Having just turned 50 years of age my children are convinced that I am on the verge of claiming my old age pension. They seem blithely unaware that by the time I reach pensionable age there will be no pension for me to claim. I am of the generation that was born in the 1960’s and so much of the social and political revolution of that decade passed me by. Winston Churchill died when I was just one year old. My parents used to have a reel to reel tape recorded and one of the things that they had recorded was his state funeral. We would listen to it from time to time as I grew up. My sister, only a baby at the time, could be heard crying through it, though whether for Churchill or a bottle of milk was not clear.
Sitting in my parent’s garden over the weekend, and not much interested in watching or listening to Wimbledon, I started playing some of Churchill’s speeches on my tablet computer. I’d started by looking for the sound of a V1 rocket. It was one of those lazy, web-browsing afternoons where it is never clear where things will end up. Of course I knew many of Churchill’s speeches already. But listening to them again, my father and I were silent, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. It seemed as though the great evil of the times against which he was speaking, the personal and national challenge which he called his audience to face, and the cost which would be necessarily borne if victory were to be achieved, were all presciently directed towards our own times and circumstances.
I asked my father if any of our present political class could address the nation in such a way, of if any would have any inclination to do so? of course the answer is no.
Some of those reading this post will have heard these speeches when they were first made. It is almost impossible to imagine a politician making them today. But is our need any less pressing? In his first speech as Prime Minister he laid out the difficulties that were undoubtedly to be faced by the British people..
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, 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, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is 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 forward 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.”
Is it possible for any Briton with any national feeling to remain unmoved by these words in our present circumstances? Are we facing any less a terror than that which opposed all freedom loving people of Europe in the middle of the 20th century? And in the speech which Churchill gave after the undoubted success of the Dunkirk evacuation we have the same sense of determination whatever the cost..
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
It is even possible to find reasoned instruction in Churchill’s words as to how we might deal with those among us who are a threat to our national integrity and way of life. He says, while speaking about the internment of some foreign nationals and even British citizens..
We have found it necessary to take measures of increasing stringency, not only against enemy aliens and suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also against British subjects who may become a danger or a nuisance should the war be transported to the United Kingdom. I know there are a great many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at the present time and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do.
Where is the politician of our times who even appreciates that in the British culture and tradition there is something of inestimable worth that cannot be suffered to fail? Where is the politician who will couch the struggle of our times as that of the conflict between good and evil which it is? Where is the politician who will speak of our patriotic duty and will rouse the nation to respond to the challenges of our age?
Where is our Winston Churchill?
I was on my second trip as apprentice. We’d just transitted the Suez Canal, heading for Australia and other points east, when the 3rd Mate called me to the bridge, stuffed a brand new Red Ensign into my hands and ordered me to hoist it at half mast. There wasn’t another ship around to see our solitary act of mourning. In Fremantle, the Padre from the Seamens’ Mission brought us some old British newspapers bearing photographs of the funeral and the grave. By the time we returned west, five months later, it was all forgotten.
One way to honour Churchill’s memory is not to begin an article with a dangling participle… The other is to note that there was nothing politically correct about the way he gave the V sign – I think we should adopt it against our enemies.
Is our need today any less pressing? One problem is that the dangers facing us today are not readily identifiable, do not wear uniforms or attack us from planes bearing hostile insignia. The most debilitating weapon we face – and often fail to recognise – is a virus of thought; you could call it meme warfare; it spreads a like a subtle epidemic, and needs no directing force. The virus has been released, it spreads itself at every opportunity.
Malfleur – maybe PfM’s children are older than seems possible!
Ostrich.
It was not all forgotten. I first went to Australia in 1972 and people still talked to me about the funeral and the majesty it conveyed to the World. Mind you, I would suspect things hve changed now.
Here is a video of the funeral…
We can be nice by liberal standards and let our country be over-run by those that do not share our standards in the hope that some time in the future they will integrate and accept our liberal standards. Or we can start controlling our borders, for which we would probably have to leave the EU, and enforcing all our existing laws equally. Or we can surrender.