He had his hour. No-one can take that from him. But...
He died 50 years ago. Expect to be reading a lot about him this year.
I came across an article yesterday- I forget who it was by- that linked his demise with Britain's loss of its role in the world. You know the drill. And I thought, O give us a break.
Just as Churchill was never really Churchillian- except in a few speeches where he was brilliantly faking it- so Churchillian Britain- land of Empire and tradition and chaps in gold braid with feathered hats- never really existed either. We're a nation of pushy buggers (Churchill being a good example of the type) who lucked into an Empire and then lucked out again. We were never Rome. We're a people who are very good at exploring and inventing and making believe and nicking things (it's no accident weve got such a great theatrical tradition) and our very few years of being top nation were a brilliant triumph of bragging and blagging and riding our luck. We always knew it was a bit of a con (see Gilbert and Sullivan). The Empire was an aberration- and far from having lost our role when it fell apart we've gone back to who we always were- a nation of pirates and poets and dodgy entrepreneurs. The fifty years since Churchill went up the river have been brilliant years for us- think of the outpouring of British talent from the Beatles to J.K. Rowling- not forgetting our invention of the World Wide Web and the reinvention of the City of London as Wide Boy Central.
Still seeking a role? Rubbish. More like business as usual.