Word: staffords
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Cabled the New York Times's London office (Nov. 23): "Sir Stafford has been a disappointment to the Government as Leader of the House. For all his sincerity, he has shown himself lacking in parliamentary finesse and political acumen...
These words must have sounded familiar in the ears of Knight and Privy Councillor Sir Stafford Cripps. Few individuals in the last quarter century of British politics have moved in & out of the limelight so erratically. Said the Manchester Guardian in 1937: "He has some of the higher qualities of leadership-character, disinterestedness, courage, sincerity, and a certain aloofness. He is a thoroughly unskillful politician; he has been in politics for eight years and is still inexperienced; he has made more 'gaffes' than any of his contemporaries...
...Wood. Fifty-three-year-old Minister of Aircraft Production Sir Stafford Cripps has one of the most aristocratic backgrounds of any English leftist. The man who urged the British to "cut down the decaying wood of the House of Lords before it falls upon us" is descended from Sire Crispe de Stanlake, a 13th-century Buckinghamshire squire, Sir Stafford's father and two uncles were peers (Parmoor, Passfield, Courtney). His brother, Freddie, married the Duchess of Westminster...
Raised in comfortable country-house surroundings, young Stafford was the pet of the family. His religious mother insisted that her children be "unsectarian Christians . . . taking their religious inspiration directly from the spirit of the New Testament." Stafford absorbed her teachings, but quickly developed "a disconcerting habit of giving unsought, and often unwelcome, advice to elder members of the family." Result: his elder brothers dubbed him "Dad," and "the trait which earned the name has been a characteristic of his political life...
From the first the "future Prime Minister" was in hot water. He infuriated Conservatives, Communists and Labor alike. When Sir Stafford spoke coldly of the sacred precincts of Buckingham Palace, the London Times condemned his "indefatigable exercise of an irresponsible tongue." When he and other leftists in the Labor Party formed the Socialist League (designed to prod Labor into more radical action) he drew down the fury of the whole press...