ABSTRACT
Initially the Chamberlain government soldiered on, broadened by the addition of Churchill and Anthony Eden, who had left the government in 1938 and was seen as an anti-appeaser. Neither Labour nor the independent Liberals would serve under Chamberlain, however. The government’s war strategy, discussed in Chapter 7, had a rationale but gave the impression of complacency, which was fatal when the Norway débâcle occurred. The dramatic scenes in the House of Commons on 7 and 8 May 1940 have often been recounted: Leo Amery, a long-standing Conservative critic of Chamberlain, quoting Cromwell’s ‘in the name of God, go’; the aged Lloyd George asking Chamberlain to give an example of sacrifice; the division on Labour’s motion of censure in which, although Chamberlain still had a majority, 40 Conservatives voted against him and 80 abstained – a massive rebuff.
