Lloyd George Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill Derangement Syndrome: A is for Aryans, R is for Racism

3 March 2020

“Quality local journalism”

In our electronic Speaker’s Corner (the Internet), Winston Churchill is beset by haters. Their knee-jerk spouts are laced with out-of-context quotes and preconceived notions. Call it Churchill Derangement Syndrome. Where is the truth? Perhaps we need a Derangement Index. Click on “A” for Aryan Supremacy, “B” for the Bengal Famine, etc. A handy reference to every derangement you can access with a couple of clicks.

An e-zine called This is Local London, describing its offerings as “quality local journalism,” is a standard example. Well, maybe not so standard. “The Problem with Glorying Winston Churchill” was written not by a historian or researcher, but a student at Wallington County Grammar School.…

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war shame — Churchill to Moyne (circled): “We shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later.” Coalition ministers, May 1940. Standing L-R: Sir Archibald Sinclair, A.V. Alexander, Lord Cranborne. Herbert Morrison, Lord Moyne. Captain Margesson, Brendan Bracken. Seated L-R: Ernest Bevin, Lord Beaverbrook, Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Sir John Anderson, Arthur Greenwood, Sir Kingsley Wood. (Imperial War Museum / public domain)

Churchill’s words: Choosing between War and Shame—and getting both.

11 October 2019

It is frequently asked: What did Churchill say about those who trade honor for peace having in neither in the end?

“War and Shame”

There are two quotations. The first was Churchill in a letter to Lloyd George on 13 August 1938, just before the Munich Conference, which led to World War II a year later.

I think we shall have to choose in the next few weeks between war and shame, and I have very little doubt what the decision will be.

Reference is Churchill by Himself, page 256, quoting Martin Gilbert, ed., The Churchill Documents, vol.…

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Churchill had how many ideas a day? How many were good?

22 December 2018

Q: “Who made the crack that Churchill had a hundred ideas a day but only four of them were good?” —Bruce Saxton, Trenton, N.J.

A: There are several candidates and variations. Taking them as a group, Churchill had from six to 100 ideas daily, of which between one and six were good. In order of the most likely. But it could be one of those all-purpose cracks applied to many people.

Roosevelt: fifty to 100 ideas, three or four good.

President Roosevelt is the most likely to have said this, since he’s quoted more than anyone else.…

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Churchill, Troops and Strikers (2): Llanelli, 1911

27 May 2015

Llanelli in Context

Llanelli and the Railway Strike: concluded from Part 1…

Throughout the August 1911 railway strike, troops stood by. Their orders were to interfere only against threats to public security. But there was another reason why anxiety ran high at that time. A few weeks earlier, the Germans had sent a gunboat to Agadir, French Morocco. Rumors of war with Germany were rampant. David Lloyd George said the Agadir Crisis was a threat to peace. The Germans, he warned, “would not hesitate to use the [strike] paralysis,,,to attack Britain.” Paul Addison, in Churchill on the Home Front, described the public mood.…

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Boris: What Winston Would Do, Part 13,783

25 October 2014

Colorful politicians willing to say what they really think are rare prizes. But publishing a book on Churchill doesn't convey the right to judge what he would do today. The answer Lady Soames always gave when people said such things was: "How do you know?"

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