When, if ever, will the ministerial eunuchs reclaim their balls?

I am prompted to this whinge by an excellent piece in The Telegraph by Nigel Jones who, like me, wonders when various ministers will summon up the courage of their convictions and resign from Neville Chamberlain's David Cameron's cabinet?  Don't hold your breath, seems to be his excellent advice!  Scooting through recent history, Mr. Jones reminds us that only one minister, the excellently named Alfred Duff Cooper, had the guts to walk away from Chamberlain's rotten deal and, as it turned out, his courage paid off because Churchill instantly re-instated him and he went on to enjoy a very productive career.  Messrs Duncan Smith, Grayling, Gove and Whittingdale, and Mss May, Villiers and Patel, should plough through the copies of their ministerial expense sheets and try and find their balls - metaphorically speaking, ladies!

Comments

[Whitewall]

The Visegrad 4 seem to have the market cornered when it comes to "possession of one's stones". The rest of the European and North American leaders are feeling around for what is gone. Thus their hands are so often in their pockets. All of us have the very worst political class. Ever.

[Richard]

David,
Neville Chamberlain was naïve but honest. When he came back waving his piece of paper, he actually thought that he had achieved something. What ever else you might say about him, he might have been prepared to come to a deal with Hitler, but he had no plans at all for this country to sign up to the Third Reich.

I just wish I could say the same for Cameron and Merkel's Fourth Reich. However, I think that he is now beginning to realise that the great British public is starting to go off the EU, hence the increasingly desperate scare tactics to keep us in.

[David Duff]

As it happens, Richard, it was probably slightly to our advantage to have that 'gap year' because it gave us a bit of chance to gear up and build more Spitfires. I'm not sure how much that weighed on Chamberlain's thinking at the time.

[H]

You have forgotten Anthony Eden who resigned in protest at Chamberlain's policy towards Mussolini's intervention in Spain. Eden went on to better things, I suppose, although his end was a bit sticky.

[David Duff]

Thanks, 'H', I've just had a quick skim of Eden's Wiki entry. A more interesting man than I had hitherto thought. A brave soldier and a highly intelligent man brought down in the end by the first major signs of Britain's decline.

[Andrew Duffin]

The last minister to resign on principle was Peter Carrington, at the time of the Falklands debacle, I believe.

Nowadays they have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, out of their ministerial limousines, even if they have committed criminal acts.

O tempora, o mores.

[H]

I think Robin Cook's resignation counts as a principled one too.

[Andrew Duffin]

@H: you are correct, I had forgotten that.

Respect to him, even though he was less than respectable in, ahem, other ways.