Iain Dale identifies the top ten qualities a ‘good’ Prime Minister needs:

1. Decisiveness
2. Conviction
3. Understanding the motivations of Middle England
4. Being a good negotiator
5. Being a good conciliator
6. Having a good TV presence
7. Being a good parliamentary performer
8. Having a thick skin
9. Being able to cut through civil service bullshit
10. Having a non political hinterland

Not sure about that cryptic last one. Does it mean being supported by bipartisan gayitude?

What any such list should contain depends upon what one means by a ‘good Prime Minister’.

Is that someone who is good at being popular and so gets re-elected? Tony Blair romps home.

Or is it someone who maybe has lower ratings because he/she is willing to take unpopular decisions? Tony Blair stuck with the Iraq policy and still was re-elected, so he arguably wins on this score too.

It is understandable that a Westminster commentator like Iain aims at ‘civil service bullshit’ (see 9 above). A plump target, getting plumper.

But a more accurate account of reality would have it that a good PM motivates the civil service to cut through his own party’s bullshit, to work up then deliver some coherent policy results.

High on my list would be projecting a sense of disciplined integrity and high standards, plus a willingness to deliver tough messages.

The Blair team at No 10 scored poorly here. There was an ill-defined cocky sloppiness coming from his entourage, showing itself in shoddy protocol and bad-tempered arrogance, combined with a sense that NuLabour know-it-alls did not need to do the work but would wing it on the day.

Maybe even more important is a willingness to deliver tough (and credible) private messages to other leaders such as Putin who make projecting toughness a key aspect of their persona. Margaret Thatcher was strong in this respect, Tony Blair much less so?

Another quality: taking the responsibility of office seriously. This might seem obvious. But the Blair government often seemed to aspire to soar above such trite considerations, offering important foreign visitors derisory ‘brush-bys’ at No 10 instead of extending to them the courtesy of substantive discussions. One well-informed school of thought has it that Mugabe has never forgiven the British for treating him in this patronising, dismissive way at No 10 on one occasion.

So here is my list:

1     Integrity

2     Upholding/improving Standards

3     Clarity of Purpose

4     Ambition, tempered by Teamwork

5     Willingness to Negotiate Hard (including by accepting the responsibility of confrontation when necessary)

6     Unfailing Courtesy, publicly and privately

7     Promoting high-level Discipline through personal example

8     Willingness to lose popularity for the right cause

9     Hard-nosed focus on British interests in the EU: just Block if necessary

10   Lead the Government – don’t give the Treasury a lock on many policy processes

And one for luck:

11    Slash the ranks of spin-doctors and SpAds on the public payroll. The policies should speak for themselves.

If the next PM sticks with that list he/she will not go too far wrong.