Prime Minister Clement Attlee, the architect of modern Britain, together with Winston Churchill assembled one of the most important and successful governing coalitions in history. Their objective was to defeat Nazi Germany, and in 1940 as German soldiers invaded France, Attlee, leader of the Labour Party, brought it into the government with Churchill’s conservatives. Attlee became Churchill’s Deputy Prime Minister in charge of running Parliament while Churchill concentrated on the war. Churchill entrusted Attlee with the responsibility of overseeing the daily operation of his government’s domestic affairs. Mike Moffett’s inaccurate portrayal of their relationship (Monitor 5/29) lacks any historical context and makes no mention of their brilliant five year collaboration.
Attlee, unlike conservatives who sought to oust Churchill during the dark days of the war, remained unfailingly loyal. They were friends, allies and rivals without animus, but also not reticent to match wits. Churchill wouldn’t countenance others criticizing Attlee. “Mr. Attlee played a great part in winning the war. Mr. Attlee is a great patriot,” Churchill would bellow to critics. There were many contemporaries of Churchill who vehemently opposed his pro-colonialism views and as Prime Minister Attlee, who stunned the political world by defeating Churchill in 1945, believed it was his finest accomplishment presiding over the independence of India and Pakistan. Leo McKinstry wrote, “If Churchill was the giant of the war, Attlee was the hero of the peace” including instituting universal healthcare in Britain, change which Churchill didn’t dare to rollback. Attlee and Churchill’s legacy of serving the nation’s interests by putting aside petty partisan politics will long endure.
John Hancock
Concord