Eighty years ago moves to reorder the world for peace follows different paths.
Churchill followed up his infamous "Gestapo" broadcast with one that was almost as alarmist and counter productive. He described the Labour leaders as "autocratic philanthropists" and claimed that " the violent imposition of the Socialistic system, such as has now emerged as a demand from the extreme and potentially dominant forces of the Socialist Party" would not only involve the restriction of Parliamentary government but would rob the ordinary wage-earner of his personal freedom. In part he was led astray by the antics of Harold Laski, an extreme Labour left-winger, who seemed to imagine that a Labour government would be controlled by the left-dominated National Executive. Laski referred to Clement Attlee as the "nominal head" of the party. In reality Laski was a wholly marginal figure and Churchill was being sucked into hysterical anti-socialist rants rather than advancing any positive case for remaining as prime minister. The prime...
