Prime Ministers and their weird and wonderful ways
March 2020
This short article covers some of the odd, quirky or downright strange things that have happened to or been enacted by the holders of what is considered to be the highest office in the land.
One strange thing is that the term prime minister is not the official title of the holder of that post. The prime minister is officially First Lord of The Treasury. This is the title on the letterbox at 10 Downing Street.
It is generally accepted that Robert Walpole was the first PM from 1721 – 1742 with the King being George I at that time. The German-born George did not speak English very well and Walpole did not speak German so they conversed in Latin.
From Walpole to Johnson, there have been 55 prime ministers, but 77 terms of office. If a prime minister is re-elected then the successful elections count as one term. Gladstone holds the record for terms of office with four separate terms.
Length of Office. Walpole set the record for length of office at 20 years and 314 days. The shortest serving PM is usually said to be Lord Canning who held office in 1827 for 119 days in total. Canning became ill in office and died.
There is another contender though who held the prime ministerial reins for just over 2 days from 10 February to 12 February 1746.
On 10 February 1746, the administration of the prime minister, Henry Pelham, resigned en masse, and the king turned to William Pulteney, Earl of Bath to form an alternative ministry. Bath accepted the seals of office and made nominations to the most senior posts, but it quickly became clear that he did not have enough support to form a viable government, and after "48 hours, three quarters, seven minutes, and eleven seconds" he abandoned the attempt, forcing the king to accept Pelham's terms for resuming office. As the post of prime minister did not then officially exist, it is a matter of controversy whether Bath should be considered to have been prime minister by virtue of his two-day ministry.
A contemporary pamphlet satirically praised the Earl of Bath’s 2 day premiership as "the most wise and honest of all administrations, the minister having ... never transacted one rash thing; and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the Treasury as he found in it."
Bob’s your uncle – Arthur Balfour became PM in 1902. He owed his political career to his uncle Robert Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury who was prime minister himself three times between 1885 and 1902. In 1874, Salisbury gifted his nephew with a safe seat and so Balfour became an MP. Two years later, Salisbury made Balfour his private secretary. In 1885 Salisbury appointed Balfour President of the Local Government Board. The next year he was promoted to Secretary of Scotland and given a seat in the Cabinet. In 1887, to the utter amazement of Westminster (and the country) Balfour was made Chief Secretary of Ireland. It all looked like favouritism by Balfour’s uncle Robert and so the expression “Bob’s your uncle” came into being.
Assassination attempts In1984, the Conservative Party held its conference in Brighton. The Provisional IRA planted a bomb at the Grand Hotel where the then PM Margaret Thatcher was staying. Although Thatcher narrowly escaped the blast, five people connected with the Conservative Party were killed, including a sitting Conservative MP, and 31 were injured.
In 1991, the Provisionals made a further attempt to kill the PM – this time John Major – by firing three mortar shells at Downing Street from the back of a van in Whitehall. One of the bombs landed in the back garden of No 10.
Only one prime minister has ever been murdered. This was Spencer Perceval on 11 May 1812. He had gone to Houses of Parliament and was about to enter the lobby when he was approached by a man who put a pistol to Perceval’s chest and fired. The man then stepped away and sat down on a bench. Perceval was carried to a nearby room where he died. A crowd gathered round the murderer and he was recognised as a businessman named John Bellingham. He had been petitioning parliament for months because he felt he was owed compensation for a failed commercial venture in Russia. Bellingham was taken away and locked up. Spencer Perceval had died on the Monday and had been buried by the Saturday. Bellingham was tried at the Old Bailey and found guilty. He was executed one week after his crime.
Lord North’s Naps If you think that Jacob Rees-Mogg’s recent supine lounge on the front bench was disrespectful then think on Lord North’s naps. Lord North (PM 1770 – 1782) liked to have a snooze (or pretend that he did) on the benches of the House of Commons. On one occasion a speaker stopped in mid-flow to complain that the prime minister was asleep. North opened one eye and said “I wish to God I were.”
And what do you do? Stanley Baldwin (PM 1923, 1924-29 and 1935 – 37) In today’s world of 24 hours news and social media feeds, it is difficult to escape the world of politics, but every now and again a survey shows that a certain proportion of people do not know the name of the current Chancellor or even which party is in government. Spare a thought then for Stanley Baldwin who (as a keen train traveller) sometimes travelled alone on trains even while he was PM. This would be unthinkable nowadays, but in the 1920’s Baldwin was on a train when he noticed someone eyeing him strangely. After a while, the stranger leant forward and said “You’re Baldwin, aren’t you?” Baldwin said he was. “Weren’t you at Harrow in ’84?”. “Yes, I was” said Baldwin. The man that Baldwin knew to be a fellow Harrovian seemed satisfied. After a short pause, the man tapped Baldwin on the knee and said “So tell me, Baldwin, what are you doing these days?”
Poetic Justice in Parliament In 1951, Clem Attlee, as prime minister, received a letter from a 15 year old school girl called Ann Glossop. She wrote to Attlee to complain that she was being made to resit her School Certificate – not because she had failed, but because she had been too young to qualify when she passed the test first time at age 15. Attlee noticed that the whole letter had been written in verse. Here is her poetic query:
Would you please explain, dear Clement,
Just why it has to be
That certificates of education
Are barred to such as me?
I’ve worked through thirteen papers
But all my swot is in vain,
Because at this time next year
I must do them all again.
Please have pity, Clement,
And tell the others too.
Remove the silly age limit
It wasn’t there for you.
Attlee replied in verse as follows:
I received with real pleasure
Your verses, dear Ann.
Although I’ve not much leisure
I’ll reply as best I can.
I’ve not the least idea why
They have made this curious rule
Condemning you to sit and sigh
Another year at school.
You’ll understand my excuse
For lack of detailed knowledge
Is that School certs were not in use
When I attended college.
George Tomlinson is ill, but I
Have asked him to explain.
And when I get the reason why
I’ll write to you again.
I don’t know what happened to Ann Glossop after Tomlinson came back from his sick leave, but the School Certificate was introduced in 1918 and abolished after the GCE O Level was introduced in 1951.
Ted Heath (PM 1970 – 74) Few PMs in office have been as active in other areas outside politics as Ted Heath. He was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first yacht Morning Cloud in 1969 and won the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the Admiral’s Cup in 1971 – while prime minister. Heath also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra again while PM. He also conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the English Chamber orchestra.
Having said that, Richard Ingrams commented that Heath had only convinced himself he was a great conductor as professional musicians giggled about him behind his back. Once the string players of an orchestra all tuned their instruments up a semitone to see if he would notice. He didn’t.
The political columnist Alan Watkins said of Heath that his "brusqueness, his gaucherie, his lack of small or indeed any talk, his sheer bad manners" were among the factors costing him the support of backbenchers in the Conservative Leadership contest in 1975 which he lost to Mrs Thatcher. Thatcher had promised Heath a seat in the Shadow Cabinet which he declined. He never forgave her for ousting him as Tory leader and for years he nursed a grudge which became known as the “incredible sulk”.
Heath himself did not see it that way. On being asked why Mrs Thatcher had taken so violently against him, he shook his jowls ruminatively before declaring: ‘I cannot say. I am not a doctor.’
You’ve never had it so good Harold Macmillan (PM 1957–1963) made several famous quotes. His most quoted (and most mis-quoted) was probably “Most of our people have never had it so good.”
In 1960 at the United Nations General Assembly the Russian Leader Nikita Khrushchev started shouting and banging his shoe on the desk in protest at something that was said. Macmillan asked “I'd like that translated, if I may.”
His most succinct contribution to quotes was his response to a journalist when asked what is most likely to blow governments off course – “Events, dear boy, events”
And finally, below is a photo of one of the current residents of Number Ten - Larry the cat - who is known as the PM’s chief weapon of mouse destruction.
Solidarity
Brian Madican
August 2019
