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**Nurse Duckett** · 15-10-2008, 19:49

Most obnoxious politician ever

Any politician'd have to go a very long way to beat "Lord" Jeffrey Archole in the obnoxiousness stakes, surely.

**wingco** · 15-10-2008, 19:53

Most obnoxious politician ever

Brown was a notorious drunk, whose boozing affected his behaviour in public life in all kinds of conspicuous ways. It's amazing he was indulged for years.

**G-Man** · 15-10-2008, 20:03

Most obnoxious politician ever

George Brown, Jeffrey Archer... this thread has a very parochial feel about it. Dubya and Cheney are still around. Where I live we have obnoxious fucks who say things like "We'll kill for Zuma". Next door, Mad Bob and his pals are doing their obnoxious thing, and our friends located in Bella Italia have a whole gallery full of obnoxious bastard who make Archer seem benign.

**Tony C** · 15-10-2008, 20:17

Most obnoxious politician ever

Desperately obvious but Thatcher can't be beaten here.

If I was to pick out an 'Exhibit A' moment it would be the Diana Gould/Belgrano contretemps. That Thatcher should lie in such a bare-faced manner to the public then be so affronted when picked up on it displays an obnoxiousness and arrogance that defies belief. I genuinely find myself gritting my teeth and getting angry whenever this footage is replayed.

Archer and Aitken's lies are small-fry in comparison although I'd happily have rammed the 'sword of truth' or whatever right up the ignoble behind of the latter.

**wingco** · 15-10-2008, 20:21

Most obnoxious politician ever

Oh yes, the wretched Brown is a long, long way off from taking this award.

**Kusal Flyer** · 15-10-2008, 20:26

Most obnoxious politician ever

Namedrop time. George Brown bought me a drink at Warsaw airport back in the Cold War. He was handing over some classifieds to my old man.

I was warned not to mention either the demon drink or Harold Wilson. In the end we all had cokes.

**West End Zuma** · 16-10-2008, 00:13

Most obnoxious politician ever

Labour, btw, won a devastating majority of 3. And given the right wing cunts on its benches, like Woodrow Wyatt, that wasn't very good.

I give Harold Wilson eternal props for keeping Britain out of Vietnam, which he was under a lot of pressure to do from that cunt LBJ. And that was good.

**Amor de Cosmos** · 16-10-2008, 04:22

Most obnoxious politician ever

Brown was certainly the most famous political drunk (UK Chapter) of his day. But, back then, publicly boorish MPs were pretty common. Brown stood out only because most of the others were Tories � eg: Quentin Hogg, Randolph Churchill. In retrospect it's bizarre to think that Brown was considered a viable party leader and almost made it. In later life he had that noisy epiphany after meeting Alexandre Solzhenitsyn and became something of disciple. A kind of repentance perhaps?

**Wyatt Earp** · 16-10-2008, 07:55

Most obnoxious politician ever

Is there a reason no-one's mentioned Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot...

**Guest** · 16-10-2008, 08:36

Most obnoxious politician ever

Well, I dunno about Pol Pot but Adolf & Joe could be quite charming when they had a mind.

**Donnchadh Ghairdin�ir** · 16-10-2008, 09:07

Most obnoxious politician ever

Amor- contemporary reports and later biogs suggest Tony Crosland and Dick Crossman (later ministers in the 70s) were almost as piss-headed as George Brown.

**evilC** · 16-10-2008, 09:13

Most obnoxious politician ever

Virginia Bottomley (anagram: "I'm an evil Tory bigot"). She didn't need to be drunk to be obnoxious.

**Gangster Octopus** · 16-10-2008, 10:05

Most obnoxious politician ever

Wasn't it for George Brown that Private Eye invented the euphemism for being pissed "tired and emotional"?

**"Hold on, buddy!"** · 16-10-2008, 11:29

Most obnoxious politician ever

Yeah, I think you're right.
Wasn't it something to do with the explanation given for Brown's appearance on some TV show where it became quite obvious he'd had a few?

**Guest** · 16-10-2008, 11:44

Most obnoxious politician ever

Take the source with the usual mineral flavour enhancer, but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_and_emotional

**Gangster Octopus** · 16-10-2008, 11:48

Most obnoxious politician ever

I trust Wikipedia when it agrees with me...

**Harry Lime** · 16-10-2008, 14:39

Most obnoxious politician ever

infinite probability wrote:

Labour, btw, won a devastating majority of 3. And given the right wing cunts on its benches, like Woodrow Wyatt, that wasn't very good.

I give Harold Wilson eternal props for keeping Britain out of Vietnam, which he was under a lot of pressure to do from that cunt LBJ. And that was good.

Wilson deserves canonisation and an eternal place in the "Greatest Britons" list for that act alone. However, peaceniks don't really get a look in as the greatest Brits will usually be warriors or hawks like Drake, Wellington, Churchill.

I barely need to say that Thatcher was evil, obviously Thatcherism is loathsome but there were more despicable personalities than her in her immediate circle. I mean Thatcher was strident, pig headed and borderline insane but if the tables were turned you could almost picture her as a dotty old middle class socialist holed up in a crumbling Georgian villa somewhere like Liverpool 8 with a COAL NOT DOLE sticker in the window and about 50 cats.

You couldn't imagine Tebbit being anything other than a weasely, quasi-fascistic shitehawk.

**Tubby Isaacs** · 16-10-2008, 17:24

Most obnoxious politician ever

I'm not sure I saw a more personally obnoxious performance from Tebbit or Thatcher or anyone else from that generation. They had obnoxious views but that's a different point.

Paddy Ashdown used to get my goat. He used to answer questions about his policies with "I go to schools/hospitals etc".

**Amor de Cosmos** · 16-10-2008, 18:48

Most obnoxious politician ever

Amor- contemporary reports and later biogs suggest Tony Crosland and Dick Crossman (later ministers in the 70s) were almost as piss-headed as George Brown.

I'm sure, but they weren't obviously so in public. Crossman, for instance, did a weekly panel discussion show on TV for ages and never seemed pissed, or even erratic in his behavior. Brown, OTOH was, as Tubby's post indicates, a walking time bomb.

**Tubby Isaacs** · 16-10-2008, 21:09

Most obnoxious politician ever

infinite probability wrote:

Labour, btw, won a devastating majority of 3. And given the right wing cunts on its benches, like Woodrow Wyatt, that wasn't very good.

I give Harold Wilson eternal props for keeping Britain out of Vietnam, which he was under a lot of pressure to do from that cunt LBJ. And that was good.

So you regard Chirac as OK on the basis of Iraq?

The more I read about Wilson, the less impressed I am with him. The vacuousness of his "white heat" stuff and shameless things like implementing Beeching cuts- having of course campaigned against them. Indeed he closed some lines (eg Oxford-Cambridge) that Beeching hadn't suggested.

**Cavalry Trouser Tips** · 16-10-2008, 22:16

Most obnoxious politician ever

Geoff Hoon?

**Rabbitoh** · 16-10-2008, 23:01

Most obnoxious politician ever

Obnoxious? No. Utterly fucking useless? Yes.

**Amor de Cosmos** · 16-10-2008, 23:22

Most obnoxious politician ever

The more I read about Wilson, the less impressed I am with him.

Heh! A couple of year's back I asked OTF who was the best national leader of their lifetime in a country they lived in. Wislon won the UK stakes at a canter.

Of course after surveying the rest of the field it didn't come as any surprise. (I was the only person who was able to smugly select Atlee on a technicality.)

**My Name Is Ian** · 16-10-2008, 23:33

Most obnoxious politician ever

Did Wilson implement the Beeching Report? My understanding that it was published in 1962, and Wilson didn't take power until 1964. Maybe he had to sign off the papers, I don't know.

Still, I haven't got much choice in that best national leader in their lifetime, have I?

Heath
Senile Wilson
Callaghan
Thatcher
Major
Blair
Brown

Probably Callaghan out of that lot.

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