Preppers - are they seriously mad?

[anotherdad]

The trouble is, we don’t have the devil you know. We have a devil who is unpredictable in just about everything but incompetence. I couldn’t confidently predict this government’s approach to major policy decisions at the moment. Neither could they!

[BucksBornNBred]

I don't think we could predict any government's approach at the moment. Quite frankly I think we need Trump to sort this mess out (cue the onslaught for such a suggestion). Don't get me started on politics because I am definitely on the opposite side to all you regular (lovely, helpful, generous) people.

[anotherdad]

Blimey.

[BucksBornNBred]

Yep,I said it... he is strong (I am ignoring his faults)... he would sort out all this procrastination (for better or worse - who cares? It needs to end now). Ooh, let me annoy you more and say... if only Thatcher was still in charge

[piggys]

No he isn't strong. He is merely loud and arrogant. Can't you tell the difference?

[BucksBornNBred]

I will disagree (again expecting criticism). He takes a stance and sticks with it... if only we had a leader like that (and I thought May could do that so very disappointed in her)

[anotherdad]

Like the stance he took in Putin's presence and the completely opposite one he took when back home in the US just hours later? On one of the major international points of diplomacy he reversed his opinion on the flight home in the face of negative press coverage and to a point of view he didn't have the courage to express to Putin. That's not the stance of a strong leader. Putin ran rings around him. The man is not intellectually up to the job and has the thinnest skin of any Western democratic leader in decades. He is strong in front of a friendly audience but folds like a stack of cards when up against criticism.

Thatcher outstayed her welcome. My reading of history is that she had to implement a lot of painful but ultimately necessary policies to correct some of the follies of the previous governments. Whilst she was strong in many ways, she wasn't strong enough to accept when she was wrong or to listen to other views and that was her undoing. We can argue about good and bad leaders all we like but surely the ultimate test of a leader's tenure is whether the country is in a better or worse state than when they took over. On Thatcher I'm really not sure because although there's an argument that the country as a whole improved over her eleven years' tenure, the average improvement came as a result of greater division and imbalance of wealth and quality of life. I don't think that's what she intended.

[BucksBornNBred]

He is strong in front of a friendly audience but folds like a stack of cards when up against criticism.

Surely that is a criticism you can throw at any person in the news nowadays? Welcome to the 21st century

[anotherdad]

Surely that is a criticism you can throw at any person in the news nowadays? Welcome to the 21st century

You're not wrong. Social media image has become the currency of those in power.