The best Prime Minister we never had?

The eulogies for Denis Healey do slightly grate on me. I remember him as Chancellor of the Exchequer and his performance was as dismal as most Labour Chancellors. I wonder if people are remembering him only by the 'eyebrows' and the Mike Yarwood impression.

In reality Denis Healey had been a member of the Communist Party.  Had imposed high tax rates on 'the rich', not quite until until the pips squeaked. All but bankrupted the country with excessive public sector spending and general ineptitude.  Had to run to the IMF to bail out the Country.

A good question would be why an ex Communist Party member cancelled the BAC TSR2 , the best plane that the RAF never received. And why he cancelled the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier too. 

Why did Denis Healey diminish the UK's ability to defend itself from any possible Soviet aggression?

I can see why his actions both economic and otherwise might endear him to the anti British BBC but some of us are able to remember what happened, without the benefit of the BBC's attempts at educating us.

The VAT rate cut

I have just read the British Chambers of Commerce's latest monthly business survey, which took in 430 firms of varying sizes across the country. They report that

"only 11.4 per cent reported that the VAT cut had benefited their businesses; 76.6 per cent said that it had had no impact; and 12.1 per cent put it down as a burden."

Another storming economic policy success for Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, the most incompetent PM and Chancellor since Callaghan and Healey. In fact that is a little unfair on James Callaghan and Denis Healey as neither of them claimed to be economic geniuses who had "abolished boom and bust".