May 5, 2013

Finest Hour 151, Summer 2011

Page 5

Around and About


Conservative radio talk-czar Rush Limbaugh ran this doctored Churchill photo on his website. Ne Jersey Governor Chris Christie loo like he s ordering two pizzas. If he could lose that double chin he would poll 10% more favorably.

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Accompanying the photo was a transcript with a caller, lamenting that Christie, unlike Churchill, refuses to run for president when he s needed. Limbaugh praised Churchill for stepping forward for his country in World War II.

But Churchill didn’t exactly step forward. He d always been available. It was the government that wasn’t having himโ€”until the chips were down and there was no one else. Nor was Churchill, per Limbaugh, alone in opposing Hitler. There were Anthony Eden and Alfred Duff Cooper, among others.

The caller had a point that there is no Churchill among candidates for President (or indeed for Prime Minister, nor has there been since the war, with the possible exception of 1979). Every four years we see people proposing to run who bring to mind Denis Healy’s comment that being attacked by Sir Geoffrey Howe was akin to being savaged by a dead sheep.

Daily Telegraph political correspondent James Kirkup reports that another would be Churchill has bitten the dust: Defence Secretary Liam Fox was criticized for taking members of his staff to a Whitehall pub after the British intervention in Libya. “Dr. Fox, a sociable type, pointed out that he had not drunk alcohol during Lent, only breaking his fast over Libya. I don t think it was unreasonable, he said. It s a bit like asking Churchill if he regrets having a drink during World War II. “

Labour MPs quickly homed in, Kirkup wrote: Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones said, “This is yet another demonstration of the over-inflated opinion Liam Fox has of himself.” Michael Dugher, his colleague, added, “Liam Fox is no Winston Churchill.” Ah well, better men than you, Fox.

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