Since Brexit, a profoundly Churchillian event, the United Kingdom has experienced chronic political instability. No fewer than five prime ministers have succeeded one another at the head of a country whose governability is now being questioned. As speculation grows over who might replace the current prime minister, Keir Starmer, whose position is increasingly under pressure, should the ideal candidate look to Churchill for inspiration?
A recent article in The Guardian compares the current political situation in Britain, where governments have recently lasted anywhere from a few weeks to several months, to that of France’s Fourth Republic, whose permanent state of crisis was resolved in part by the rise of a providential figure, Charles de Gaulle. Given the similarities between the two men in the public imagination, it is tempting to see Winston Churchill (1874–1965) as a model who could inspire an end to today’s instability.
