Year: 2012

“An empty taxi arrived and Clement Attlee got out”

“An empty taxi arrived and Clement Attlee got out”

Though it's all over the Internet, Churchill never said this about Clement Attlee, and quoting Churchill to this effect considerably misses his attitude toward political opponents. Queried about the remark, Churchill replied to the effect that Clement Attlee was an honorable and gallant gentleman and that he, Churchill, would deprecate any such remark.

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“Houses, red meat, and not being scuppered…”

“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.…

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Churchill on Italian Cruise Ships: Untrue

Churchill on Italian Cruise Ships: Untrue

It’s all over the Web. And entire­ly bogus.

After his  retire­ment, goes the sto­ry, Churchill was cruis­ing the Mediter­ranean on an Ital­ian lin­er  and an Ital­ian jour­nal­ist asked why a for­mer British Prime Min­is­ter chose an Ital­ian ship. “There are three things I like about being on an Ital­ian cruise ship,” Churchill sup­pos­ed­ly says. “First, their cui­sine is unsur­passed. Sec­ond, their ser­vice is superb. And then, in time of emer­gency, there is none of this non­sense about women and chil­dren first.”

Amus­ing to some, anath­e­ma to oth­ers, includ­ing rel­a­tives of the Cos­ta Con­cor­dia pas­sen­gers and many embar­rassed Ital­ians, this is NOT by Win­ston Churchill.…

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Winston Churchill was Not a Zionist?

Winston Churchill was Not a Zionist?

The Churchill Soci­ety of Israel serves Israelis with an inter­est in Sir Win­ston Churchill, accord­ing to Rus­sell Roth­stein, quot­ed in the Jan­u­ary 9th Dai­ly Tele­graph: “Churchill’s long-stand­ing sup­port of Zion­ism and friend­ship with the Jew­ish peo­ple make it par­tic­u­lar­ly appro­pri­ate that the mod­ern state of Israel have a local organ­i­sa­tion devot­ed to his mem­o­ry and to pre­serv­ing his thoughts, words and deeds for future generations.”

Sir Mar­tin Gilbert, Churchill’s offi­cial biog­ra­ph­er, added: “Churchill was very famil­iar with the Old Tes­ta­ment. He wrote about the Chil­dren of Israel who “under­stood and adopt­ed ideas which even ancient Greece and Rome, for all their pow­er, failed to com­pre­hend.…

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Oldest Vessel Named for Churchill

Oldest Vessel Named for Churchill

The 15-meter sloop Win­ston Churchill is one of sev­er­al Churchill name­sake ves­sels to have car­ried an hero­ic crew. The ven­er­a­ble sail­boat, the old­est ves­sel named for Sir Win­ston, sank dur­ing the chal­leng­ing Syd­ney to Hobart Yacht Race in 1998, and three of her crew, James Lawler, Michael Ban­nis­ter and John Dean, drowned. The hero­ism of her crew match­es that of the USS Win­ston S. Churchill, the most famous bear­er of the name afloat.

The sto­ry of their sur­vival, writes Paul Kali­na in the Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald, is part of a new film by Gra­ham McNe­ice on Aus­tralians who defied nar­row brush­es with death.…

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