LONDON: Fifty years after Winston Churchill’s funeral, British politicians paid tribute on Friday to the wartime leader — and tried to energise their election campaigns with a little of the Churchill magic.

Prime Minister David Cameron — facing pressure from Euroskeptics to chart a more isolationist path — hailed a statesmen whom he said knew Britain was “not just a place on the map but a force in the world, with a destiny to shape events and a duty to stand up for freedom”.

When Churchill died in 1965 at the age of 90, a million people lined the streets of London to watch the funeral cortege pass by.The man who led Britain to victory against Nazi Germany still looms large over British politics.

Cameron was joined by other party leaders for a wreath-laying ceremony at Parliament’s statue of Churchill, whose bronze toes Conservative lawmakers still rub for good luck.Outside, ceremonies recreated parts of Churchill’s final journey on Jan. 30, 1965. His descendants traveled up the River Thames in the same boat that carried the statesman’s coffin away from St. Paul’s Cathedral for burial.

The ceremonies, given hours of television time, were partly an opportunity to mark the passing of the generation that fought and won World War II. They also provided politicians a chance to bask in the glow of a leader who symbolized Britain’s darkest hour, and its greatest victory. “I think British politicians, especially Conservative politicians, look back to him because they are nostalgic for the days when Britain was a world-leading power,” Cambridge University historian Richard J. Evans said.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2015

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