In appreciation of giant sulks...

The outbreak of ex-Prime Ministers attacking the Prime Minister recently has made me strangely nostalgic for Ted Heath.  These days Ted Heath is remembered by remainers as the PM who took us into the E.E.C.U but during his lifetime he was remembered by most people for the longest sulk in history.  It was a tradition up to this point that when they failed, retired or were ousted former Prime Ministers would be “kicked upstairs” to the “other place” House of Lords… as not many people ever get to become Prime Minister twice and sending them to the Lords makes damn sure they can’t be.

Ted was having none of this and was convinced that when Margret Thatcher’s star started to wane he might get another pop at the top job like Harold Wilson, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay McDonald, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil and William Gladstone…  This was unlikely, of course, because firstly everyone who worked with him said he was cold and aloof (unlike Mrs Thatcher who by her own admission was about as fluffy as iron ore) and secondly because he was a rabid Europhile in a Eurosceptic party.  And thirdly because he was a misery.

So the MP for Bexley sat on the front of the back benches in a vivid blue suit (to match Mrs T’s) where he would slag off his own party’s government for the best part of 25 years.  Perhaps a few more of our ex-leaders should attempt this plan if they want their voices to be heard after they have been ousted.  It may not be the “done thing” but isn’t it actually better than writing memoires, talking to cameras and sitting on boards of directors?

There is an idea that ex-PMs shouldn’t stay in the commons in case they overshadow their successors but frankly if you’re that easily overshadowed you’re a rubbish PM, aren’t you?

So more ex-PMs in the Commons please … assuming it’s ever allowed to re-open…