The National Archives UK profile, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
With the dreadful Rachel from Complaints presenting as the most incompetent Chancellor, probably since records began there come the usual cries of why not get somebody qualified to do the job. In such cases I am always reminded of the Belgian Health Minister who was monstrously fat. She may still be in office for all I know but we may also be in another of those periods where Belgium does not have a government at all.
I decided to have a look at the qualifications of all the Chancellors since WW2. We have been blessed with 28 of the beggars. I used Stickypedia as my yardstick, it may not be 100% accurate but it is as good as anything else. Had I been a lazy so and so I could have asked one of the AI thingummies to do it for me but where’s the fun in that.
Let’s get the least qualified out of the way before delving into the rest of them. That honour goes to John Major who had a grand total of 3 ‘O’ levels, History, English Language and English Literature. It didn’t really hold him back did it, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister. He was far from the worst and I suppose we could grade him as average in all those jobs though he did preside over Black Wednesday which turned out to be a George Soros production.
Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Seven of the scoundrels were PPE graduates (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) so at least there was some learning about the economy. One other did Economics and another did Economics and Politics. The second of those was Sajid Javid and we can jump to the conclusion that he was not up the Philosophy part of the course. The seven PPE’s were Hugh Gaitskell, Roy Jenkins who worked on the Lorenz code at Bletchley Park in WW2, Nigel Lawson, Spreadshit Phil, NikNak, Jeremy the Hunt and Rachel Reeves herself.
In contrast to Robber Reeves being the worst Chancellor ever, Nigel Lawson is often held up as one of our best. It seems the qualification does not prepare you for the job.
The next group consists of 6 people, Peter Thorneycroft, Selwyn Lloyd, Geoffrey Howe, Ken Clarke and Alistair Darling. They all have Law degrees like much of the House. Ken Clarke of Hush Puppies fame has acquired the mantle of éminence grise these days, I can’t remember how competent he was as Chancellor but he is so wet you would have to wring him out before allowing him in your house. The sixth is the demon Barber, yes Anthony Barber who kicked off the out of control inflation in the 1970s when he fired up the printing presses in a vain attempt to keep Grocer Heath in Number 10, something the Tories like to forget and do not like being reminded of.
Three of them have History degrees, Iain Macleod, the Caledonian Cyclops and Nobsore. I really can’t remember details back as far back as Iain Macleod but the Cyclops and Nobsore were not up to much even though the one eyed man claimed to have saved the world during the 2008 crisis. Excuse me for taking that with a large pinch of salt, I very much doubt he did anything of the kind.
Two of them have Classics degrees, Harold Macmilland and Kwasi the Khazi followed by two others with Literary degrees, or Greats as they are known at Oxbridge. The two Greats are Reginald Maudling, a right scoundrel he was up to his neck in dodgy dealings, and Denis Healey who promised to make the pips squeak but never even got close.
Two more were involved in Chemistry type degrees, Stafford Cripps who did so much to drive us deeper into the mire during the Atlee administration and Nadhim Zahawi who lasted as long as Liz Truss did.
The rest of the nonentities majored in various disciplines but nowt to do with money.
It is rather too easy to argue that qualifications do not enter into it one little bit. For all the people with a degree involving economics only one could be considered to be in the top tier of Chancellors and another one has turned out to be the worst ever.
To return to the Belgians Maggie Celine Louise De Block, for it was she who was the incredible bulk, served as Health Minister from 2014 to 2020 and it appears she is still going at the ripe old age of 63 and even more amazingly her profession is family doctor. I think she needs to ask herself for some advice though the latest pictures indicate she has done no such thing and has been frequenting the Belgian version of Greggs.
My recommendation to all puffins is to ignore whatever qualifications our betters have and concentrate on how they perform in office. After all they have SpAds and civil servants by the dozen to advise them what needs to be done, they just need to be intelligent enough to make the right decisions. I fear political dogma will get in the way of the right decision in far too many instances.
© well_chuffed 2025
