Our Two Pence on Bush Historical Comparisons

Some of the more enthusiastic denizens of the Anglosphere have been busy offering comparisons of George W. Bush to Winston Churchill, doubtless liking the side implication of comparing Bill Clinton to Neville Chamberlain. We'd like to stay within the preceeding family trees and propose instead that Bush bears more resemblance to Joseph Chamberlain, Neville's father. Now, the Irish nationalist in us has never been keen on the original Uncle Joe, as his stubborn Unionism sabotaged Gladstone's reasonable attempts to devolve power to Ireland --- and in the manner of all stubborn resistance, eventually damaged the cause it claimed to protect. But Joe's havoc didn't stop in Ireland, and as Colonial Secretary when the British Empire was at its zenith, he could do a lot of damage. This is a man who became progressively more Imperialist and even messianic as time wore on, to the point where upstart colonial settlers who happened to be not English, but did happen to be sitting vast natural resources, were perceived as a grave threat to the Empire, leading to the extremely messy Boer War. And then there's his proposal for "Imperial Preference" -- free trade within the Empire -- which has a logic similar to that of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. We also note other similarities -- both rich from a young age, both built a national political base from perceived successes at local level. Although Chamberlain made Birmingham such a delightful place to live that it produced Black Sabbath. Think about it -- a messy war driven by a flawed dogma, with a resource grab thrown in. Now if only there was more Chamberlain stuff on the web (perhaps it's kept low profile out of embarrassment).