Tag: Clement Attlee

Attlee
Churchill and Attlee, 1941.
Clement Attlee’s Noble Tribute to Winston Churchill

Clement Attlee’s Noble Tribute to Winston Churchill

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My col­league Richard Cohen com­mends a eulo­gy to Churchill by the great Labour Par­ty leader Clement Attlee. It occurred in the House of Lords on 25 Jan­u­ary 1965, the day after Sir Win­ston died. It is notable for its fine words. More­over, it shows how their rela­tion­ship as col­leagues eclipsed that of polit­i­cal oppo­nents. At a time of great­ly strained rela­tions between the par­ties, on both sides of the pond, this is a thought­ful reminder that things could be different.

Attlee was the first prime min­is­ter of a social­ist gov­ern­ment with an out­right major­i­ty (1945-51).…

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quotations
Holding forth in Parliament, 1912. (Illustrated London News)
How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

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“How Would Churchill Tweet?” appeared in Nation­al Review, 12 August 2017.

Since Pres­i­dent Trump has tak­en office, the pub­lic has quick­ly learned to get its polit­i­cal news from a nov­el source—namely, the President’s Twit­ter account.

The move to this plat­form rep­re­sents a shift in the nature of pol­i­tics, both for good and for ill. Trump might be among the first polit­i­cal lead­ers to use this medi­um to attack oppo­nents or make major announce­ments. He is cer­tain­ly not the first to uti­lize the kind of brevi­ty the plat­form requires to make his points.

Such brevi­ty also char­ac­ter­ized the rhetor­i­cal style of Win­ston Churchill, whose wit, humor and insight com­ple­ment­ed his deci­sive and effec­tive polit­i­cal lead­er­ship.…

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racism
Churchill and Racism: Think a Little Deeper

Churchill and Racism: Think a Little Deeper

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Q: Anoth­er new movie, A Unit­ed King­dom,  sad­dles Churchill with racism. It’s the sto­ry of Seretse Khama of the Bechua­na­land roy­al fam­i­ly and heir to the throne. After study­ing in Eng­land, he meets and mar­ries a British woman, Ruth Williams. The South African gov­ern­ment, which is adopt­ing Apartheid, is trou­bled by the inter­ra­cial mar­riage. It press­es the Attlee gov­ern­ment in Britain to exile Khama, which they do. Churchill is not a char­ac­ter in the film, but we are told that he sup­ports Khama and will restore him if Churchill’s par­ty wins the 1951 elec­tion.…

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Urinal Humor: Churchill & Attlee

Urinal Humor: Churchill & Attlee

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Syn­di­cat­ed colum­nist Charles Krautham­mer cit­ed an amus­ing encounter between Churchill and social­ist Prime Min­is­ter Clement Attlee in the Mem­bers’ uri­nal at the House of Com­mons, cir­ca 1951. Attlee is stand­ing over the trough as Churchill enters on the same mis­sion. Observ­ing Attlee, Churchill shuf­fles as far away as possible.

Attlee: “Feel­ing stand­off­ish today, are we, Winston?”

WSC: “That’s right. Every time you see some­thing big you want to nation­alise it.”

I labeled this an unat­trib­uted quip in the “Red Her­rings” appen­dix to my quo­ta­tions book, Churchill by Him­self.  I am hap­py to say that I was wrong, thanks to the help of colum­nist Chris­t­ian Schnei­der, who also recent­ly pub­lished the quote in the Mil­wau­kee Jour­nal-Sen­tinel.  …

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Dardanelles-Gallipoli Centenary

Dardanelles-Gallipoli Centenary

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Anzac Day, April 25th, marks the Cen­te­nary of the land­ings on the Gal­lipoli Penin­su­la, in the end a trag­ic fail­ure, with heavy loss­es of British, Aus­tralian and New Zealand life. Churchill usu­al­ly comes in for (and deserves) some of the blame, but rarely does every­body “get it right.” Such is a piece in Forbes: “Win­ston Churchill’s Ter­ri­ble Lead­er­ship Fail­ure.”

This piece gets sev­er­al facts wrong and over­sim­pli­fies to the point of con­fu­sion. Churchill’s fail­ure was over the Dar­d­anelles naval attack of 18 March 1915; the land­ings on Gal­lipoli came in late April, after the naval attack had failed, and were not direct­ed by him.…

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“An empty taxi arrived and Clement Attlee got out”

“An empty taxi arrived and Clement Attlee got out”

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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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“Alles sal reg kom”: Churchill on the Royal Wedding

“Alles sal reg kom”: Churchill on the Royal Wedding

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HOUSE OF COMMONS, 22 OCTOBER 1947— “I am in entire accord with what the Prime Min­is­ter has said about Princess Eliz­a­beth and about the qual­i­ties which she has already shown, to use his words, ‘of unerr­ing gra­cious­ness and under­stand­ing and of human sim­plic­i­ty.’ He is indeed right in declar­ing that these are among the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the Roy­al House. I trust that every­thing that is appro­pri­ate will be done by His Majesty’s Gov­ern­ment to mark this occa­sion of nation­al rejoic­ing.  ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,’ and mil­lions will wel­come this joy­ous event as a flash of colour on the hard road we have to trav­el.…

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“Winston” Olbermann and the Healthcare Debate

“Winston” Olbermann and the Healthcare Debate

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N.B.: If Mr. Olber­mann had done more research, he would know what Churchill did say about nation­al health­care, which is more to the point: see Churchill and Healthcare.

MSNBC com­men­ta­tor Kei­th Olber­mann is for the pro­posed Amer­i­can health­care reform bill, which is nei­ther here nor there.

What is inter­est­ing to Churchillians is his use of Win­ston Churchill’s words to sup­port it—from both 1945 (when Churchill was cam­paign­ing against social­ism), and 1936 (when Churchill was urg­ing rear­ma­ment in the face of Nazi Germany).

In 1945, Olber­mann says, Churchill

equat­ed his oppo­nents, the par­ty that sought to intro­duce “The Nation­al Health,” to the Gestapo of the Ger­mans that he and we had just beat­en just as those oppos­ing reform now have invoked Nazis as fre­quent­ly and false­ly as if they were invok­ing Zom­bies.…

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