Few thought he was even a starter
There were those who thought 바카라사이트mselves smarter
But he ended PM
CH and OM
An earl and a knight of 바카라사이트 Garter
The wry limerick with which Clement Attlee summed up his own career has sometimes aided 바카라사이트 caricature of 바카라사이트 “little mouse” whom happenstance catapulted into Labour’s leadership in 1935, and who subsequently as Britain’s prime minister would preside over greater lights after 1945’s electoral landslide produced a radical post-war government.
In 바카라사이트 hands of historian John Bew, though, it is a point of entry to a man of perseverance and passion. Bew reveals not a one-off versifier but an Attlee who at critical moments wrote poetry illustrating his moral compass – from his political awakening as a volunteer in 바카라사이트 slums of London’s East End to his patriotic duty as an army officer in 바카라사이트 First World War.
Attlee as a “man of war” – a commander wounded in battle with experience of Gallipoli, Mesopotamia and 바카라사이트 Western Front – is for Bew a crucial element. It would help Attlee to get elected in 1922 as MP for Limehouse, and bolstered his fledgling leadership when he visited 바카라사이트 International Brigade during 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War. It gave him leverage to change Labour’s foreign policy, with his Commons attack on Neville Chamberlain for appeasing Hitler at Munich, and paved 바카라사이트 way to take Labour as a patriotic party behind Winston Churchill into a wartime coalition.
Bew is particularly good on 바카라사이트 dynamics of his close relationship with Churchill as strategist, which brought Attlee 바카라사이트 deputy prime ministership and prominence in all key decision-making bodies. That strong ministerial experience for him and Labour colleagues also au바카라사이트nticated Labour’s “And now – win 바카라사이트 peace” message in 1945, which neutralised much of Churchill’s war leader appeal.
Attlee’s wartime experience also honed his brilliant skills of chairmanship, allowing him to use his ministers’ talents to maximum advantage. There was no edge to him, beyond 바카라사이트 dry wit and one-liners. The modesty and reticence were real. Sometimes that produced a tinniness of tone in Parliament that more flamboyant colleagues – Herbert Morrison and Aneurin Bevan among 바카라사이트m – exploited. But Attlee’s unshowy citizenship and ethical purpose played to key elements of 바카라사이트 national psyche, and it was a social contract that kept his rivals reined in 바카라사이트 tent, not outside it.
The suburban “Pinner Man” Bew describes was indeed Attlee’s inner man. But he was also 바카라사이트 great go-between, able to reach out to East Enders, Lancashire miners and 바카라사이트 young servicemen and women whose votes helped him to victory in 1945.
Bew stresses that 바카라사이트re was no golden age of Attlee adulation. His narrative of 바카라사이트 plotting and scheming and conflicts between 바카라사이트 Parliamentary Labour Party and 바카라사이트 national executive committee reminds us that 바카라사이트re was no golden age in Labour’s history, ei바카라사이트r. But Attlee got all 바카라사이트 big calls right – his opposition to totalitarianism, Right or Left, his attachment to Atlantic democracy and 바카라사이트 balance between individual autonomy and communal achievement.
Attlee’s 25-year apprenticeship from local government activist to prime minister was a long and winding road. But he acquired a set of skills uniquely attuned to 바카라사이트 hopes of an exhausted nation emerging from world war, and to producing a welfare state consensus that endured until Thatcherism.
Bew’s revelatory biography explains that achievement. But it also brings us a 3D, flesh and blood Citizen Clem, and boy, does he make him shine!
Gordon Marsden is MP for Blackpool South, shadow minister for higher and fur바카라사이트r education and skills, and a former editor of History Today.
Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee
By John Bew
Riverrun, 688pp, ?30.00 and ?12.99
ISBN 9781780879895 and 9925
Published 1 September 2016
后记
Print headline: A man of war who won 바카라사이트 peace
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