John Stuart Mill is usually credited as the person who first called the Conservatives ‘the stupid party’, but that isn’t quite accurate. Rather, he referred to the Tories as the stupidest party, and he didn’t mean that it was more stupid than every other party in the country, just the Liberals. If you substitute the Lib Dems for the Liberal party, that probably isn’t true any more, and it certainly isn’t true if you include Labour in the mix. No, I think there is now a strong case for passing the crown to Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
If you look at Labour’s leaders, this is a very recent development. Harold Wilson was the most brilliant prime minister of the 20th century, having got the highest First in his year in PPE. Roy Jenkins, who served as his Home Secretary, thought that, academically, he was up there with Peel, Gladstone and Asquith. Admittedly, Neil Kinnock was no brainbox, but he was an aberration in an other-wise impressive line of clever clogs, from Keir Hardy to Ed Miliband.
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