Three very different Prime Ministers

John of Enfield

...and what does Broon do - throw a mobile phone, Sulk?

Trumpeter Lanfried

Gordon Brown would smash a mobile phone and make you his sworn enemy for life.

Verity

And, after pausing and saying, "Um, yes, I agree with you", Tony Blair would put out a contract on your life.

James J

I have always thought that the key to understanding Blair was to think of him as a barrister rather than a politician. Barristers present a brief. It does not maker whether it is the defence brief or the prosecution brief only who is paying.

Verity

James J - I am certain that, regarding Tony Blair's career as a barrister, only the state - Legal Aid - would have been paying. Who with money and a degree of sophistication, would employ, out of their own funds, this vacuous fly weight?

And now he's the head of some sort of organisation in Saudi Arabia, doing what, we don't know; and after that tipped to be the first unelected president of the disintegrating EUSSR.

Being a crap rock singer, crap aspirational actor and crap barrister can really take a boy places.

Oscar

Actually I don't believe this anecdote. Tony Blair stood his ground if he genuinely disagreed with something. For example he fought his corner about the war in Iraq taking on all comers. He was always polite, but he never gave ground. In fact this is one thing that so infuriated the anti-war brigade (he was of course supposed to say sorry). My admiration for Blair grew because of Iraq and I've had no reason to change my mind. Nor do I believe that Thatcher simply blew up when contradicted. She was simply more charming than that. In fact the only part of this story I'm inclined to believe is the John Major reaction.

James J

Verity
I did not comment on how good a barrister he was, just his mindset.
Oscar
Yes he presented his client’s case to the best of his ability and never conceded it had no merit.

Simon Denis

How on Earth can you admire Blair over Iraq? All his life he has been a glove puppet in search of a hand. At first it was the trendy seventies left. Then it was the formidable Cherie and the attached Labour party. After that, it was - for about five minutes - the essentially right of centre British electorate. Finally it was big, bad Uncle Sam. And what a mess the old boy got us into. The only beneficiaries of the whole middle eastern fiasco have been the mullahs of Iran, now minus a dangerous enemy plonked conveniently on their doorstep; now able to set about creating nuclear weapons because silly old Sam has squandered the west's credibility in dislodging Saddam. And Blair just encouraged him. Yes, he flinched from anything resembling argument or principle and the Mesopotamian muddle is a terrible monument to his essential spinelessness.