Like his father before him, WSC believed in the adage, "Trust the People".
On Jun 22, 2011, at 5:42 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Another thing that I've been thinking about recently is Churchill's moral > courage. I think especially of his "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech. > He'd only been Prime Minister a few days. There were many in his own party > who distrusted him and felt Halifax should have been made PM; he depended on > Labour and the Liberals for support. > > But he didn't try to sugar-coat the situation or to pretend there would be > any kind of a "soft landing"; he did not try to do anything other than put > the true face on the matter. He said it would be long and hard, and that > there was no alternative to long and hard. He did not try to blame others - > though he could have. He did not say "I told you so" - though he could have. > > It was a dangerous speech to give. He was still on shaky political ground > and could easily have been rejected as the Chamberlain government had been. > But it was the right thing to say and he had the moral courage to say it, and > the confidence in the British people that they would accept it. And of > course, with 20-20 hindsight we know now he was right. > > This is a Churchillian lesson which modern political leaders would be well > advised to heed. Unfortunately moral courage in today's political leaders is > about as rare as hens' teeth. > > Jonathan hayes > > --- On Mon, 6/20/11, Lincoln <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: Lincoln <[email protected]> > Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: Never Treacherous > To: "ChurchillChat" <[email protected]> > Date: Monday, June 20, 2011, 1:01 AM > > I'm as sure as I can be of anything that every major historical or > biographical work that deals with Winston Churchill as its major > subject has made at least one, usually several, references to the fact > that the man was chivalrous and magnanimous to a fault. This is borne > out by his speech to the House upon the death of Neville Chamberlain > (in which Churchill's generosity about a man who had tried repeatedly > to keep him out of government and had scorned him on many an occasion > is astounding), his generosity and near-adulation of Asquith - a man > who had abandoned Churchill over the Dardanelles affair; his knight- > errant championing of Edward in the abdication crisis; his suicidal > advocacy of Admiral Fisher's recall to the Admiralty in WW2 (and > unstinted praise of him) - after that serpentine ingrate's spectacular > apostasy and personal treachery over the Dardanelles mission; his > admiring essay on Lord Balfour - a man who had personally maligned > WSC; and numberless other instances in which he delivered glowingly > generous appraisals of figures who would ordinarily have merited > nothing but words of terse censure, and whose own treatment of WSC had > been anything but generous. > > We have all knocked about in this world enough to have noticed that a > generous or magnanimous temperament is incompatible with a treacherous > one. That is a truism that needs neither explaining nor proving. > Winston Churchill was cast in heroic mould: his tastes, his > judgements, his aims, his actions, his failings and his strengths, and > above all, his motives - were all on a superlative, outsize scale. He > was a Titan - if anybody can be called that. Churchill had grandeur > and nobility in his nature. Something as base as 'treachery' is > impossible in such a man. > > On Apr 23, 6:00 am, Perpetuo991 <[email protected]> wrote: > > Beaverbrook wrote that Churchill, "was always free from rancor and > > never treacherous." Does anyone know of additional resources and > > examples that supports and augments this contention? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "ChurchillChat" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "ChurchillChat" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
