeah, yeah.
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  It was that sort of thing, not thinking things through.
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  For international listeners, yes, it was her fiscal policy
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  that was somewhat naive in line with where the market was, the
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  country was, etcetera. Yes, so.
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  Perhaps an exception, although Theresa May, another
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  Conservative Prime Minister, she, she came in all guns
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  blazing with a, with her speech when she became Prime Minister
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  saying she was going to make these changes in Britain as
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  Conservative Prime Minister. The changes she was talking
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  about were socialist, socialist in nature.
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  She was she, yes, I mean this position, so I can do this, but
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  that isn't why you were elected. You were elected to get us out
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  of Europe, not to make changes in our society, you know.
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  So it was a it was a clear vision, but not what she was
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  elected, but not what she was put in position for in her
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  particular case. I think that, well, I was going
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  to say that she, she made an error of judgement because she
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  had a very large majority and she went to the country and lost
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  it, albeit she won the election, but she she was in a compromise
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  position. I think we're really what we're
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  coming back to, which is the calibre of the politicians that
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  have risen to the surface. They don't seem to have, yes,
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  the vision. They also seem to make very bad
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  decisions. But I think there's something
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  else as well. I don't think that they're fully
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  in touch with the populace, as you were mentioning about those
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  who were really elect governments.
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  And the classic one at the moment with the Labour Party is
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  what we're actually seeing unfolding right now.
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  As we all know, Sir Keir Starmer is on dodgy grand.
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  He hasn't had a very good tenure in less than two years being
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  elected as Prime Minister. He's under threat where Andy
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  Burnham, a former cabinet minister.
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  But yes, he's going to have to relinquish the being the mayor
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  of Manchester. But the irony is, is that
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  whether Burnham wins his seat to get into Parliament or not,
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  there is this worrying sign that the Labour Party is not
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  listening to the public. Good example is he's already
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  indicated Mr. Burnham that he wants to put Britain back into
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  Europe. Well, I'm sorry we went through
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  this entire rather rather strange.
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  Not reading the size. Of actually leaving the the EU
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  with a, you know, a referendum. We don't want yet another one.
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  And so my point is this, whilst we can criticize Sir Keir
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  Starmer, and there's very good reasons for that, The thing is,
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  is that to be able to have somebody else coming in, I'm, I,
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  I think it just again, it is almost like changing the captain
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  on the Titanic principle. Yes, I, I think it is, yeah, I
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  agree. I just think closely I would say
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  that yeah, we, we asked the question, is it an impossible
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  job to be Prime Minister? I think yes, it is.
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  If that's what it is, just a job you know that you're trying to
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  fulfil. We need a change in politics in
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  this country and thank God it does seem like it's happening.
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  You see all the prime ministers we mentioned from the two
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  parties, Conservatives and Labour, are part of what's
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  really a uni party. They agree on so many other
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  things and they've really messed up, especially on their
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  immigration policy, but on other things as well.
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  It's just a complete mess. It's not what people want.
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  So they need to all will be swept out.
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  Then the job of Prime Minister will will not just be a job,
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  it'll be someone coming in to lead the country.
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  It won't be just a job. He'll be a a Prime Minister,
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  he'll be a leader coming in. There are a couple of candidates
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  who are prominent in in British politics at the moment who are
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  not from the Conservatives or Labour who may well be in a
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  position to do that. So yes, it's an impossible job
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  at the moment, but quite right because the job that they have
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  is being the leader of the UNI party who are doing what the
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  people don't want. So let's have a change.
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  Well, interesting. Taking on the theme of sweeping
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  changes, W Streeting, who of course resigned as the health
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  secretary, wrote to Sir Keir Starmer, basically highlighting
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  that the nation, well, we need a vision.
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  We have a vacuum which basically says we have a leader that
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  sucks.