The Spectator

Letters | 28 March 2019

Still better than Cameron

Sir: I disagree with your editorial (‘Agony prolonged’, 23 March) that Theresa May is the worst prime minister in our history. Unlike her predecessor, Mrs May — for all the flaws that have been ruthlessly exposed by the Brexit process — did not fail to learn the readily accessible lessons from the 1975 referendum. Harold Wilson played something of a blinder, and even a brief reading of this history would have guided a premier willing to learn. David Cameron clearly failed to do this and must assume the mantle of the worst. History will surely judge the PM who caused our current malaise more harshly than its unfortunate inheritor.
Richard List

Aylesbury, Bucks

North: not so grim

Sir: Lord North deserves to be released by Mrs May from the ignominy of being ‘the worst prime minister in our history’. This hugely popular man dominated the Commons for 12 years, speaking regularly for two hours without notes. One discerning contemporary noted that: ‘He attracted almost all the attention, being powerful, able and fluent in debate. It was impossible to experience dullness in his company’. Like all the best Tories, he cut taxes and increased prosperity. The great paradox of the American War of Independence is that North did not want to fight it. He stayed in the premiership out of loyalty to his monarch, who knew the value of this remarkable and loveable man. One day an opponent complained, in the middle of a violent attack, that ‘the noble Lord is asleep’ — whereupon North, his eyes still shut, said: ‘I wish to God I were.’ He possessed all the qualities a prime minister needs, except luck and selfishness.
Alistair Lexden

House of Lords, London SW1

Doctors and nurses

Sir: J. Meirion Thomas (‘Wanted: UK doctors’, 23 March) is right about the current recruitment and training of doctors.

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