Nelson Mandela RIP

[11B4V]

Except for Carter. What a buzzkill.

James Earl Carter, Jr knows you hate him, and he hates you right the fuck back.

Didnt know you were a fan of Jimmy-C

[Admiral Yi]

James Earl Carter, Jr knows you hate him, and he hates you right the fuck back.

I doubt it.  That would be un-Christian.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. I get the impression most British ex-Prime Ministers don't really get on. I can't imagine Brown and Cameron are friendly, I think Major hated Thatcher who was also loathed by Heath. I doubt Blair and Brown are even civil, though I imagine Blair will always try to keep in touch with whoever's in power. Major and Cameron get on very well though.

Sounds like they take themselves to seriously.

Well Heath hated Thatcher for taking the leadership from him and because he was generally a pretty unpleasant with a mean misogynist streak - no one liked Heath. Major disliked Thatcher because she was the sort of Queen over the water for all sorts of revolts that made his time in office so torrid. There's the TB-GBs for Blair and Brown, and I always got the sense Brown and Cameron personally loathed each other.

I'm not sure if it's taking themselves seriously or just that politics in the UK, I think, is often a lot more personal and intimate. In almost all cases they beat each other either within their parties or at an election. They would have fought and argued on a regular basis either over the Commons or within government. And there's none of them who get the dignity of being head of state. So I think it lingers longer.

[mongers]

Yeah. I get the impression most British ex-Prime Ministers don't really get on. I can't imagine Brown and Cameron are friendly, I think Major hated Thatcher who was also loathed by Heath. I doubt Blair and Brown are even civil, though I imagine Blair will always try to keep in touch with whoever's in power. Major and Cameron get on very well though.

Sounds like they take themselves to seriously.

I think with President they generally succeed each other in a timetabled way, and few ever directly compete with each other in presidential races or other elections.

Whereas over here, it's about maintaining a working majority in parliament and control of your party, so at any time a PM can be loose a vote and perhaps eventually have to fight a losing election against the person who'll become both the successor and victor over them.

Plus of course there's all the options for continued infighting within a party and the risk of being deposed by the person who goes onto succeed you.

So I imagine that can explain much of the general lack of warmth between former UK prime ministers.

[Sheilbh]

Plus of course there's all the options for continued infighting within a party and the risk of being deposed by the person who goes onto succeed you.

And some PMs (like Thatcher) retain a cult following within their party which they kind of use to wreak havoc on their successors.

Sometimes there's just huge personality differences too. The story MacMillan used to tell of when he spoke to Maggie and said being Prime Minister's great because you don't have your own department to worry about, so you can spend more time reading and she stared at him like he'd spouted a new head

[Admiral Yi]

I think with President they generally succeed each other in a timetabled way, and few ever directly compete with each other in presidential races or other elections.

Whereas over here, it's about maintaining a working majority in parliament and control of your party, so at any time a PM can be loose a vote and perhaps eventually have to fight a losing election against the person who'll become both the successor and victor over them.

Plus of course there's all the options for continued infighting within a party and the risk of being deposed by the person who goes onto succeed you.

So I imagine that can explain much of the general lack of warmth between former UK prime ministers.

Plus y'all can be a crabby, grumpy bunch. 

[11B4V]

I was always rather fond of watching Brit politics on C-span. Very entertaining.

[Sheilbh]

I was always rather fond of watching Brit politics on C-span. Very entertaining.

Yeah. So imagine being friendly if, like Major, you'd faced a baying mob of Labour MPs while Blair called you 'weak, weak, weak'. For example

[Sheilbh]

Plus y'all can be a crabby, grumpy bunch. 

I think we're quite friendly 

[dps]

Except for Carter. What a buzzkill.

James Earl Carter, Jr knows you hate him, and he hates you right the fuck back.

No, it isn't just Monkeybutt.  I recall reading an article way back in the early days of the Clinton Presidency.  President Clinton and all the living ex-Presidents at the time (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush the Elder) all got along quite well away from the cameras except that none of them, including Clinton, liked Carter.  I wouldn't say that they hated him, or even disliked him, but from what the article said, MB's term pretty much fit how they felt about about him.

[jimmy olsen]

Interpreter for deaf at Mandela memorial service was a fake, advocates for deaf say



It wasn't sign language.  It was the hand jive:

Merkel and Harper and Cameron
Doin' that hand jive just for fun
Jacob Zuma sent them all in a run
When he did the hand jive with his machine gun

Hand jive, hand jive, do that crazy hand jive

Lol 

Seriously though, this really is being flagrantly insulting to the deaf people of South Africa.

[PDH]

Carter's problem was that he was too smart and thought too much.  That is always a buzzkill.

[Admiral Yi]

That problem disappeared about 10 years ago.

[Eddie Teach]

Carter's problem was that he was too smart and thought too much.  That is always a buzzkill.

That and pussying around when Iran kidnapped our citizens.

[CountDeMoney]

Carter's problem was that he was too smart and thought too much.  That is always a buzzkill.

That and pussying around when Iran kidnapped our citizens.

As opposed to, say, pussying around when Iran blew up 241 US Marines.