The Churchill Series – Oct. 5, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Two from Churchill that should leave you smiling.

Not for the first time he had dozed off during a wordy members long and rambling speech.

Later, in the Commons Smoking Room, the obviously irritated member approached Churchill.

“Must you always fall asleep when I am speaking?”

“No, it’s entirely voluntary.”

That one’s off the top of my head.

This one is found in Stephen Hayward’s Churchill on Leadership (Forum, 1997). As Hayward tells is:

When the Labour Party’s 1950 housing policy chose the term “accommodation unit” to denote houses and apartments, Churchill, then Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, had a field day: “I don’t know how we are going to sing our old song ‘Home Sweet Home.’

‘Accommodation Unit, Sweet Accommodation Unit, there’s no place like our Accommodation Unit.’

I hope I live long enough to see British democracy spit all this rubbish from their lips.” (p. 101)

Have a nice weekend.

John