We asked the YouGov First Verdict panel to say which of ten current world leaders and which of ten recent world leaders were most worthy of their admiration.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu won the most admired serving leader with a 23% score. Even though he has only just been elected the PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau came second with 21%. Angela Merkel got a bronze medal with 11% and Britain’s David Cameron came 4th with 6%.
Margaret Thatcher narrowly beat Nelson Mandela by 30% to 29% in the vote on most admired leader from recent history. Tony Blair with 10% received twice as many votes as Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev.
Some readers might quarrel with the ten leaders we shortlisted for each of the two votes but hopefully we identified most of the key contenders each time.
‘I’m personally convinced that our civilisation is approaching its end,’ wrote the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge in 1980. ‘I think of St Augustine when, in AD 410, the news was brought to him in Carthage that Rome had been sacked by the Barbarians.’ Jim Callaghan was equally gloomy. In 1974, he remarked: ‘When I am […]
Josiah Quincy Jr., who was the mayor of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century, wrote in his Last Will and Testament that his son should read ‘John Locke’s works, – Lord Bacon’s works, – Gordon’s Tacitus, – and Cato’s Letters. May the spirit of liberty rest upon him!’ Indeed, there is nothing closer […]
Spare a thought for Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, heading the US negotiating team, as they met with Qatari Emir Al Thani this week to discuss the ‘progress of the negotiations’ between the US and the Iranian regime in the Qatari capital, Doha. While the venue for the talks has shifted from Pakistan to Switzerland […]
