Thread by @ProfTimNoakes

In World War II, the people mattered (to Churchill)
“What then is the over-all strategic concept which we should inscribe today? It is nothing less than the safety and welfare, the freedom and progress, of all the homes and families of all the men and women in all the lands” (1)

“And here I speak specifically of the myriad cottage or apartment homes where the wage-earner strives amid the accidents and difficulties of life to guard his wife and children from privation and bring the family up in the fear of the Lord,…” (2)

“To give security to these countless homes, they must be shielded from the two giant marauders, war and tyranny.We all know the frightful disturbances in which the ordinary family is plunged when the curse of war swoops down upon the breadwinner and those for whom he works…” (3)

“When I stand here this quiet afternoon I shudder to visualize what is actually happening to millions now and what is going to happen in this period when famine stalks the earth. None can compute what has been called ‘the unestimated sum of human pain’”. (4)

“Our supreme task and duty is to guard the homes of the common people from the errors and miseries of another war. We are all agreed on that”. (5)

“We cannot be blind to the fact that the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries, some of which are very powerful”. (6).

“In these States control is enforced upon the common people by various kinds of all-embracing police governments. The power of the State is exercised without restraint, either by dictators, or by compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police” (7)

“we must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury,” (8)

“and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence”.
“All this means that the people of any country have the right, and should have the power by constitutional action, to free unfettered elections, with secret ballot,” (9)

“to choose or change the character or form of government under which they dwell; the freedom of speech and thought should reign; that courts of justice, independent of the executive, unbiased by any party, should administer laws which have received the broad assent” (10)

“of large majorities or are consecrated by time and custom. Here are the title deeds of freedom which should be in every cottage home. Here is the message of the British and American peoples to mankind”. (11)

“Let us preach what we practice – let us practice what we preach”.
Sir Winston Churchill.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, USA.
5th March 1946. (12)