Last night, I spent an entertaining two hours with Winston Churchill. Not literally, but via the nearest equivalent available in the 21st Century. I attended an event where the featured speaker was the great man’s great-grandson, Jonathan Churchill-Sandys.
In his speech, Mr. Churchill-Sandys regaled his audience with numerous anecdotes about his famous ancestor. Some were well known, such as the one about Churchill’s encounter with a shrewish Labor MP. “Mr. Churchill,” she scolded him, “you are drunk. You are disgustingly drunk!”
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The Political Language of Apology (or Not)
In Punjab in 1919 public discontent with British colonial rule was growing. In Amritsar ruthless but stupid Brig-General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire at point-blank range on a large crowd of Indian protesters. Hundreds died. This massacre was denounced in Parliament in London by Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for War and no slouch as a public speaker…
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