Remembering Churchill
The 24th January 2015 saw the fiftieth anniversary of the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, arguably the greatest Prime Minister Britain ever had. So there has been a raft of programmes both on TV and radio commemorating this great event. I have made a point of trying to listen to or watch some of these programmes as I am a very limited student of Churchill as many are. I have various quotes of his attached to my fridge freezer, I have read at least one biography and have recently bought another to read on some future holiday or long winter night. I have also made a number of visits to Chartwell, I have visited the Cabinet War Rooms, Blenheim Palace and have also visited the Churchill family grave at Blaydon.
As we all know Churchill was not your average ordinary man by any stretch of the imagination. Born of aristocratic stock at Blenheim Palace, the son of a very talented British politician and vivavious American mother, the path of his life was already set to be on a certain privileged plane. Not a great scholar as a schoolboy, he proved that low academic achievement at a young age is no barrier to greatness.
Because he was an aristocrat, there were a lot of things that he never did that were the stuff of ordinary life. For instance it was reported on one of the recent radio programmes that he never travelled on the London underground bar one occasion when he got lost going round and round on the Circle line. One radio report said he never went into a shop. A bizarre state of affairs you might think, but people of his ilk had everything done for them. There were armies of servants to do the bidding of their Lords and masters at places like Blenheim and Chartwell. On the other hand, he could identify with the common man in such areas as his experience as a soldier and as a skilled bricklayer, a member of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers.
Of course his aristocratic background may be one reason why Churchill was such a polymath, because he had the time to be. He was a renowned politician and leader, a soldier, a great orator, a world class writer, a painter of significant talent, a builder and bricklayer, in other words he had in the words of Dennis Healey, a hinterland.
An outstanding feature of Churchill’s war leadership was his speechmaking ability. He was able to use the power of the English language and that gravelly voice of his to rally the British nation at its most perilous hour. His Battle of Britain speech on ‘never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few,’ and the ‘some chicken, some neck’ speech have entered folklore.
But most of all we remember him as the man who led Great Britain when we stood alone against Hitler in 1940, when most of Europe had been subjugated by the Nazi war machine, and this key time in our history is quite remarkable especially when you think that some thought appeasement of Hitler was the thing to do. What Churchill brought to the table was an ability to see clearly and with prophetic foresight just how evil and dangerous Hitler’s regime was, and that it had to be stopped by force, not appeasement. He understood that sometimes you cannot talk to or negotiate with a fearsome bully, instead you have to face it down head on. If Churchill had not actually been there would we have come to some sort of accommodation with Herr Hitler, perhaps we would have agreed not to stop his relentless takeover of the European continent as long as he left us alone? But then what guarantee was there that Hitler’s lust for power would not have brought his force across the channel anyway?
This heightens the importance of a nation producing a leader of outstanding determination when faced with overwhelming evil. Perhaps his experience as a soldier both in Africa and the First World War, and internment in a POW camp helped give him the extra mettle needed. Perhaps the greatest difference between him and the current generation of political leaders is that he understood the nature of evil and the threat it posed to freedom, and that you have to take strong and decisive action against such evil, whereas I am not sure that today’s leaders have the quality of ruthlessness needed for extraordinary challenges. I hope I am proved wrong.
Churchill also puts paid to the idea of the cult of youth that afflicts our society, the idea that if you are young you somehow have more to contribute and more qualification to hold high office than someone much older. Churchill was 63 years old when the war started and was yet to attain the height that would earn him the ‘greatest Briton’ tag years after his death. Qualification for leadership of a nation should profoundly not have anything to do with having to be under a certain age such as fifty otherwise you are too old!
It has been conjectured whether Churchill would have successful in today’s political environment. He was a man of great gifts yet serious flaws, suffering from black dog depression and having a significant taste for alcohol. He would undoubtedly have been caught by the net of political correctness that prevents anyone of a more independent mode of thought from getting anywhere in much of the present political culture. He would have been proudly pro-British and for probably maintaining the relative homogeneity of this island race so would have been seen as zenophobic. He would not have approved of homosexuality so would have been branded homophobic. Evidence is that he would have had a low opinion of Islam so would have been an ‘islamophobe.’ No doubt the term ‘racist’ and ‘bigot’ may have been thrown into the mix as well given his British Empire worldview at the time! But all these labels fall away given the character and personality of the man. He was a man for his time, who had the vision to see the mortal peril faced by Great Britain and realised that manifest evil had to be dealt with. Yes he was a flawed human being who made big mistakes and was remembered for disasters such as Galipolli. He had his years in the wilderness and his judgement was brought into question at times. But his life path squeezed him into the mould that had been prepared for him for a relatively short phase in his life, to oppose a demonically inspired evil dictator. We can thank God for him.