Hard Left deluded to attack this great leader
Isuppose we all knew that John Mcdonnell was a believer in the myths of the old hard Left. It is clear from his catastrophic economic policies that he has zero common sense. But until he blurted that Winston Churchill was a “villain” – as opposed to a hero
– I had no idea that he had become so totally detached from reality.
A villain? Let’s face it: if Churchill had not been prime minister of this country in May 1940, there can be little doubt that the British government would have bowed to the wishes of the establishment and big business – and done a deal with Hitler.
If Churchill had not been sitting there in that smoky room in the House of Commons, arguing his point, then it is likely that the message would have been passed back to Mussolini that this country was ready to acquiesce in the Nazi conquest of Europe. If Churchill had not won the day in Cabinet, and if Britain had not fought on, then the peoples of Europe would have been subjugated indefinitely by a vile, totalitarian, racist and murderously anti-semitic regime.
And John Mcdonnell should be in no doubt that without Winston Churchill this country would also have become a vassal state of Adolf Hitler. Is he really unaware of that? Does he think that is a trivial consideration?
Has the Labour Party become so obsessed with clapped-out socialist mantras – and so mired in antisemitism – that it has lost its grip on history? Mcdonnell blames Churchill for Tonypandy, referring to the canard – assiduously peddled to this day by the old hard Left – that in 1910 as a young home secretary he ordered British troops to fire on striking Welsh miners. There is only one problem with this story. It simply isn’t true.
No such orders were given by Churchill. No shots were fired. One miner did die of head injuries, possibly from a police truncheon, but home secretary Churchill in fact urged such consistent restraint – in the face of very serious disorder – that he was roundly attacked by Tory MPS for being too wet.
If John Mcdonnell had any understanding of Churchill’s career, and instincts, he would know that in 1908 he had passed the Trades Board Bill, to protect low-paid garment workers, mainly women, whose wages were then being undercut by hardworking immigrants from eastern Europe. As Churchill said at the time, “It is a national evil that any class of his Majesty’s subjects should receive less than a living wage in return for their utmost exertions.” He set up the first labour exchanges; he pioneered unemployment benefit. Together with Lloyd George he campaigned around the country for the 1911 budget and its substantial increase in redistributive taxation; and his Whiggish tendencies persisted throughout his political career. Even in the Second World War, when his mind was focused on national survival, you will find speeches anticipating the welfare state and National Health Service of the post-war order.
Yes, he was a passionate free trader and a Conservative and a capitalist and a believer in business. But he was also the father of the worker’s tea break.
As Clement Attlee put it in his moving tribute to Churchill when he finally retired from the House of Commons: “He had sympathy, incredibly wide sympathy, for ordinary people all over the world.”
That was the view of the Labour Party’s greatest leader. Today the man supposed to be the brains behind Jeremy Corbyn calls Churchill a “villain”. Churchill was not only a man with a conspicuous social conscience but probably the greatest leader this country has ever had.