Andrew Chamberlain

I was amused to see Cherie Blair saying this week that history might judge her husband, the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, as having made as much of a contribution as Winston Churchill, the wartime PM. Her comments have been ridiculed by the Tories and treated with some amused derision by the press. The Telegraph had some choice quotes from one unnamed MP. These sorts of comparisons, where they involve people who are still alive, do end up sounding fanciful. The Tory party might be quick to defend the (rightly) exalted reputation of the great Winston, but we should not forget that there are many people on the left who respect and admire Churchill’s legacy. The socialist writer and commentator George Orwell used the name Winston for the hero of his dystopian novel ‘1984′ and Churchill is often seen, for all his Tory credentials, as something of an anti- establishment hero. We might also see another reason for Cherie to share Orwell’s liking of the great PM, after all ‘Geroge Orwell’ was just a nom de plume ;his real name? Eric Blair.

Tags: Politics and culture //