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Poetry Magnum Opus

Misplaced Confidence


Frank E Gibbard

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Frank E Gibbard

"Peace for our time" said Neville Chamberlain
on return from his meeting with "Herr Hitler."
A piece of paper fluttered in the air of Heston.
"Peace" meant nothing like he had saught
of course as war history so horribly tells;
false assurance is what your confidence
trickster always smoothly and slyly sells.
The poor PM had bearded, he thought,
that dragon in his den, but its dimmed
flame, neatly trimmed,simply lured him in;
would blacken Nev’s name and ruin once
fine career and reputation. Confidence was
misplaced in this appeasement, it is our time
for good old Winston, called a grateful nation.

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David W. Parsley

A thoughtul and timely piece. No parallels being prepared for a guy named Putin, I presume, Frank?

 

- Dave

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An apt reminder Frank.... Sadly it seems we've learnt nothing. The world sinks into anarchy once more as "confidence tricksters" safely profit from the mayhem. G.

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I agree. Just change the names and the piece remains current.

 

"A piece of paper fluttered in the air" - love the sound of that.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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Interestingly, reluctance to confront (now known as "appeasement") began with Stanley Baldwin in the mid-1930s and was enthusiastically supported by the Peace League, the churches, and British society in general. Memories of the mass casualties in the Great War helped make this so. Chamberlain simply inherited this policy. Churchill was dramatically opposed to this approach but he was at the time overwhelmingly discredited as a yesterday man who was woefully out-of-touch with the trend of modern politics, as for example with his reactionary opposition to any relaxation of imperial rule in India and his emotional defence of King Edward VIII to marry the American divorceé Wallis Simpson. It was a political wonder that he ever got back into office, particularly as Prime Minister! We can thank the heavy-handed stupidity of the Nazis for that.

Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim

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