CHURCHILL

I had been think a lot about Winston Churchill since watching the extraordinary hagiography but actually really well acted film starring Gary Oldman (Sid Vicious to George Smiley to Sirius Black to Winston Churchill is there anything this fine actor cannot do?), it also featured favourites Kristen Scott Thomas and the lovely Lily James along with a great cast list in the lesser roles but it remains a massive source of contention and no he didn't win World War II all on his own. We would have had the same outcome no matter who was in charge. What he stands for today is conflicted for me, a pacifist, and albeit complex but . . . . one thing is clear

Churchill was a racist . . . . . . . . . . . by his own admission, by his own words, by his actions certainly and almost unashamedly so


A lot has been made recently about the defacing of the Churchill statue in central London, but I have read very little about the message that had been daubed upon it.

Churchill was indeed an extreme racist. A white supremacist, in fact, an imperialist anti-Semite, anti-Arab, Zionist, eugenicist no less, raving alcoholic* and guilty of some truly despicable crimes one of the first to authorise gassing your adversary (see the use of Agent Orange on the Kenyan Mau-mau, he considered it ‘more humane’ than shooting or bombing them!? He was the first to use chemical weapons in Iraq!) He was also quite clearly an alcoholic high functioning or not*

First things first.

No, it wasn’t just the attitude of the time. The human condition and society was not that different to today. Some people have compassion and empathy, others don’t. Some people are massively racist, others are not. It depends what we are taught. The Slavery Abolishment movement in Britain long predates Churchill, so let’s not pretend it was the commonly held attitude outside of the British elite.

Secondly, Churchill didn’t win the war. We would have won with someone else in charge. To claim otherwise is an insult to the millions of people, civilians and soldiers who fought and died.

Thirdly, Churchill was not the original ‘anti-fascist’, far from it. In many ways there was little to separate Churchill and the fascist leaders. Churchill wasn’t fighting Nazism, he was defending British imperialism. Churchill was a staunch defender of his class who up until the war expressed admiration for fascist leaders, a tradition British Prime Ministers have upheld ever since. Despite having more in common with Britain First and EDL and the like he would have considered them beneath contempt. Strictly of the lower (if not lowest!) order he despised the working class. He was after all a Tory.

Some detail if you need . . . .
Speaking to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome in 1927 he said, “Your movement has rendered a service to the whole world. If I had been an Italian I should have been wholeheartedly with you from start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial passions of Leninism.”

Churchill also said; “I have always said that if Great Britain were defeated in war I hoped we should find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful position among the nations.”

As for some of Churchill’s words and deeds which you could rightly describe as being a ‘bit fascist’...indeed he admired his adversary Hitler. 

Churchill said of his time spent in Afghanistan; “all those who resist will be killed without quarter”, because the Pashtuns need “recognise the superiority of race”.

Cuba, 1896: Churchill wrote he was concerned Cuba would turn into “another black republic”.

By “another”, he was referring to Haiti, who were the first nation to abolish slavery in modern times (it wasn’t Britain, not even close).

South Africa: Churchill was part of the government that orchestrated and maintained the concentration camps in which 48,000 men, women and children died as a result of starvation and disease during the Boer War. He also planted the seed to strip black people of their voting rights in June 1906.

Ireland: He said “We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.” He was secretary of state for war when Britain formed the paramilitary “Black and Tans” and the Auxiliaries in Ireland. This was to strengthen the role of the police against Republicans. The Tans and the Auxiliaries became a byword for brutality —for rape and murder. They rampaged across the country carrying out reprisals against insurrection. But Churchill described them as “honourable and gallant officers”. Churchill sent these thugs to terrorise Irish civilians/properties, and also coined the Croke Park massacre and ‘Bloody Sunday’. He ordered “machine-fire and bombs” to “scatter and stampede”.

Saudi Arabia: He said in 1921 that Ibn Saud’s followers “hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children”. He wrote “admiration for Ibn Saud was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty” although he probably feared and hated the Arab more than the Jew

Iraq: In 1920 he ordered the RAF to use poison gas against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. He said, “I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes.” This was the first use of chemical weapons in Iraq.

Palestine: Arabs in Palestine were a “lower manifestation”, and the “dog in a manger has the final right to the manger”, referring to Palestinian Arabs. A statue of Churchill was subsequently erected in Jerusalem to honour his aid to the Zionist movement.

India: Churchill claimed “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion”. Churchill seized millions of tons of inessential rice to send the Middle East. Over four million Bengals starved to death, and he said ‘famine’ was their own fault “for breeding like rabbits”

Greece: in 1944, Churchill ordered the massacre of anti-Nazi protesters (the very people who ran the Nazi’s out of Greece). Churchill supported the new right-wing government and Nazi collaborators whom he openly sympathised with and helped into power.


............................................................................

*Note about alcohol consumption:

(1) Started the day with his ‘mouthwash’ at 9am a supposedly weak whiskey and soda before breakfast, 3-4 whisky and sodas at 11am, teatime and bedtime and occasionally others during the evening. He apparently never drank it neat.(2) An imperial pint (20 oz.) of champagne (Pol Roger) or wine at a 1pm lunch followed by a an ounce (30ml) brandy.(3) An imperial pint of champagne or wine at dinner followed by a brandy.
“This translates into approximately six glasses (1½ standard 750 ml. bottles) of champagne and/or wine daily along with 5 to 6 ounces of whisky or brandy spread over a 12 to 15 hour period. By any standards, that’s a lot of alcohol”

But this is account this diary of consumption is from an account put forward by Hillsdale College USA defending him to set about convincing us of the argument that he was NOT an alcoholic!!!

 Being kind that is approximately a minimum 22 units per DAY when the current guidance for a man is 14 per WEEK. Churchill maintained this regime being rich and well able to supply his ‘habit’ as a ‘high functioning’ alcoholic until he was 75 when he acknowledged he would try to cut down(sic). There is every chance as we know that stopping at this level would have killed him. Despite maintaining he stopped for a year once as a bet with Lord Rothermere this highly unlikely without medical supervision for those reasons. 
Withdrawal from alcohol consumption of lower than this daily consumption can kill you and is the only withdrawal that can. It seems highly likely therefore that he suffered some dependence of ten times the considered safe amount. 

https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/myth-churchill-alcohol/