Quote of the day

'What most infuriated Londoners after the Blitz was not so much the destruction as being prevented from recovering themselves. They were denied access to building materials and permits. They were told to wait quietly for the government to help, help which came late or never. It was the enforced impotence that induced despair. Human beings want, above all, to recover control of their lives'

Simon Jenkins in tonight's Evening Standard

Incidentally I recently finished reading Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill. This added to my impression that one of the biggest mistakes he made was leaving the socialists in charge of the home front, preparing the ground for the 1945 landslide and the nationalisations/welfarism that followed