“Houses, red meat, and not being scuppered…”
I have read that Churchill told his private secretary, Jock Colville, in November 1951 that his new government’s priorities were ‘houses, red meat and not getting scuppered.’ But I can’t find this in Colville’s Fringes of Power. Any thoughts?
Wonderful quote, quite appropriate in an election season, wish it were in my book. The date was March 1952 not November 1951.
It is quoted as you state it by Paul Addison in his outstanding book Churchill on the Home Front (London: Cape, 1992) 412, footnoted to Fringes of Power “diary for 22-23 March 1952.” But Prof. Addison had the verb wrong. What Churchill said was “not being scuppered.” As such it appears in Fringes page 644 (Hodder & Stoughton first US edition 1985). Martin Gilbert also has it on page 717 of his Volume 8, Winston S. Churchill, “Never Despair” 1945-1965 (London: Heinemann, 1988), 717.
