 |
Click
HERE for Wednesday's quote from Derek Scissors on China's balance of payments.
|
|
FOR CHURCHILL DAY, 2019
"In my country the people can do as they like, although it often happens they don't like what they have done."
Winston Churchill
February 1, 1946
|
As a rule, the only context that we try to provide here is the context for the day's featured quote. But the high drama of this day - May 10, 2019 - is so critical that it calls out for some comment, even though it is not the subject of today's entry. That drama centers on the Winder Building in Washington, which houses the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and which earlier today was the setting for high-level trade talks between the United States and China. Press reports tell us that those talks were broken off earlier today but with few hints as to what might be coming next. When we know a little more, we'll say a little more.
|
"Then" in this case is the 1940s as described in Martin Gilbert's "Churchill, A Life." Any biography of Winston Churchill is a festival of quotes, and this is no exception. We are calling this Churchill Day because it was on this day 79 years ago, May 10, 1940, that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, and, looking back, that seems something worth celebrating. May 10, 1940, was also the date of the German invasion of France, though formally both the United Kingdom and France had been at war with Germany since September of 1939. In short, it was a hell of day all round, with much more hell to follow.
Today's quote, quotes rather (we're going to pile on bit), deal with the election in July 1945 that unceremoniously booted Winston Churchill from office. He had pushed for the election - not because he thought he would win (though he did expect to win) but because he felt that, once Germany was defeated, it would be important to return to politics as usual. Today's featured quote is from a conversation Churchill had with reporters during a visit to Cuba in February 1946. But first let's set the stage.
In a speech in the House of Commons on October 31, 1944, Churchill made the case for returning to normal politics in the months ahead. Here is a passage from that:
The foundation of all democracy is that the people have the right to vote. To deprive them of that right is to make a mockery of all the high-sounding phrases which are so often used. At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly palliate the overwhelming importance of that point. The people have the right to choose representatives in accordance with their wishes and feelings.
The voting in the 1945 election, the first general election in 10 years, began on July 5. The results were not announced, however, until July 26, which allowed time for the military ballots to be counted. The period overlapped with the Potsdam Conference outside Berlin, which began on July 17 and ended on August 2. Winston Churchill was representing the UK when that critical meeting with Truman and Stalin began. Clement Attlee, the victorious Labor Leader, was acting for the UK at the end.
Churchill was described as shocked at the election results, but still he rejected the thought, expressed by a colleague, that the British people had shown ingratitude. "I wouldn't call it that," he said, "they have had a very hard time."
He also, however, rejected his wife Clementine's thought that the election was perhaps "a blessing in disguise." His response to that was, "At the moment, it seems quite effectively disguised."
We'll end this section where it began at a press conference in Cuba in February 1946. Asked about the government of Prime Minister Attlee, Churchill said:
I do not discuss the government of my country when I am away from there.
Pressed for a comment on the previous summer's election, he responded as indicated above:
In my country the people can do as they like, although it often happens they don't like what they have done.
|
|
Every historical reference and rehearsal cries out to be allowed to prove some contemporary point. And that is as it should be. In this case, however, we shall leave it to you to draw any contemporary lessons that may seem fitting.
|
Churchill, A Life by Martin Gilbert was our source for all of the Churchill quotes above. The link takes you to the Amazon entry for this book.
|
| TO GET THE TTALK QUOTES IN YOUR INBOX
Or Other GBD Notices, click below.
|
|
©2019 The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.
1717 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 1025
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 463-5074
R. K. Morris, Editor
Joanne Thornton, Associate Editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
