“I warn not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to be old” Neil Kinnock 1983 when Labour faced defeat by Thatcher

Guy Halsall I received my lovely BNP election leaflet today, with Griffin’s horrifying mug juxtaposed with [for any BNP supporters reading this, that means ‘placed next to’] the only-slightly-less-frightening face of Winston himself. This makes me very angry. As an old socialist I don’t have much time for Churchill, outside his ‘finest hour’ in 1940-43 (which forgives a lot of sins) but still, as a professional, academic historian it makes me furious to see his image abused and history distorted in this way.

Why? Because in 1940, after the fall of France it would have been easy to make peace with Hitler. Hitler was very keen to make peace with Britain. And most of the Conservative Party (for all that they claimed Churchill as their patriotic poster boy in the 80s) and especially Lord Halifax, Churchill???s main rival for the leadership of the party, were against continuing the war. Many of them were on what is known as the ???white list??? that the Nazis had of British politicians whom they could get to work with them. Only a month or two before the German invasions of Norway and France, many had been in favour of sending an armed force to help Finland against the Soviets, even while in the middle of the war against Nazi Germany! They???d have been overjoyed to let Hitler get on with his campaign against the Bolsheviks. There are modern right-wing historians to this day who actually say that this is what Britain should have done (and to hell with the Jews etc., presumably). So, when Churchill was making his classic speeches in the House in the darkest days of 1940 the loudest cheers were on the Labour benches ??? after all, if the Nazis won they???d be up against a wall, so it???s hardly surprising even if it is forgotten. More bizarrely still, perhaps, at this point Churchill???s strongest ally on the (coalition, remember) War Cabinet was the labour legend, Aneurin Bevan.

Basically, then, Churchill in his finest hour was not ???defending Britain against Europe??? as the BNP (and UKIP, and the Tories) like to say; he was keeping Britain in War IN Europe, FOR Europe, FOR the principle that there were larger issues at stake in confronting the Nazis than petty nationalism. What Churchill was doing in the Battle of Britain and in the years afterwards was PRECISELY the OPPOSITE of what the BNP claim he was doing. They have NO claim to the mantle of Winston Churchill.

This matters to me immensely for many reasons. Please help get this message out there. Thank you.

I hope you don’t need any encouragement to despise the BNP – but this might help you to spread doubts about their election campaign if you ever need to.

I had volcanic ash on my mind and electoral issues in my brain as I cycled into work.

Went to the cleaners next to my office, collecting my best suit and four shirts, picking up my tub of porridge in the same stop. Parked my bike on one of the hoops outside our studios and, with the phone in one ear and the porridge and brief case in the other hand, went in to work.

It was a full-on day, trying to crack the ???air traffic??? story and trying to work out where the themes were in the electoral tussle. After a more than usually ???live??? Channel 4 News, I went into my little office to pick up my cycle gear and one of the shirts for the morrow.

No shirts. No suit. My God! I???d left the cleaning ??? that best suit, dangling from the handlebars in a plastic laundry bag, on the street outside eleven hours earlier.

Dashed upstairs and out onto the darkened street. I was already late for the cinema – I Am Love (stunning Tilda Swinton Italian film). No cleaning. But a little green ???post-it??? stuck to my crossbar with added Selotape. ???I have put your cleaning in reception???. Went back in. Sure enough, it was safely in amongst the lost property.

The suit had cost me ??800 ??? hand made to fit my elongated frame. The shirts weren???t cheap either. One, a fabulous Ted Baker horizontally thin blue striped on whet ??? absolute favourite, never found another to match it. All present and correct.

Broken Britain? Sure, collectively, we lose a bicycle every fortnight or so from those hoops. Sure, it???s an urban maelstrom of commuting and lingering. But this was volunteer Britain, caring, decent Britain ??? self denying Britain in which no clue was left as to who the generous hearted passer-by was.

I am in email dialogue with a ???concerned??? viewer who winges at me about the decaying use of English, and broken Britain. He???s wrong. There???s a country out there we ignore. A country of decent people who already pull together more than  any elected politician knows.

Is there slack? Is there more we could do? Of course. But every day, many, many thousands of people do many thousands of deeds of which few know, and for which few ever thank.

Well, thank YOU small green post-it writer. Would that I could do the same for you.

 

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It’s good to read that there’s still honest goodwill in the hearts of British people – I never doubted but there’s a guy called David who still needs convincing. The ballot box would be a good place to demonstrate to him your goodwill towards others – by voting in someone who believes it’s already being mended.