Comparing David Cameron to Neville Chamberlain is insulting – and wrong | Martin Kettle

On Question Time the prime minister was likened to the Tories’ most despised leader. But Merkel is not Hitler and the EU is an institution of peace, not war

More than 75 years on, there is still no more insulting parallel to be volleyed at a Conservative politician than to be compared with the 1930s prime minister Neville Chamberlain. Being a quintessentially Conservative politician, David Cameron was duly outraged when a member of the studio audience fired the C-word at him on last night’s Question Time. It triggered a rare bit, in public at least, of authentic Cameronian anger and passion. But the question, with three days to go in the EU referendum campaign, is whether it’s the insult or the response that will resonate more with a public that seems to have had it up to here with the Brexit debate.

In Labour circles, there was for decades no worse insult than to be accused of being a Ramsay MacDonald, the leader who went into alliance with the Tories at the height of the depression in 1931 and went down in Labour history as the great betrayer as a result. Today, in some parts of the party, MacDonald’s place has perhaps been taken by Tony Blair. But in the Tory party, Chamberlain’s position as the party’s most despised former leader remains secure.

Related: EU referendum: our panel on the BBC's Question Time special

In the end, the only question, whether in 1938 or 2016 is what is the right policy for Britain in the circumstances

Related: It’s not too late for the tone of this referendum to change | Archie Bland

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Published on June 20, 2016 05:16
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