> *. . . a socialist policy is abhorrent to the British ideas of freedom. > Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object > worship of the state. It will prescribe for every one where they are to > work, what they are to work at, where they may go and what they may say. > Socialism is an attack on the right to breathe freely. No socialist system > can be established without a political police. They would have to fall back > on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first > instance > > Winston Churchill > *
Oh, dear. I'm afraid you've just stepped in it, Mike. That's a postwar campaign quote, a broadside from Churchill's 15-inch oratorical guns, aimed squarely at Clement Attlee. It was hyperbole, and it cost him dearly. Attlee responded by thanking Churchill for providing a clear demonstration of the difference between a great wartime leader and a typical peacetime politician. In fact, the British National Health Service originated from a report commissioned by the WW2 Churchill government--a report that Churchill endorsed and would have implemented had he not been voted out of office in 1945. Instead, Attlee's government implemented it in 1948. When Churchill returned to power in 1951, he could easily have scrapped it, and many in the Conservative Party wanted him to do just that. He did not; on the contrary, he increased its funding. (As did Margaret Thatcher, by the way, the very Toriest of modern Tories.) Here's a pre-campaign Churchill quote that shows his position far more accurately, from 1944. Note clearly the final sentence. In the future you will want to avoid citing Churchill on this. He understood the difference between a Marxist regime and the provision of critical social programs by a democratic government--a distinction that seems to escape so many American conservatives. "The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman simply on the ground that it is the enemy; and it must be attacked just in the same way as the fire brigade will give its full assistance to the humblest cottage as readily as to the most important mansion. Our policy is to create a national health service in order to ensure that everybody in the country, irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation, shall have equal opportunities to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available." ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
