Ralph Wigram: a 'great unsung hero'
That's how Churchill described the British Foreign Office official who provided him with highly classified documents on Germany's secret re-armament. Churchill, during his so-called "wilderness years", used the information in his campaign against appeasement. Ralph Wigram died in 1936, two years after be began leaking information to Churchill, in mysterious circumstances. it is thought that he may have taken his own life. Churchill was among the small number who attended his funeral. Wigram is arguably the most effective whistleblower in the history of whistleblowing, in that his actions appear to have been ultimately instrumental in changing Britain's attitude to war with Germany. His relationship with Churchill is explored in the Ö÷²¥´óÐã drama The Gathering Storm. I suspect many commentators will now draw on the historical case of Ralph Wigram in their analysis of the Damian Green debacle. One clear difference in this current case is that Damian Green is not a member of the , whereas Churchil was, and as such he was, some argue, ntitled to see classified documents.
Comment number 1.
At 28th Nov 2008, Barbazenzero wrote:Damian Green is no Churchill but at least deserves some credit for showing determination to get at the truth. In publishing this thread so do you, William.
You're showing more journalistic integrity than your London colleagues who are either in fear of or rely for all their information from NuLabour.
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Comment number 2.
At 28th Nov 2008, jovialPTL wrote:another difference, as you point out here, is that churchill was a member of the party of government. he happened to disagree with his own party's polices on the war
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Comment number 3.
At 1st Dec 2008, SmasherLagru wrote:The problem over many years has been the declining power of parliament about which I have blogged in many places. Effectively we now have a general election to elect the executive and the legislature is completely subservient. This is one more example. The American system has man weaknesses, but at least you get to elect both the executive and the legislature.
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