July 16, 2025

The model of a modern Prime Minister would be a kind of grotesque composite freak—someone with the dedication to duty of a Peel, the physical energy of a Gladstone, the detachment of a Salisbury, the brains of an Asquith, the balls of a Lloyd George, the word-power of a Churchill, the administrative gifts of an Atlee, the style of a Macmillan, the managerialism of a Heath and the sleep requirements of a Thatcher. Human beings do not come like that.

Peter Hennessy (1947–), English historian and writer, The Hidden Wiring (1995), Jay p.175

Is it not curious who didn’t make the list? Disraeli, Baldwin, Eden, and so on.

That would be a freakish model. On the other hand, none of these qualities seem to be quite evident in the recent batch of British first ministers—Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, and though it may be too early to say, Starmer….