Category: In the News

Greece and the European Union

Greece and the European Union

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Greece’s Debacle

A friend sends James K. Gal­braith‘s thought­ful arti­cle, “From the Destruc­tion of Greece to Democ­ra­cy in Europe” (Boston Globe, 22 August):

Last year’s third bailout of Greece, imposed by Europe and the Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund, does to Greece what Ver­sailles did to Ger­many. It strips assets to sat­is­fy debts….a quag­mire of graft to sup­port an illu­sion that Greece could “com­pete” as part of the euro. Already in 2010 the IMF knew it was break­ing its own rules by pre­tend­ing that Greece could recov­er quick­ly, sus­tain a huge pri­ma­ry sur­plus, and repay its debts….…

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motorist
A roadside picnic next to his 1938 Austin 10. (Wikimedia Commons)
Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (2) Daimlers…

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (2) Daimlers…

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Hav­ing writ­ten about cars and Win­ston Churchill for fifty years, I final­ly pro­duced a piece on them both. From exot­i­ca like Daim­ler, Napi­er and Rolls-Royce to more pro­sa­ic makes like Austin, Hum­ber and Wolse­ley, the sto­ry was three decades in com­ing. I am sat­is­fied that it is now complete.

Part 2, con­tin­ued from Part 1: Excerpt only. For foot­notes,  all illus­tra­tions and a ros­ter of Churchill’s cars, see The Auto­mo­bile, (UK), August 2016. A pdf of the arti­cle is avail­able upon request: click here.

Wolseley to Austin

In the ear­ly 1930s Churchill switched from Wolse­ley to Austin cars: small fours and big six­es.…

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motorist
Churchill at the wheel of his Wolseley 10, 1925; the bulb horn was used frequently in assorted mad rushes. (Author’s collection)
Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (1) Mors the Pity

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (1) Mors the Pity

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“You fool!” the policeman shouted. Then he “swore most richly for some seconds.” Churchill’s head hung. “He did have the civic sense to say he was sorry,” Thompson continued. “...the matchless voice of the man identified him at once to the constable.” ‘Sorry, Mr. Churchill,’ the policeman apologised. "Then the majesty of the constable’s office and the disgusting guilt of the violator brought forth, in gentle sarcasm, a caution that withered Churchill and kept him silent clear to the Channel. ‘Do try to stay in the road, sir.’”

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Celwyn Ball, British First Army 1940-46

Celwyn Ball, British First Army 1940-46

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Celwyn 1922-2016

In 1992, I told Cel­wyn of my Lat­vian fore­bears and wish to vis­it the Baltic. He said he knew the area well, vol­un­teered to join me, and made arrange­ments for a tour. Gen­er­ous­ly he showed me places I nev­er expect­ed to see. I remem­ber our strolling Bralu Kapi, Latvia’s Arling­ton, where heroes lie. There I heard Cel­wyn mus­ing, from his own expe­ri­ence, about what they must have gone through. A vet­er­an had told us of dig­ging ditch­es in the flat coun­try, against oncom­ing Russ­ian tanks, in 1945 as the Red Army rolled west. They were Sher­mans sent through Lend-Lease, their white stars recent­ly repaint­ed red.…

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Brexit
Eurozone participation (Wikipedia). BLUE: 19 EU members in the Eurozone. YELLOW: EU members obliged to join the Eurozone (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden). PINK: EU member with euro opt-out (Denmark). RED: EU member voting to leave (UK). GREEN: Non-EU mini-states using euro with a monetary agreement (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City). PURPLE: Non-EU states using the euro unilaterally (Kosovo, Montenegro).
Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

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Brex­it after­math, June 2016: In vot­ing to leave the Euro­pean Union, Britain has opt­ed to become anoth­er Nor­way. One of the most pros­per­ous and con­tent­ed coun­tries in the world, Nor­way does fine with its own laws, cur­ren­cy, and trade agree­ments, includ­ing a good one with the EU. It is hard­ly a bad model.

Short-term troubles

The gnash­ing of teeth over the upset Brex­it vic­to­ry resounds around the world. For awhile, chaos will attend finan­cial mar­kets, and the pound will take a dip (boost­ing British exports).

The Scots vot­ed against Brex­it, though not in the num­bers pre­dict­ed.…

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Trump on Women: Should’ve Said Something Else

Trump on Women: Should’ve Said Something Else

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Some­thing Mr. Trump said remind­ed me of a piece Win­ston Churchill wrote in 1947: The Dream. But he might not entire­ly rel­ish the reminder. (And this is not, believe me, any attempt to com­pare Trump to Churchill.)

The Dream is a styl­ish short sto­ry about Churchill’s imag­i­nary con­ver­sa­tion with the ghost of his father, Lord Ran­dolph Churchill, who died in 1895. In a touch­ing, rather sad con­ver­sa­tion, the 73-year-old Win­ston relates to the 45-year-old Ran­dolph all that has hap­pened since 1895, with­out dis­clos­ing the roles he him­self had played.

They dis­cuss elec­tions. Lord Ran­dolph asks, “What is the franchise?”

“Uni­ver­sal,” his son replies.…

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Thatcher to Congress, 1985: Worth Remembering

Thatcher to Congress, 1985: Worth Remembering

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Mar­garet Thatch­er, in her thought­ful and pre­scient remarks, post­ed by the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, reached back into his­to­ry to recall how far the Eng­lish-Speak­ing Peo­ples have come since vic­to­ry in World War II, and how much remained to accom­plish. Like Churchill, Lady Thatch­er would be pleased that for the most part, they met the tests before them, in his words, with “a stern sen­ti­ment of impar­tial jus­tice, and above all the love of per­son­al free­dom, or as Kipling put it: ‘Leave to live by no man’s leave under­neath the law.’”…

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“Boneless Wonder” vs. “Dodgy Dave”

“Boneless Wonder” vs. “Dodgy Dave”

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"I remember when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum’s circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit on the programme which I most desired to see was the one described as 'The Boneless Wonder.' My parents judged that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralising for my youthful eyes, and I have waited 50 years to see the Boneless Wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench." —WSC, 1931

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Bombing Japan: Churchill’s View

Bombing Japan: Churchill’s View

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Scott John­son of Pow­er­line (“Why We Dropped the Bomb,” 13 April) kind­ly links an old col­umn of his quot­ing an old one of mine with ref­er­ence to Pres­i­dent Obama’s vis­it to Hiroshi­ma and the atom bomb­ing of Japan.

John­son links a lec­ture by Pro­fes­sor Williamson Mur­ray, which is worth con­sid­er­ing, along with Paul Fussell’s clas­sic essay in The New Repub­lic, “Thank God for the Atom Bomb,” which makes you think, though some con­sid­er it a rant. Fussell wrote:

John Ken­neth Gal­braith is per­suad­ed that the Japan­ese would have sur­ren­dered sure­ly by Novem­ber with­out an inva­sion.…

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cruz churchill
Ted Cruz (L). Maybe if he’d smoke a cigar? (Daily Telegraph)
Senator Cruz: Minor Misquote, Major Misinterpretation

Senator Cruz: Minor Misquote, Major Misinterpretation

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Ted Cruz, speak­ing on 5 April, “sparked an out­cry” by mis­quot­ing Churchill: “If we open a quar­rel between the past and the present, Cruz intoned, “we risk the future.”

The Lon­don Dai­ly Tele­graph report­ed: The ref­er­ences drew a swift—and fierce—reaction from social media.”  Social media is not a like­ly place to con­tem­plate the fine points of his­to­ry. It wasn’t in this case, as you can read in the news­pa­per article.

What Cruz said was “…risk the future.” For Churchill it was more than risk. In his “Finest Hour” speech, 18 June 1940, Churchill told Par­lia­ment: “If we open a quar­rel between the past and the present we shall find that we have lost the future.”…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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