Clement Attlee: Artwork of the Month

Clement Attlee, or Earl Attlee as he became, died on this date in 1967.  To mark this anniversary, the Parliament website has featured the statue of him below, by Ivor Roberts Jones, as its Artwork of the Month.

Lord Attlee became a Premier Emeritus in 1955 when he resigned the leadership of the Labour Party, stood down as an MP and was elevated to the House of Lords.

In the twelve years of life still left to him, he became one of the most parliamentary active Premiers Emeritus in British history, intervening 195 times in debates in the Upper Chamber.  In the post-war world, he was exceeded by Alec Douglas-Home (235 interventions), Edward Heath (278 interventions) and James Callaghan (484 interventions).  In the pre-war world only by The Earl of Rosebery (298 interventions) and David Lloyd-George (306 interventions).

The three main themes Lord Attlee pursued between 1955 and 1967 were:

• the promotion of World Government
• opposition to the European Economic Community 
• providing a critique of both the policies and the behaviour of the Conservative Government of 1951-1963

We'll come back to those themes in later posts.  For now, let's end by repeating some of Lord Attlee's own words:

Few thought he was even a starter

There were many who thought themselves smarter

But he ended up PM

CH and OM 

an Earl and Knight of the Garter