Winston on Democracy

I was in Bolton today for the Conservative Party's North West conference, which was a positive and useful exercise.

On the way back I listened to a Radio 4 programme presented by John Cole about the 1945 General election.

One item from the broadcast which particularly impressed me was an account by a cabinet office official who had to take Winston Churchill some early results. (I didn't catch the name but checking against Martin Gilbert's biography of Churchill on my arrival at home I presume it must have been Captain Pim, the head of the Map Room staff.) Churchill was actually in the bath when the results came through. Ten Conservative seats had fallen to Labour. It was obvious from these early results that there was a massive swing against the Conservative/Liberal National government and that Churchill had lost the election.

According to tonight's Radio 4 broadcast, after having heard the results, Churchill pondered for a few moments and then stuck out his chin and said

"We have no right to feel hurt. This is democracy. This is what we've been fighting for."

(Gilbert's biography has a slightly different version of the same story: in this account, as in the broadcast, Captain Pim took the early results to Churchill in his bath on 26th July. Gilbert says that Captain Pim recalled later that Churchill made a very similar statement the following day:

"They are perfectly entitled to vote as they please. This is democracy. This is what we've been fighting for.")

Considering what it must have felt like to be voted out of office after all he had done, to be able to make such a statement shows considerable generosity of spirit.

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