Wars throw up historic changes in British politics.
Britain's greatest ever Prime Minister was appointed (not elected) during the first year of the Second World War.
It is not an over-simplification to say that without the steadfast and unflinching hatred of and opposition to Adolf Hitler shown by Winston Churchill, Germany would have defeated Britain, and might have gone on to defeat the Soviet Union as well (without other fronts like the Mediterranean and North Africa to drain the resources of the Nazis in 1941).
Churchill saved Western European civilisation from a new Dark age.
Yet it was Neville Chamberlain who declared War on Germany.
And it was Chamberlain's diplomacy which won vital time for Britain to belatedly build up the RAF and Army in the last year or so before the War began (to add to the unrivalled strength of the Royal Navy in that era). It seems though that Chamberlain is only remembered as a weak Prime Minister, who was not up to the job of opposing Hitler.
A rather harsh verdict in my view.
The Iran War is raising Keir Starmer in the view of many people here at present.
He has many flaws, and has been astoundingly tone-deaf on many crucial domestic issues.
But he has behaved with restraint and dignity. A reflection of those qualities shown by President Zelensky and several other European Leaders.
Our leaders in Western Europe, for all their various flaws, conduct themselves as respectable Statesmen.
Not lap dogs to a loose cannon who is losing touch with reality.
