Facebook Transplant Part 7 - Originally Posted 24/3/09 - 5 Dead Politicans that are better off that way

This was another "top 5" list that I wanted to do. This time I chose politicians who have been dead for a while.

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This list does not include the obvious culprits – I think that we can all agree that the world is a better place now that Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, Peron, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse Tung, Salazar, Robbespiere, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, and their like are dead. Their infamy is beyond dispute, and rightly so.

Instead, this list is meant to highlight some more obscure historical personages who have since shuffled from this mortal coil. In most cases, a more expeditious shuffling would probably have saved us all a lot of trouble, but alas that was not meant to be. This list is made mostly of British and American men, the reasons that I have included them on the list will be self evident in their individual entries. I hasten to add that each of these men were not exclusively bad – many accomplished great things. However, they each in their own way did something that, in my opinion, has had significant and negative repercussions in our world today.

#1 – Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson was a Labour politician who served as Prime Minister twice in the 60s and 70s. The one and only reason that he is on this list is quiet simply Rhodesia. It was during his tenure as PM that the promises of responsible self government and dominion made following the referendum in 1922 (after Southern Rhodesia rejected a union with South Africa) was broken.

This broken promise lead directly to Rhodesia declaring independence from the British Empire in 1965, which lead to 15 years of guerrilla warfare and finally the installation of a Marxist regimen in Zimbabwe, which in turn lead to the shocking conditions and situation in that unhappy land today.

A more expedient and compromising stance might have mitigated Rhodesian nationalism and paved the way to a slower, but far more stable and productive path to democracy, racial and social equality in the country. Once again, the post-WW2 Labour obsession with divesting itself of the colonies as quickly as possible lead to premature and unprepared independence of Zimbabwe, just as it did with so much of Africa and India, leading to atrocities at the time, and often to tragedies to this day.

#2 – Edward Heath

A contemporary of Wilson, Edward Heath was a Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister between Wilson’s times in office. Also culpable of betrayal with regards Rhodesia, the real reason he is on this list is mainly due to his actions in response to the popularity of Enoch Powell.

Heath was ruthless in his hold on power as leader of the Conservatives, and the grass-roots support that Powell received due to his controversial (and somewhat prophetic) opinions about immigration worried him greatly. In response he set out to marginalize and discredit Powell before the latter could challenge Heath’s leadership of the party, a challenge that he might well have succeeded in making.

While this is just the standard political in fighting that we have come to expect, the path that Heath took had a far more long lasting effect than merely neutralizing a rival – it is Heath who was the first Conservative leader to embrace the fallicy of multiculturalism, with all the of the subsequent problems that this “experiment” has resulted in. In many ways, I blame Heath more than the liberal do-gooders and blind idealists for what is going on in Britain today.

To compound his crime of sowing the seeds of the death of British culture and identity, he also set in motion the end of its sovereignty and independence by taking Britain into the EEC in 1973, something which we can see as a very mixed blessing with hindsight.

#3 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Now, FDR is arguably the most popular President of the United States ever. He did some amazing things while in office, and I have great admiration for many of his “New Deal” initiatives. I am also grateful for his support, both overt and clandestine, during the dark period of WW2 when Britain stood alone.

However, I cannot forgive him two things. Firstly, he was devoted to the removal of the British Empire as a world power. The aid that he provided was crucial to Britain’s survival, but in gaining that aid Britain effectively allowed Roosevelt to make the Empire too expensive for a debt ridden Britain to maintain. This was a conscious move on his part, and the events that his attitude towards the Empire caused allowed the far-too-rapid dissolution of the Empire and premature independence for dozens of colonies, which in turn has lead to millions of deaths and turmoil that continues today.

FDR was also naively attached to the alliance with Stalin. He spent so much time making sure that the British Empire would cease to exist, he blindly allowed the creation of a far more evil and dangerous Stalinist Empire in Europe, and indeed through much of the territory that once fell under the Union flag. Say what you like about the good and bad of the British Empire, but nothing could ever persuade me to agree that it was more morally defunct than the USSR. The whole Cold War is pretty much his fault in my opinion.

#4 – Gamal Abdel Nasser

The only non-Anglo-American on the list is on here for being the catalyst for the event that first showed that the Cold War could become hot, and indeed the event that removed all doubt that the world was now to be shared between the super powers of the USA and USSR – the Seuz Crisis.

In nationalising the Suez canal in 1956, Nasser caused the humiliation of France and Great Britain when the United States withdrew their support from their allies to avoid confrontation with the Soviet Union, a confrontation which, with historical hindsight, the Soviets would have almost certainly lost even if they did not back down in the face of American ICBMs (the USSR would not be able to match US ICBM numbers for years).

Nasser was also a founding figure in modern Arab nationalism. With is anti-Western rhetoric, he in many ways reignited the mistrust between the West and the region in the post-war period, which when combined with a growing Islamic fundamentalism has lead to the clash of cultures that we all suffer under today.

#5 – Clement Attlee

Clement Attlee won the general election in 1945, ousting Churchill in an example of national betrayal that was merely the forshadowing of the public stupidity and selfishness that we now take for granted in the UK.

While a lot of what Attlee did I agree with – I have often said that I am actually quite socialist when it comes to a lot of social programmes. However, it was the way that he instituted these programmes that has left many of them in shambles today. Instead of social support, his programmes created an environment of social expectation. Instead of helping rebuild a productive society, he helped instead to create a culture of entitlement and sloth. Instead of stream lined and efficient industry and welfare programmes, he over-nationalised most of the countries infrastructure and set in motion the towering edifices of bureaucracy that we labour (no pun intended) under today as tax payers.

So, I blame Attlee not for his policies, but the idealism that his core socialist beliefs lead him to. This idealism was naïve in the extreme for such an experienced politician, and what should have been the shining example of the welfare state in Europe has instead turned into a farcical and horrendously expensive effort that has fallen far behind the rest of Europe in efficacy and standard.