WE BRITISH DO LIKE ANNIVERSARIES. This year alone I’ve been heavily involved in the celebrations of two of them: The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Burghley 500, which celebrated the quincentenary of William Cecil, Elizabeth I’s great minister.
But, every so often, an anniversary slips us by: uncelebrated and even unnoticed. Even an important one, when the political system was up-ended by a backbench revolt. Even when there are clues. Like the date, 1922. Even when the same places are involved. Like the Carlton Club.
Time to give the game away, if it’s not given already. Boris Johnson labours under the illusion that he is another Churchill. Actually the resemblance, astonishing both in gross and in detail, is to Churchill’s other great contemporary, David Lloyd George.
Indeed, the parallels between the two
