While our Prime Minister may align himself to Sir Winston Churchill, there is one important area where he fails. Sir Winston helped form and then led a National Coalition Government. And he wasn’t the Prime Minister in power at the time and possibly not the first choice.
Neville Chamberlain was the PM and recognised that the only way to win the war was if everyone worked together. He knew the Labour Party wouldn’t accept him and was prepared to step aside. A natural Conservative successor was Lord Halifax but he said he could not perform the role from the House of Lords. Sir Winston got the job.
His first war cabinet included Clement Atlee, later to be a Labour prime minister for six years, and Arthur Greenwood, deputy leader of the Labour Party. Initially a group of five, it grew to eight and used members from all the major political parties, including the liberals.
Sir Winston presided over a government of national unity and in so doing gave no one (even or especially his own party) the opportunity to bring politics into the war.
And Sir Winston didn’t waffle and offer false hope. Bleak as it was he said it straight. He never promised, for example, that within a few months we would have a world beating airforce.
In case you need reminding as we approach November 11, in the six years between 1939 and 1945 we lost 382,000 servicemen in World War II and 67,100 civilians died. In the eight months between March and October 2020 there have been almost 59,000 deaths with Covid 19 on the death certificate, according to the government website.
Maybe some people should have swallowed their pride and their egos to give a government we could all support and have no excuse for not supporting.