Tory Caroline Spelman is ignorant of Churchill's war

I often seem to find myself leaping out of bed as I watch BBC1's Question Time. Something gets me going and I have to write down an exact quote for a morning blog.

Caroline Spelman was holding forth last night about Blair's world tour. Fair enough. In the context of Iraq and the recent kidnappings she said that Blair should be at home dealing with those emergencies. She then caused my ex-bed-leap by saying words to the effect: 'What if Churchill during the Second World War or Thatcher during the Falklands War had suddenly decided to go on a world tour rather than staying at home? It is unthinkable.' She did say "it is unthinkable" specifically - that is the bit I wrote down.

I'll ignore the reference to the Thatch. But Churchill spent enormous lengths of time touring the world during the Second World War. Roy Jenkins, in his biography of the great man, says that when he returned to London once, there was much joking about imaginary headlines reading "Prime Minister visits Britain". By the way, he was quite justified in touring the world to see war zones for himself and negotiate head-to-head with the likes of Stalin and Roosevelt.

As a small example of Churchill's wartime travels, just look at his first few days of 1944 chronicled by the Churchill Centre:

January 2 White House, Washington
WSC agreed to FDR's suggestion to call the Allied and Associate Powers the "United Nations".

January 2 White House, Washington
WSC and FDR presided jointly over a meeting on Supply

January 3 White House, Washington
WSC wrote Attlee about the cordial relations prevailing at the White House.

January 4 White House, Washington

January 5 Washington and Pompano Beach, FL

WSC flew to Florida in an airplane provided by General Marshall, accompanied by Sir Charles Wilson, John Martin and Tommy Thompson. They stayed in a bungalow provided by US Secretary of State Stettinius. They landed at West Palm Beach airport and drove to Pompano.
Word was put out that a Mr. Lobb, an invalid requesting quiet, was staying at the house. They were closely guarded by the Secret Service. The press guessed they were there but left them alone.

January 6 Pompano, FL
WSC relaxed by bathing in the ocean. Two couriers a day flew down to Pompano from Washington.

January 9 Pompano, FL
WSC worked on rewriting his four mid-Atlantic surveys of the future of the world. Sir Charles Wilson recorded that WSC was in "a belligerent mood." WSC lunched with Consuelo Balsan (Vanderbilt).

January 10 Pompano and Fort Lauderdale, FL
WSC lunched with Consuelo Balsan in Fort Lauderdale before leaving by train for Washington.

January 11 Washington
Arrived at Union Station, Washington.

January 12 White House, Washington
WSC and FDR presided jointly at a meeting of the Combined Cheifs of Staff.

January 13 White House, Washington
WSC was increasingly concerned about Sinapore and Malaysia.

January 14 Washington to Bermuda
WSC left Washington for London, flying from Norfolk, VA to Bermuda in a Boeing flying boat, the Berwick. WSC took the controls for 20 minutes. It was clear that the meetings resulted in a decision that the war would be run from Washington.

January 15 Bermuda
A launch took WSC to Government House. He informed the Speaker of the Bermuda Parliament that he wished to address members who had to be gathered together because it was a 1/2 day holiday. WSC changed his plans from boarding the Duke of York for the return home to flying home of the Berwick

I suggest Madame Spelman refreshes her memory by reading a biography of Churchill pronto.