Tag: Winston S. Churchill

socialist
“Awful Scene of Gloom and Dejection,” in “Punch,” 24 November 1909. The House of Lords had finally referred the Liberals’ welfare budget to the nation. L-R: War Secretary Richard Haldane, Home Secretary Churchill (“Don’t let my feet touch the ground!”), Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George, Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, India Secretary John Morley. They didn’t laugh long: the January election demolished their majority and forced Asquith into a coalition with the Irish Unionists. (Excerpt from a cartoon by Edward Tennyson Reed, public domain)
Was Churchill a Closet Socialist?

Was Churchill a Closet Socialist?

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Churchill was no socialist if by socialist we mean someone who favors government control of all means of production. He instead promoted what he called a  "Minimum Standard" to address the legitimate needs of the citizen without compromising constitutional liberties. That is a fine line to walk, but his aim was to forestall socialism, and thus to avoid its evils: the stifling of initiative, the concentration of power out of the hands of the people.

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Queen
The Queen and Prime Minister, with Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 10 February 1953. (Crown copyright expired, Wikimedia Commons)
The Queen 70 Years On: “A Sparkling Presence at its Summit”

The Queen 70 Years On: “A Sparkling Presence at its Summit”

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"Our Island no longer holds the same authority or power that it did in the days of Queen Victoria. A vast world towers up around it and after all our victories we could not claim the rank we hold were it not for the respect for our character and good sense...and I regard it as the most direct mark of God's favour we have ever received in my long life that the whole structure of our new-formed Commonwealth has been linked and illuminated by a sparkling presence at its summit." —WSC, 1955

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law
Statue of Moses at Kloster Raitenhaslach, Burghausen, Germany. (Schorle, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Winston Churchill’s Great Law Givers of History

Winston Churchill’s Great Law Givers of History

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Churchill's view never altered. Moses he was "the supreme Law Giver, who received from God that remarkable code upon which the religious, moral, and social life of the nation was so securely founded. Tradition lastly ascribed to him the authorship of the whole Pentateuch, and the mystery that surrounded his death added to his prestige."

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alcohol
“Drunken Weltanschauung: Churchill tries to find luck in drink, but the bottle distorts the view.” (Der Stürmer, Nuremberg, 26 February 1942)
“Drunk and Ugly”: The Perennial Quotation-Chase

“Drunk and Ugly”: The Perennial Quotation-Chase

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"Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly." Lady Soames, who said her father was always gallant to women, doubted the exchange, but bodyguard Ronald Golding was present and heard it. Golding explained that WSC was not drunk, just tired and wobbly, which caused him to fire the W.C. Fields riposte.

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Arts
Plaque placed before the PM’s seat at the conference table, Cabinet War Rooms, London. (Photo by the author)
Safeguarding the Arts: Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

Safeguarding the Arts: Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

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"The Arts are essential to any complete national life.... Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due" (Churchill, April 1938). "No, bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them" (Churchill, June 1940).

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Bucknell
“The Rival Screevers” (pavement chalk artists). Samuel Hoare: “‘Ullo Mate! So you’ve done an elephant too?” Winston: “Ah! But my composition’s different—an’ I’ve made a lot more of the background.” Hoare and Churchill were on opposite sides over the proposed India Bill granting India more self-government. (Bernard Partridge in “Punch,” 1 November 1933, public domain)
Review: Bucknell University’s Panel on “Churchill, Hero or Colonialist?”

Review: Bucknell University’s Panel on “Churchill, Hero or Colonialist?”

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In an age where Churchill is often subject to one-sided discussions by panelists who agree with each other, Bucknell deserves great credit for seeking balance on a fraught subject. Likewise the panelists, Drs. Arnn, McMeekin and Mukerjee, who manage to disagree without rancor, and to acknowledge each other's points of view. The Bucknell program is definitely worth the time of thoughtful readers.

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Gettysburg
“The Treaty of Harper’s Ferry, which was signed between the Union and Confederate States on 6 September 1863, embodied the two fundamental propositions: that the South was independent, and the slaves were free.” —WSC, 1930
Fantasies: Trollope’s Brittanula, Churchill’s Battle of Gettysburg

Fantasies: Trollope’s Brittanula, Churchill’s Battle of Gettysburg

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1930: Kaiser Wilhelm II may today occupy "the most splendid situation in Europe." But "let him not forget that he might well have found himself eating the bitter bread of exile, a dethroned sovereign and a broken man loaded with unutterable reproach...if Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg."

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Poy
Cover detail from the deluxe edition of “Poy’s Churchill” by Fieldfare, 1954.
Poy (Percy Fearon): The Classic Churchill Cartoonist

Poy (Percy Fearon): The Classic Churchill Cartoonist

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"Caricature was the object of all Poy’s work, but he never dipped his pen in vitriol…. He was not unlike a modern Aesop who…drew the simple truth with devastating clearness. Looking at any of his pictures you laugh because of their very rightness. It is only afterwards that you realise the brilliance of the drawing, and are staggered by the genius that created it."

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baths
Churchill’s habits (and the occasional experiences of his secretaries) were well known to the Nazis, who lampooned him in “Illustrerter Beobachter” for June 1941. Translation: “Take this down: In my current situation, I fear German U-boats even less than before.”
“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

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"When Ministers of the Crown speak like this [there is] no need to wonder why they are getting increasingly into bad odour. I had even asked myself whether you, Mr. Speaker, would admit the word LOUSY as a Parliamentary expression in referring to the Administration, provided, of course, it was not intended in a contemptuous sense but purely as one of factual narration."

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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