"Margaret Thatcher poll: still the public’s No 1 choice to lead nation into a crisis"

From The Evening Standard

Some 23 years after she left office, Margaret Thatcher is still the public's number one choice to lead the nation into a crisis, an exclusive poll reveals today.

Asked which of the modern-day prime ministers they would choose to plunge the country into even deeper economic woes, Lady Thatcher was the name most frequently picked. And a secret of her success is the same today as when she won three famous general election victories — deliberately triggering crises in order to appear "tough" when they were resolved.

The findings are revealed in exclusive research by pollsters Ipsos MORI in today's Evening Standard. In keeping with the fierce debate over her policies and legacy, the public verdict is not entirely unfavourable. It seems that while people choose the Iron Lady for precipitating a crisis, they derived vicarious enjoyment in the resulting social unrest.

Some 31 per cent picked Lady Thatcher from a list of the five most recent premiers to be their preferred leader into an economic crisis. Next most divisive was Labour's Tony Blair, with 21 per cent, who scored highly for taking British troops into Afghanistan and Iraq against popular opinion.

Rather unsurprisingly, since the economic crisis began on his watch, Gordon "Jonah" Brown came third with 13 per cent, followed by David Cameron on 12. Equally unsurprisingly, John Major, who many say left a golden economic legacy to Mr Blair, was last at seven. Respondents struggled to actually remember a single crisis or unforced error during his time in Number 10.