Never Give In! by Winston Churchill Read Free Book Online

Lancashire, and we hope that, as in years gone by, Lancashire will point the path of honour and wisdom to the people of the British islands. – ( Loud cheers. )
    ‘DEAR FOOD FOR THE MILLIONS: CHEAP LABOUR FOR THE MILLIONAIRE’
    13 May 1905
    Manchester
    As Churchill’s son and biographer, Randolph ( the editor’s father ) observed: “While Churchill reserved his invective largely for the public platform, he gave the House of Commons the best fruit of his thoughts and the most reasoned arguments in his power.’ Here he castigates the Conservative party, which he rebrands the ‘Protectionist’ party, together with its leader Arthur Balfour, who was still Prime Minister.
    The great leader of the Protectionist party, whatever else you may or may not think about him, has at any rate left me in no doubt as to what use he will make of his victory if he should win it. We know perfectly well what to expect – a party of great vested interests, banded together in a formidable confederation, corruption at home, aggression to cover it up abroad, the trickery of tariff juggles, the tyranny of a party machine; sentiment by the bucketful, patriotism by the imperial pint, the open hand at the public exchequer, the open door at the public-house, dear food for the million, cheap labour for the millionaire.
    ‘BRITISH HOSPITALITY’
    9 October 1905
    Cheetham Hill, Manchester
    By now Churchill had firmly moved his political attentions to North-West Manchester in England’s industrial North, where he was to stand with Liberal support as the Free Trade candidate in the General Election three months later.
    If the Unemployment Bill was a sham, the Aliens Bill was a sham with lunacy superimposed upon it. ( Laughter. ) I am not going to argue the merits of legislation against the admission of aliens into the country. But the Act as it was forced through the House of Commons by the closure contains absurdities which would make a deaf mute roar with laughter. The object of the bill was to keep out undesirables, but any undesirable, whether he was a thief, or a diseased man, or an idiot, might come in if he came in as a third-class passenger and not by steerage. A poverty line was drawn for the first time; a few shillings made the difference between desirability and undesirability. Moreover, the alien who chose to travel in a ship where there were not more than nineteen other aliens might come in freely. The Act will not in any degree alter the situation in England. On the other hand, it may inflict hardship and vexation upon many deserving people who seek a refuge on our shores, and it violates that tradition of British hospitality of which we have been proud and from the practice of which we have at more than one period reaped marked and permanent advantage. ( Cheers. )
    ‘NO MORE GARTERS FOR DUKES’
    14 December 1905
    City Liberal Club. Manchester
    On 4 December Arthur Balfour’s Conservative Government resigned, hoping to exploit divisions in the ranks of the Liberal party, which had been out of office for twenty years. However the prospect of office proved a firm stimulant to unity and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman formed a Liberal administration in which Winston Churchill was offered his first ministerial post as Undersecretary to the Colonies, In the General Election which followed he won the Manchester North-West seat by a majority of 1,241 votes.
    Mr Balfour at Manchester said that his resignation was received ungracefully by those who had so long demanded it. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had no reason to be grateful to Mr Balfour. It was not out of any consideration for him that Mr Balfour resigned. Nothing but the bluntest compulsion procured his retirement. ( Cheers. )
    In what condition has he left the public estate? The property is heavily mortgaged, the banking account overdrawn, the annual charges are vastly increased, and national credit has been gravely impaired. The philanthropy of the late government made Consols cheap