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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
November/December 2020 77
T
HE CURRENT UK Prime Minister actively
solicits comparison with Winston
Churchill. Superfi cial parallels are
commonly accepted because of their
leadership of the same party; their
squi y and rotund dishevelment; their aruably
similar social backrounds; their penchant for
writin works of history; the obvious hero-
worship by the latter of the former; and the
a ectations cultivated by the current resident of
Number Downin Street. However, the rhyme
of history is to be found more clearly in the
character of the other reat twentieth-century
wartime prime minister: David Lloyd Geore.
It is Lloyd George rather than Churchill who
provides the instructive historical parallels with
Boris Johnson.
The adjectives used to caricature one can be
equally applied to the other: ambitious; disloy-
al; charismatic; devious; popular; ruthless; even
philandering.
Both fi gures were among the most recognised
politicians of their generation; building national
profi les that were built on immense popular-
ity with some, but, detestation by others. Both
revelled in public acclamation that they assidu-
ously cultivated and for which they had insa-
tiable appetites. Their speaking style created an
impression of brilliant extemporisation when, in
fact, their speeches were actually carefully pre-
pared, refi ned and rehearsed.
Giving him perhaps undue credit, AJP Taylor’s
‘English History 1914-45’ sums the Welsh Wizard
By John Vivian Cooke
The adjectives used to caricature one
can be equally applied to the other:
ambitious; disloyal; charismatic;
devious; popular; ruthless; even
philandering.
Boris Johnson is uncannily similar
to dodgy David Lloyd George who
won the First World War; except in
dynamism, and greatness.
the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act in 1925;
Johnson has appointed Ian Botham and a host
of Brexit nobodys to the House of Lords.
Roy Hattersley’s biography of Lloyd George
observed that he ¨arrived at the House of Com-
mons with a reputation for dubious loyalty and
irresponsible opinions as well as fi ery speeches¨
- a profi le instantly recognisable in Johnson’s. It
was not only their appetite for troublemaking but
also a common strategy of attracting national at-
tention by vocal disparagement of the leader-
ship and established policies of their respective
parties that resulted in the hostile reception they
received from their own benches when they fi rst
took their seats in the House of Commons. They
embraced disloyalty and dishonesty; and that
has coloured their reputations.
Clementine Churchill’s construction of Lloyd
George’s genealogy from Judas Iscariot is
Bojo as
Llo-geo
Boris
Johnson
hanging
around
in 2012
Looks a bit Churchillian, here
up in a short footnote: “A master of improvised
speech and improvised policies. Though he
was dangerous to most women he gave his
heart to few…He disliked his surname ‘George’
and imposed ‘Lloyd George’ on contemporaries
and posterity”. The parallels are uncanny. In
February 2016 Johnson tossed a metaphorical
coin to see whether he would be for or against
Brexit. He is twice divorced and does not know
how many children he has fathered. He changed
his name, from Alex.
Lloyd George su ered an extreme bout of the
deadly Spanish fl u just after the 1918 armistice,
requiring ten days in bed in, of all places, Man-
chester Town Hall. Johnson nearly died from
Covid-19 in 2020.
Both men tried to pack the House of Lords.
Lloyd George operated a price list for his
resignation honours which led to the passing of
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