Finest Hours

Not Politics as Usual

John Paul Warren is reputed to have said, "Cream always rises to the top...so do good leaders".”  Never is this more true than when heat is applied.  Below is a salutary example of the epigram.

When World War II began, Britain's Prime Minister was Neville Chamberlain.  Although prior to war he had been an idealistic pacifist and an appeaser of Hitler, fooled by Hitler's solemn promises not to invade nearby countries.  When he was subsequently betrayed, Chamberlain was not about to be fooled twice.  He became a resolute and ardent war leader.

The early months did not go well.
  Eventually Chamberlain lost the confidence of the House of Commons.  He resigned, and Churchill took over and secured a vote of confidence from the House.  He describes the occasion in Volume II--Their Finest Hour, part of the six volume series on World War II.

On Monday, May 13 [1940], I asked the House of Commons, which had been specially summoned, for a vote of confidence in the new Administration.  After reporting the progress which had been made in filling the various offices, I said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."  In all our long history no Prime Minister had ever been able to present to Parliament and the nation a programme at once so short and so popular.  I ended:

You ask, What is our policy?  I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, and with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.  That is our policy.  You ask, What is our aim?  I can answer in one word: Victory--victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.  Let that be realised: no survival for the British Empire; no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move towards its goal.  But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope.  I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.  At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "Come, then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

Upon these simple issues the House voted unanimously, and adjourned until May 21.  [Winston Churchill, The Second World War (London: The Reprint Society, 1951).  Volume II: Their Finest Hour, p.36f.]

Another adage springs to mind: cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Churchill concludes:

Thus then we all started on our common task.  Never did a British Prime Minister receive from Cabinet colleagues the loyal and true aid which I enjoyed during the next five years from these men of all parties in the State.  Parliament, while maintaining free and active criticism, gave continuous, overwhelming support to all measures proposed by the Government, and the nation was united and ardent as never before.  It was well indeed that this should be so, because events were to come upon us of an order more terrible than anyone had foreseen  [Ibid., p. 37.]

Whilst no-one would prefer war to peace--at least not without compelling reason for the defence of the realm--the political effects of war in the United Kingdom seem rather attractive.