Tim Newark
his simple direct speech you can’t doubt his patriotism.
Despite her many missteps, Prime Minister Theresa May has pluckily ploughed on, determined to deliver the Brexit that a majority of us voted for. Her biggest flaw has been her inability to present a bold EU exit that would inspire us as a nation. Her Chequers plan appears to have been conceived as a compromise before she even went to battle over it.
Boris Johnson knows all about Churchill, having written his own book about the wartime leader, and he certainly knows how to use language to convey a belief in his country. His personal flaws are many – not least of them vanity – but he does have the ability to communicate beyond his narrow party interests.
Twice London mayor and a victorious Leave campaigner, his ability to reach parts of the electorate other Tories cannot should not be casually disregarded, as Chancellor Philip Hammond did this week. His big-draw speech at the Conservative Party conference yesterday only underlined his considerable appeal. Loyal to Theresa May just so long as she chucks Chequers, Boris’s major challenge is to convince the nation – and his fellow Conservatives – that we really can trust him as leader to deliver on what he promises.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is the other leadership challenger who most resembles Churchill in his effective use of language, knowledge of history and a grand positive belief in our future beyond Brexit.
Before Churchill became prime minister in 1940, he was considered by many an irrelevant maverick, too damaged by past events to make a good leader. Once in power, it was his courage and simple determination never to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds that won over many critics.
His reach went beyond Tory voters to the patriotic working class. It was those same voters who later saw an echo of the great man in Margaret Thatcher’s steadfast defence of Britain from threats inside and outside the country. In contrast, Jeremy Corbyn is an old-fashioned class warrior who treats patriotism with suspicion. Again and again he is inclined to line up in support of minority causes that do not put our national interests first, whether they are IRA terrorists at home or Islamist hardliners abroad.
HIS loyalty to traditional Labour policies may give him some traction with the hard-Left but he will never convince the nation that he is really on our side.
King George VI was no fan of Churchill, as Andrew Roberts reveals, and was keen to see anyone else but him become prime minister. But as the war progressed, the King came to respect him. “There has been some criticism that Winston does things too much himself,” he noted in his diary, “but he has to and is full of energy and initiative. I wish we had more people of his calibre.”
When the King died in 1952, Churchill returned the favour by placing a note on the royal coffin that said “For valour”, a simple recognition of the King’s sterling duty during the war.
By the end of the conflict Churchill had become a symbol of bulldog defiance. Now, as national unity wavers over Brexit, we need a leader to step up to the same challenge and become the very embodiment of our traditional courage and determination.
‘Putting best interests of our country first’