Not too bad at all really ...

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • aka Calum Da Jazbo
    Late member
    • Nov 2010
    • 9173

    Not too bad at all really ...

    Nicknamed 'Supermac' and known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability, Macmillan achieved note before the Second World War as a Tory radical and critic of appeasement. Rising to high office as a protégé of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he believed in the post-war settlement and the necessity of a mixed economy, and in his premiership pursued corporatist policies to develop the domestic market as the engine of growth.[3] During his time as prime minister, average living standards steadily rose[4] while numerous social reforms were carried out such as the 1956 Clean Air Act, the 1957 Housing Act, the 1960 Offices Act, the 1960 Noise Abatement Act,[5] the Factories Act 1961, the introduction of a graduated pension scheme to provide an additional income to retirers,[6] the establishment of a Child’s Special Allowance for the orphaned children of divorced parents,[7] and a reduction in the standard work week from 48 to 42 hours.[8]

    As a One Nation Tory of the Disraelian tradition, haunted by memories of the Great Depression, he championed a Keynesian strategy of public investment to maintain demand, winning a second term in 1959 with an increased majority on an electioneering budget. Benefiting from favourable international conditions,[3] he presided over an age of affluence, marked by low unemployment and high if uneven growth. In his Bedford speech in July 1957 he told the nation they had 'never had it so good',[9] but warned of the dangers of inflation, summing up the fragile prosperity of the 1950s.[10]

    In international affairs, Macmillan rebuilt the special relationship with the United States from the wreckage of the Suez Crisis (of which he had been one of the architects), and redrew the world map by decolonising sub-Saharan Africa. Reconfiguring the nation's defences to meet the realities of the nuclear age, he ended National Service, strengthened the nuclear forces by acquiring Polaris, and pioneered the Nuclear Test Ban with the United States and the Soviet Union. Belatedly recognising the dangers of strategic dependence, he sought a new role for Britain in Europe, but his unwillingness to disclose United States nuclear secrets to France contributed to a French veto of the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community.[11]
    wicki

    Eton and Oxford can not be what they once were eh?
    According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.
  • vinteuil
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 12765

    #2
    Originally posted by aka Calum Da Jazbo View Post
    wicki

    Eton and Oxford can not be what they once were eh?
    ... o, Oxford ain't all bad -




    ... and - more and more important, it now seems to me, kept us out of the Vietnam War -

    Comment

    • Bryn
      Banned
      • Mar 2007
      • 24688

      #3
      And, of course, like BoJo SuperMac was a King's Scholar at Eton.

      Comment

      • amateur51

        #4
        Originally posted by Bryn View Post
        And, of course, like BoJo SuperMac was a King's Scholar at Eton.
        My immediate response was that BoJo was more likely to end up as a Boothby character than a SuperMac character

        Comment

        • french frank
          Administrator/Moderator
          • Feb 2007
          • 30205

          #5
          I do recall hearing that he used to read Latin texts for enjoyment (Mac not BJ).
          It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

          Comment

          • Serial_Apologist
            Full Member
            • Dec 2010
            • 37559

            #6
            Originally posted by french frank View Post
            I do recall hearing that he used to read Latin texts for enjoyment (Mac not BJ).
            After loosening his Eton collar...

            Comment

            • french frank
              Administrator/Moderator
              • Feb 2007
              • 30205

              #7
              Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
              After loosening his Eton collar...
              Crumbs, and Greek apparently:

              "During the Battle of the Somme, he spent an entire day wounded and lying in a slit trench with a bullet in his pelvis, reading the classical playwright Aeschylus in the original Greek." (Wiki article)

              But speaking of the tradition of Eton PMs post Mac, I loved this bit of tortuous comment:

              "To describe Cameron's approach to corporate PR as unhelpful and evasive overstates by a widish margin the clarity and plain-speaking that he brought to the job of being Michael Green's mouthpiece," wrote the ex-BBC business editor.
              Last edited by french frank; 22-06-13, 18:23.
              It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

              Comment

              Working...
              X