Wednesday, 17 November 2021

237


“Oh no, now I really 
am in Trouble..!”


The Dark Multiverse is A Shadow 
under the primary Multiverse, one formed of every fear and bad decision ever made or dreamt. 
Worlds in the Dark Multiverse are fragile and constantly deteriorating, 
inevitably doomed to destruction 
by their own malformed construction.






“….While news reached The Courtroom of The High Council's mass resignation, The Master warned The Inquisitor that 
The Valeyard had materialised his TARDIS 
aroundTime Vent in The Matrix. 

If The Vent were to be opened for too long
there would be catastrophic ramifications 
for the Space-Time continuum. 

The Valeyard - now shown to be 
a pitiable old man afraid of dying 
planned to use this threat to force 
The Time Lords to give him 
The Doctor's remaining regenerations.
 
The Master revealed that he had 
been hired by the High Council 
to murder The Doctor in 
exchange for A Pardon
but he had now decided not 
to follow through 
on His Mission. 

The Doctor bluffed his way 
into The Valeyard's TARDIS 
just as The Valeyard opened 
The Time Vent Door -- 

Struggling, The Doctor and The Valeyard 
plunged into the Time Vent 
while The Master had Glitz seal The Door
Saving The Universe but trapping 
The Doctor for all eternity.

Kubrick's TIMEDOORS

“Well, it’s not easy, you know…!”

“It's not as if we know 
what That Thing IS....”

“Well, I'll Tell You -- 
it's a TIME VENT.”





“I see…!”

“Now,
What’s A Vent for, eh?”

“Well, err…”

“…Flushing?”

“Right! So stop dilly-dallying —
and FLUSH it!”

“Then we return to the motif of the shower head,
the impassive eye which has just watched this horrible thing happen.

This shot of the shower head at the beginning of the scene was
one of joy, she was going to get a new start and now that same
water is washing away the evidence of her existence and the murder.

The Water keeps running 
and The Blood flows,
but The Heart is stopping.

It's just such an amazing image 
to see Her Life flowing 
down The Drain.

What a metaphor that is!”

Elijah Wood :
And it switches to The Eye, right?
Oh, come on.
That's so good.

Eli Roth :
“I wonder how long this shot is, how long she had to hold —
To get her eye to stay open?
Just to make sure her eye didn't twitch even a tiny bit.

Oh, my God, that's incredible.

Eli Roth :
The Pointless Spiralling 
of  The Universe 
and the way that 
Everything is ultimately 
drawn down The Plughole 
towards Oblivion,  
towards Meaningless Death.

I think to some extent 
we are looking at 
Hitchcock's fears 
as well as his obsessions.”


“You see it in Barton Fink, you see it 
in so many movies and you're like, 
"Why is he going inside the drain?
Are we going to go inside?"

That is the moment of Psycho where 
Everything Changes.

This was made by an auteur film-maker and that is a very personal stamp.

It's a rupture in the movie
but the movie never achieves this 
kind of poetry again and you begin
to realise that, 
"Oh, this was what really mattered 
most to Hitchcock."

Tomasini has done a clockwise turn optically which then, right about here, hooks back up to the freeze-frame footage.

I'm just amazed they were able to get that clean.

Usually when you do an optical it's pretty grainy but it looks
so smooth and so beautiful.

It's surprising and seamless where they go from live action,
it's like one of the greatest opticals in the history of movies.

It's also kind of like what the title sequence is doing
in Vertigo, it's a theme that runs through this film
and then later on, of course. 

It's not style just for style's sake,
it's got content.


The cameras were huge and very difficult to manipulate.

You can actually see pictures of Hitchcock behind a Mitchell
and you get a sense of what it was like riding on that
carriage behind that huge locomotive of a camera.

Whereas today it's a snap, you just do it like Gus Van Sant.
In the remake he did it all live action.

The pull-back from her eye was 
a whole robotic camera move.

Gus Van Sant's Editor :
I seriously followed the original 
film shot by shot.

I was able to cut it exactly like The Original, 
and we watched it,
and it was weird and 
it didn't work.

I said, "Well, Gus, come over, watch the scene. I have a few reservations of how it's playing right now
and it doesn't feel like The Shower Scene yet."

We went in and tried to make it 
a little more Gus Van Sant-y.

To duplicate something as iconic 
as The Shower Scene,
:: ::
I really think it wasn't going to work.
:: ::
And it just didn't.
:: ::
I always loved the placement of those drops of water cos
:: ::
they're like tears.
:: ::
Right at the end it was a little flicker in her eye,
:: ::
a little highlight in her eye.
:: ::
And you can see her eye move.
:: ::
There's a tight, slight flick of the eye, there.
:: ::
Hitchcock almost fetishistically lingers in this postmortem moment.
:: ::
This is what happens after you die and no-one turns off the water.
:: ::
Hitch had a little snap of the finger to let Janet know
when the camera had past and was going to pan into the room.

It took a lot of takes.

I can feel the moleskin pulling away from my top part and so I could feel this, it was just of going...
SHE SQUEAKS
..and I thought, "You know what?
I don't want to do this damn thing again. 
I really don't want to."

And there are all the guys on the scaffolding and I said,
"I'm not going to be modest. 
Let 'em look."

Q: Why would you cut to the shower there?

A. : I don't think The Reason has anything 
to do with artistic decision. 
It's The Solution to some 
technical problem that he had.


Hitchcock's Granddaughter :
After my grandfather filmed Psycho
and it had been shown to all the executives,
the last person he showed it 
to was my grandmother
and they were sitting in the screening screen,
and he's panning out and she looks 
at my grandfather and says,
"Hitch, you can't release this."

And he said, "Why not?" 

She goes, "Janet Leigh took a breath."

They couldn't reshoot it.
Janet was gone, they didn't have the budget,
so they simply cut back to 
the shower head spewing water."

And then that cynical camera move —
She made her moral decision 
and this is what it got her.

There's an image of 
The Uncaring Universe
if you want one.

You see the headline there - "OKAY
it is not OK. Nothing is OK.

He always comes back to his MacGuffin which is the —
He throws the newspaper into the quagmire, 
it goes down with the car.

And The Audience says, 
"That's The Money that we thought 
was important in This Story,
it's totally unimportant."

“This is the thing in the movie that always tortured me —

The greatest scene in movie history ends 
on a sour note with a bad ADR line — 
That has been the doom of so many movies.

Here comes Norman.
Just wondering What Happened 
and oh, my, he can't believe it —
‘Another murder at the motel. 
How did that happen?’

It's an extraordinary aftermath, 
it's a crucial piece of the film-making to sort of let the consequence of it actually land —

It's not about getting the blood stains out of the tub,
it's about this incredibly laborious process
that this unbearably damaged soul needs to work through.

It demands not just that we watch 
as we've watched The Murder of Marion Crane, 
we're also voyeurs to 
The Horror of Norman's World.



For me, the clean up represents 
Alfred Hitchcock's Sense of Orderliness
sense of 
"I wasn't sexually aroused by this woman, and I'm just going to pretend that this unhappy episode just didn't even occur."

I think that cleaning always represents sexual guilt.

You care about this guy. 
And I know it sounds crazy 
but you do.

You want to know 
what's going to happen to him, 
you want to know
is he going to be free of this 
or is it going to consume him?

The fact that he is able 
to get you to care is one of 
the miracles of the movie.






















(The Doctor runs back for The Screwdriver.)

Perfect-10
Why? Why would I give her 
My Screwdriver? Why would I do that? 
Thing is, Future-Me had years 
to think about it, all those years 
to think of A Way to Save Her
and What He Did was 
Give Her a Screwdriver. 

WHY Would I DO That?

(Because it also contains a neural relay
which has Two Green Lights on it.)

Perfect-10 : 
Oh! OH! Oh, look at that
I'm VERY Good!

DONNA : 
What have you done?

Perfect-10 : 
Saved Her.

[Stacks]

(The Doctor is running as one green light goes out.)

Perfect-10 
Stay with me! 
You can do it, stay with me!
Come on, You and Me
one last run!

[Reading room]

Perfect-10 : 
Sorry, River, shortcut!

COMPUTER
Platform Disabled. 

(The Doctor dives into the gravity well. The last light is blinking.)

[Data core]

RIVER [OC]: 
Everybody knows that Everybody Dies. 
But not every day.

(The Doctor plugs the screwdriver into the core, and her neural energy is transferred.)

RIVER [OC]
Not Today.

(Charlotte Node smiles.)

[Hospital grounds]

(River is wearing a loose white robe. Charlotte and Doctor Moon walk up to her.)

GIRL
It's okay, you're safe. 
You'll always be safe here. 
The Doctor fixed the data core. 

This is a good place now. 
But I was worried you might be lonely, 
so I brought you some friends. 

Aren't I a clever girl?

Miss EVANGELISTA
Aren't we all?

(Anita, the two Daves and Miss Evangelista with her normal face are walking towards her.)

RIVER
Oh, for Heaven's Sake. 
He just can't do it, can he? That Man. 
That Impossible Man. 

He just can't give in.

RIVER [OC]: 
Some Days are Special. 
Some Days are so, so Blessed. 
Some Days, nobody dies at all.

(The Doctor returns to the Reception and stares at the Tardis. He snaps his fingers, and the door opens. Donna is waiting inside.)

RIVER [OC]: 
Now and Then, every once 
in a very long while, 
every day in a million days, 
when The Wind stands Fair, 
and The Doctor comes to call --

(He snaps his fingers again and the door closes.)

[Children's bedroom]

(River closes her diary.)

RIVER
Everybody Lives.

(She kisses Charlotte goodnight and looks at Ella and Joshua.)

RIVER
Sweet Dreams, everyone.



In the Steve Gerber miniseries The Phantom Zone #1-4 (January–April 1982), it is revealed that the Zone not only has a breach through which other inmates had escaped, but that they were never heard from again. The imprisoned Superman and Quex-Ul use this method and travel through several dimensional “layers” seeking the exit into the physical universe. They finally encounter a Kryptonian wizard named Thul-Kar, who tells them that he believed Jor-El’s prophecy of Krypton’s doom and entered the Phantom Zone through magic. Using the same breach, he discovered the truth about the Phantom Zone: all its levels are manifestations of the consciousness of a sentient, malevolent entity called Aethyr, The Oversoul.

As explained by Thul-Kar, Aethyr itself came into being uncounted millennia ago when two spiral galaxies collided at an almost primordial stage after the physical universe’s creation. Countless worlds were simultaneously destroyed and the deaths of so many beings merged somehow to form a single, evil consciousness that called itself Aethyr The Oversoul. This supremely powerful entity enclosed itself into a dimension outside the physical universe within itself, forming the Phantom Zone.

The Zone itself is an interface between the Earth-One dimension (the physical universe) and Aethyr’s mind, the outer layer (where zone criminals are housed) representing its ability for abstract thought; the Zone is basically Aethyr’s capacity to imagine other possibilities of existence, and is the outermost template of its consciousness. Only by entering Aethyr’s core realm can a zone prisoner escape back to the physical universe, but this process is dangerous since any being who tries risks being destroyed in numerous ways as well as by forever having their souls merged with Aethyr’s essence while within Aethyr’s core realm. This is because as you enter deeper into Aethyr’s consciousness, you no longer exist as an abstract entity and your existence becomes subject to Aethyr’s whims. When attacking Superman and Quex-Ul, Aethyr personified itself as an aggressive, purple-skinned dog’s head that breathed flames capable of destroying and absorbing the souls of those that it wishes to conquer. While Quex-Ul is killed by Aethyr in this fashion, Superman manages to make his way out of the Phantom Zone by avoiding those flames and flying directly through Aethyr’s skull and its mind, returning to Earth through a tear in the fabric of Aethyr’s mind and the physical universe, but not without encountering the horrific remains of all of the souls entrapped within Aethyr over the millennia.

Mister Mxyzptlk is later possessed by Aethyr. During the process while Myyzptlk is imprisoned on his own home dimension, Thul-Kar communicates with Mxyzptlk and offers him an escape in exchange for the merger. This merger, however, empties the Phantom Zone of its criminal inhabitants. As the Phantom Zone villains head to Earth to conquer it, Thul-Kar and Nam-Ek are re-absorbed into Aethyr. Superman awakes and sees that the Phantom Zone villains are wreaking havoc on Earth, causing destruction to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and demanding Superman come out and fight them. Superman battles the Phantom Zone villains in Washington D.C. While fighting Faora Hu-Ul, he witnesses her disappearing as she is absorbed into Aethyr. Mister Mxyzpltk reveals that his strong personality has taken over Aethyr and he absorbs all the rest of the Phantom Zone inhabitants back into himself, determined to torture them endlessly and wreak havoc as he sees fit. Mxyzpltk-Aethyr leaves, intending to next take over the Fifth Dimension, and Superman is left to put out the fires in Washington and then rid Metropolis of the Kryptonite remains of Argo City.

Main LOKI : 
[SHOUTING] 
No! This way! 
Come and get me! 
 
[DRAGON ROARING]
 

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
No! No!

[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING] 
RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES
[GRUNTING] 

He resurrects [An Image of] 
Lost and Fabled Asgard, 
in The Heart of The Phantom Zone 
using only His Magicks 

LADY LOKI :
How is he doing that?

Main LOKI : 
I think we're Stronger than we realise.

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTING] 
Go! 
[ECHOING] 


What are you doing? 

SYLVIE
We're gonna enchant it. 

Main LOKI
I don't know how

SYLVIE
You do. Because We're The Same! 

[ROARS] 
[BOTH GRUNT] 
[GRUNTING] 
[DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES] 

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTS WEAKLY] 
Glorious Purpose
[LAUGHING] 

[EXHALES] 
Open your eyes.




"Once Denny enters Room 237, like, that's... that kind of is, like, the activation of the rest of the movie. 

Like, that's what causes Jack to go insane finally. 
That's what brings Hallorann to The Hotel. 
Like, The Room 237 is, like, is sort of this... 

I mean, I compare it to the mysterious hotel room at the end of 2001
where there's... 
It's this strange, strange place that somehow, like, transforms the rest of the narrative. 

The Shining takes place on the top of a mountain in kind of like a, you know, magical shape-shifting environment. 

And, like, travel is... traveling out of it is... 
You know, instead of 2001, where you're Traveling to Something
The Point of The Shining is to Escape
is to travel out

And Room 237 is, like... it's kind of like 
The Escape Pod of The Hotel.

You're, like, in this LOOP. 
But, you know, there ARE escape routes, 
like the... like, 
I think he puts escape routes into it
into This Maze, into This Trap

I mean, there are ways out of it. 

And Danny finds a way out of it, you know, 
by retracing his steps, by going backwards and forwards. 

And once you start, you know, studying, you know, synchronicity and symbolism, then, like, suddenly, like, you're noticing in Your Own Life, like, things start popping out. 
Things that you hadn't noticed before

Your Point of View is being altered 
by Your Study. 

It's Quantum Physics, you know, like, 
The Act of Observing, 
affects The Thing Observed.

And, of course, Vice-Versa.


Tuesday, 16 November 2021

Mining

“I haven't got the software 
to cope with this.  
I was created to Serve.  

I Serve, therefore I am.  
That is My Purpose -- 
To Serve, and have 
no regard for myself.”

LISTER
You're beginning to sound 
like My Mum.






The lift doors split open and disgorged a tired but happy Lister onto the habitation deck corridor. He'd spent the last two days and a night down in the technical library, then another morning liaising with Holly in the geology lab.


In the last fifty-six hours he'd learned many things. He'd started off thinking that the structure and composition of planet crust and rock formations were incredibly boring. But now he was absolutely certain of it. Still, he now knew more about uranium production and mining techniques than he knew about the London Jets Megabowl-winning team Of '75 - and he knew what the entire London Jets Megabowl-winning team of '75 had for breakfast on the day of the game.


This was the way it went: fissile uranium-233 could be synthesised from the non-fissile thorium isotope: thorium-232. And this was the best part: thorium-232 wasn't even rare. It was abundant in the universe. It abounded! There was lots of it! And this was confirmed when his radiometric spectrographic survey turned up seven likely moons in this solar system alone.


Five of them would have required underground mining, so he had to rule them out.


Of the remaining two, one, the more likely one, was seven months' travel away.


But on the nearer moon, less than five days' journey away, there was an eighty-seven per cent probability that the ore deposits he needed were lying close to the surface. No shafts, no pitprops, no radon gas ventilation problems.


Maybe he could do it. Red Dwarf was a mining ship - it had all the equipment: the earth-moving vehicles, the processing plants, the whole enchilada!


When he turned into his sleeping quarters, it took several moments before his tired brain registered what it was that was different.


At first he assumed he must have got out of the lift on the wrong floor, and he was now standing on the wrong deck. Then he saw his goldfish, only the water was clean, and you could see the plastic Vatican quite clearly. He looked around.


The dull grey metal walls had vanished behind a Victorian floral print in various pretty pinks. The bedspreads were in delicate cream lace, festoon blinds in a mixture of rosebud patterns hung over the viewport window. A salmon-tinted Aubusson rug swept from under the bunks to the new porcelain pedestal wash basin. The lounge area was curtained off from the bunks by red silk drapes, with gold tie-backs. The table in the middle of the room was covered in a briar rose, short-skirted circular cloth, on top of which stood rows of newly polished boots and piles of neat, crisply folded laundry.


It was appalling.


It was an atrocity against machismo.


'What the smeg is going on?'


Kryten looked up from his ironing.


'Good afternoon, Mr David, sir.'


'What have you done?'


'A spot of tidying.'


'What are these?' Lister snatched an unrecognisable item from the pile of laundry.


'Your boxer shorts' Mr David.'


'No way are these my boxer shorts,' said Lister. 'They bend. What have you done to this place? What is this? This bowl of scented pencil shavings?'


'Potpourri, sir.'


'Pope who? Where is everything? Where's my orange peel with the cig dimps in it?


Where's the remnants of last Wednesday's curry? I hadn't finished eating it!


Where's my coffee mug with the mould in it?'


'I threw it away, sir. I threw it all away.'


'You what? I was breeding that mould. It was called "Albert". I was trying to get him two feet high.'


'Why, sir?'


'Because it drove Rimmer nuts. And driving Rimmer nuts is what keeps me going. What did you do it for?'


'The two Mr Rimmers ordered me to, sir. They even recommended the decor. They said it was very you.'


Lister sat down on the apple-green chintz-covered chaise longue, next to the potted plastic wisteria, and wondered where he could begin. There was something about Kryten that really disturbed him, but he wasn't quite sure what. He was A Slave, and Lister hated that. For some reason, Mankind seemed to be obsessed with enslaving someone : black slavery, class slavery, housewife slavery, and now mechanoid slavery. Then it hit him : it wasn't so much Slavery that got to him, though get to him it did; it was The Happy Slave. It was the acquiescence, the assent to serve, the willingness to BE A Slave.


'What about you?' Lister looked up as Kryten ploughed through the ironing.


'Don't you ever want to do something just for yourself?'


'Myself?' Kryten sniggered. 'That's a bit of a barmy notion, if you don't mind my saying so sir.'


'Isn't there anything you look forward to?'


Kryten stood, the steaming iron in his hand for a full minute, trying to think of an answer.


'Androids,' he said' at last. 'I look forward to Androids.'


'Besides Androids?'


Kryten had another think 'Getting a new squidgy mop?' he ventured.


'Besides dumb soap operas and even dumber cleaning utensils?'


Kryten fell silent.


'What do you think of thorium mining?'


Kryten looked baffled.


'Follow me.'


***


They found the Cat on Corridor omega 577, sleeping peacefully on top of a narrow metal locker, a hairnet protecting his pompadour.


'Hey Cat - wake up.' Lister rocked the locker.


The Cat opened one eye. 'This'd better be good. I was sleeping. And sleeping is my third favourite thing.'


'Come on. Follow me.'


A yawn split the Cat's face and made his head appear to double in size. He sprang down from the locker, arched his spine and stretched until the back of his head was touching the heels of his gold-braided sleeping slippers, and yawned again. He opened the locker door, reached inside, and draped an imitation King Penguin fur smoking jacket casually over his shoulders, before popping the top off a magnum of milk and filling a crystal goblet. He gargled petitely, urinated in the locker and followed Lister and Kryten down the corridor.


'Where are we going?'


'Mining.'


Save The World, or Die Trying


I Know Who I am.
I Know What I am Doing.
And I Have A Duty.










Where am I?

In The Village.

Who are You?

The NEW Letter ‘M’ :
The Prime Minister's talked to Moscow. 
It was "an accident on a training exercise"

7 :
Governments Change
The Lies stay the same. 
What else do we know about Janus? 

M :
Top-flight arms dealers, headquartered in St Petersburg.

7
Restocked the Iraqis during the Gulf War. 
The head man's unreliably described. No photographs. 
The Woman, Onatopp
is our only confirmed contact. 

M :
Would you care for A Drink? 

7 :
Thank You. 

Your Predecessor kept some cognac... 

M :
I prefer bourbon
Ice? 

7 :
Yes. 

M :
We pulled the files on whoever may have had Access or Authority at Severnaya. 
The top name on the list's an old friend of yours, I understand. 

7 :
Ourumov. They made him 
A General. 

M :
He sees himself as the next 
"Iron Man of Russia". 
Our political analysts say he doesn't fit the profile of A Traitor. 

7 :
Are these the same analysts who said that GoldenEye couldn't exist
Who said The Helicopter posed no threat 
and wasn't worth following

M :
You Don't Like Me, Bond. 
You Don't Like My Methods
You think I'm An Accountant, a bean-counter, 
more interested in numbers 
than in Your Instincts.

7 :
.....the Thought had occurred to me.

M :
Good. Because I Think You're 
A Sexist, Misogynist Dinosaur
A Relic of The Cold War, 
whose Boyish Charms, 
though wasted on me, 
obviously appealed to 
that Young Woman 
I sent out to evaluate you.

7 :
Point Taken. 

M :
Not quite. 
If you think I don't have The Balls 
to Send A Man out to Die, 
Your Instincts are Dead Wrong. 
I've no compunction about 
sending you to Your Death. 

But I won't do it on a whim
even with your cavalier attitude towards Life. 

I Want You to Find GoldenEye
Find who Took it, 
What They plan to Do with it, and Stop it. 

If you come across Ourumov, Guilty or Not, don't run off on a vendetta. 


Avenging Alec Trevelyan 
will not bring him back.

7 :
You didn't get him killed.

M :
Neither did you
Don't make it personal. Never

And Bond... 
Come Back Alive.

The Force of Grace

He's..... like FIRE, and ICE, and RAGE.
He's like The Night and The Storm 
at The Heart of The Sun.

He's Ancient and Forever
He Burns at The Centre of Time 
and He can See The Turn of The Universe.

And He's Wonderful.

Is there a Fifth Force of Nature? - BBC News

The Forces of Nature we experience every day can be reduced to just four categories: Gravity, Electromagnetism, The Strong Force and The Weak Force.

But physicists at a laboratory near Chicago conducting the Muon g-2 experiment say they have found possible signs of 
A Fifth Fundamental Force.

The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said it provides strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or new force". 
But the results don't add up to a conclusive discovery yet.

There is Good and There is Evil.

By any analysis, Evil should always win. 
Good is not a practical Survival Strategy. 

It requires Loyalty, Self-Sacrifice and er, Love
So, why does Good prevail? 

What keeps The Balance 
between Good and Evil 
in this Appalling Universe?
 
Is there some kind of Logic
Some Mysterious Force?



EGON SPENGLER: 
Vinz, you said before you were 
waiting for A Sign. 
What Sign are You Waiting for?

LOUIS TULLY
Gozer The Traveller! 
He will come in one 
of the pre-chosen forms. 

During The Rectification of the Vuldronaii, 
The Traveller came 
as a Large and Moving Torb

[Egon looks towards Janine] 
Then, during The Third Reconciliation of the Last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for Him, 
that of A Giant Sloar! 

Many Shubs and Zulls knew what it was 
to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day, I can tell you.

Your Honor, 
Ladies and Gentlemen of the--
of The Audience. 

I don't think it's fair 
to call My Clients 'frauds'. 

Okay, so the blackout was 
a big problem for everybody, okay? 
I was stuck in an elevator for two
hours and I had to make the whole time. 
But I don't blame them

Because one time, I turned into a dog 
and they helped me. 
Thank you.

The Oncoming Storm



 
The Gathering Storm - 1974 
(Richard Burton, Robert Hardy)


"It fell upon Mr. Chamberlain in one of 
The Supreme Crises of The World
to be Contradicted by Events
to be Deceived and Cheated 
by an Evil and Wicked Man
because he had Hope -- 

Hope of Peace
The Most Noble Instinct of Man."








    "Since we last met, The House has suffered a very grievous loss in the death of one of its most distinguished Members and of a statesman and public servant who, during the best part of three memorable years, was first Minister of The Crown.

    The fierce and bitter controversies which hung around him in recent times were hushed by the news of his illness and are silenced by his death. In paying a tribute of respect and of regard to an eminent man who has been taken from us, no one is obliged to alter the opinions which he has formed or expressed upon issues which have become a part of history; but at the Lychgate we may all pass our own conduct and our own judgments under a searching review. It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong. Then again, a few years later, when the perspective of time has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.

    It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart — the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour. Whatever else History may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned.

    But it is also a help to our country and to our whole Empire, and to our decent faithful way of living that, however long the struggle may last, or however dark may be the clouds which overhang our path, no future generation of English-speaking folks — for that is the tribunal to which we appeal — will doubt that, even at a great cost to ourselves in technical preparation, we were guiltless of the bloodshed, terror and misery which have engulfed so many lands and peoples, and yet seek new victims still. Herr Hitler protests with frantic words and gestures that he has only desired peace. What do these ravings and outpourings count before the silence of Neville Chamberlain's tomb? Long and hard, hazardous years lie before us, but at least we entered upon them united and with clean hearts.

    I do not propose to give an appreciation of Neville Chamberlain's life and character, but there were certain qualities, always admired in these Islands, which he possessed in an altogether exceptional degree. He had a physical and moral toughness of fibre which enabled him all through his varied career to endure misfortune and disappointment without being unduly discouraged or wearied. He had a precision of mind and an aptitude for business which raised him far above the ordinary levels of our generation. He had a firmness of spirit which was not often elated by success, seldom downcast by failure and never swayed by panic. When, contrary to all his hopes, beliefs and exertions, the war came upon him, and when, as he himself said, all that he had worked for was shattered, there was no man more resolved to pursue the unsought quarrel to the death. The same qualities which made him one of the last to enter the war, made him one of the last who would quit it until the full victory of a righteous cause was won.

    I had the singular experience of passing in a day from being one of his most prominent opponents and critics to being one of his principal lieutenants, and on another day of passing from serving under him to become the head of a Government of which, with perfect loyalty, he was content to be a member. Such relationships are unusual in our public life. I have before told the House on the morrow of the Debate which in the early days of May challenged his position, he declared to me and a few other friends that only a National Government could face the storm about to break upon us, and that if he were an obstacle to the formation of such a Government, he would instantly retire. Thereafter, he acted with that singleness of purpose and simplicity of conduct which at all times, and especially in great times, ought to be a model for us all.

    When he returned to duty a few weeks after a most severe operation, the bombardment of London and of the seat of Government had begun. I was a witness during that fortnight of his fortitude under the most grievous and painful bodily afflictions, and I can testify that, although physically only the wreck of a man, his nerve was unshaken and his remarkable mental faculties unimpaired.

    After he left the Government he refused all honours. He would die like his father, plain Mr. Chamberlain. I sought the permission of the King however to have him supplied with the Cabinet papers, and until a few days of his death he followed our affairs with keenness, interest and tenacity. He met the approach of death with a steady eye. If he grieved at all, it was that he could not be a spectator of our victory, but I think he died with the comfort of knowing that his country had, at least, turned the corner.

    At this time our thoughts must pass to the gracious and charming lady who shared his days of triumph and adversity with a courage and quality the equal of his own. He was, like his father and his brother, Austen, before him, a famous Member of the House of Commons, and we here assembled this morning, Members of all parties, without a single exception, feel that we do ourselves and our country honour in saluting the memory of one whom Disraeli would have called an "English worthy."

    §
    The Lord Privy Seal (Mr. Attlee)


    I desire to add a few words on behalf of the Labour party to the eloquent and moving tribute which the Prime Minister has paid to one who was so lately our colleague in the Government, and to one who only six months ago was himself the Prime Minister. It is an old and gracious tradition of this House, when death comes to one who has taken a leading place in Parliament, that controversy should be stilled while leaders of all parties speak in recognition of the loss which has been sustained in common by all Members. At the present time, when war has brought together in support of one Government all the great parties of the State, it might seem, perhaps, unnecessary that anyone should speak from this Bench except the Prime Minister, who can speak for us all. Yet there is, I think, good reason to continue our ancient usages. It is characteristic of the way of life which we are fighting to preserve not to allow political differences to prevent mutual respect and friendship. It is a mark of our democracy to attain national unity, not by uniformity, but by diversity. For all but a few months of his political career, Neville Chamberlain stood for policies in home and foreign affairs to which we of the Labour Party were opposed, and often very bitterly opposed. But this is not the time or the occasion to pass any judgment on those controversies. We are too close to them to gain a true perspective. But opposed as we were to his policy, we never doubted that Mr. Chamberlain was honestly and sincerely following the course which he believed to be right in the interests of his country. We never doubted his deep devotion to the cause of peace.

    It is remarkable that one family, in so short a period, should have produced three statesmen of outstanding achievement with such diverse gifts as Joseph, Austen and Neville Chamberlain. Neville Chamberlain brought to the service of this House most remarkable qualities—great industry, an orderly mind, clarity of exposition and readiness in debate, backed by great tenacity and determination. It was always obvious when he spoke that he had not just read a brief but had mastered his subject. Rarely, if ever, was he found wanting in knowledge. Few Ministers were more skilful in piloting through Committee a difficult and
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    complicated Measure, and he was a great administrator.

    It was his fate to be called to the office of Prime Minister at a time of very great difficulty. For nearly 18 years I encountered him as a political opponent—a redoubtable political opponent—but although we disagreed profoundly on politics, he never allowed those differences to affect the friendliness of our private relations. In the last months of his life I worked with him as a colleague and I was then better able to appreciate to the full his qualities. I saw the magnanimity with which he worked with those who had been his severe critics. I recognised his devotion to the common cause and his abhorrence of the evil thing which is seeking to destroy our civilisation. Above all, I admired the courage with which he faced the physical disabilities which came upon him, the devotion with which he strove to the last to serve his country and the faith in ultimate victory which sustained him. I wish, on behalf of the Members of my party, to express our deep sympathy with his widow and family in their bereavement.

    §
    The Secretary of State for Air (Sir Archibald Sinclair)

    I should be grateful if the House would allow me on behalf of the Liberal party to add a very few words to the impressive tributes which have already been offered by the Prime Minister and by the Lord Privy Seal to the memory of Mr. Chamberlain. The Liberal party opposed his policies but respected his character and integrity. More than once, even in the heat of our most controversial Debates, we have paused to pay tribute to his humanity as a social reformer, to his courage, to his high sense of public duty and to his unsparing devotion to the cause of peace. Time and events have obliterated the most acute differences in policy, have united all parties in this House in the pursuit of a common aim—the aim of preserving British freedom from the menace of foreign tyranny—and have enabled us, his erstwhile opponents, to share the present grief of Mr. Chamberlain's family and of his loyal supporters and friends. So, I join with the Prime Minister and the Lord Privy Seal in mourning the loss of a generous and warm-hearted colleague, of a cool, wise and resolute counsellor,
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    and of a brave and faithful public servant, who, with his father and his brother, shared a name which will for ever remain illustrious in the annals of Parliament.

    §
    Mr. Lambert (South Molton)

    As one of the few Members who served in the House of Commons with three members of the Chamberlain family, may I add a few words to the tributes which have already been paid to Mr. Neville Chamberlain. I remember so well Sir Austen Chamberlain making his maiden speech. On that occasion Mr. Gladstone, always the soul of chivalry, complimented him on having made a speech, which was "dear and refreshing to a father's heart," and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was moved by that expression. Sir Austen Chamberlain never became Prime Minister, nor did his distinguished father. That office fell to Mr. Neville Chamberlain, and he inherited a troubled heritage. No one can say that for the past few years our foreign policy has been conducted with vision or with vigour, but that was not entirely due to Mr. Chamberlain. When he assumed office he endeavoured strenuously, and at great personal inconvenience, to secure peace. He was baulked only by a cold-blooded and unscrupulous perjurer. But his name remains as that of one who strove for peace. How fervently we must wish that he could have been successful. Had he been successful, tens of millions of people in Europe would have blessed his name. But the great action at Munich—and I think it was a great action—has brought criticism. I would remind those who criticise, that Munich, at least, gave some tens of thousands of our young British boys another year of life and enabled this country to build up its armaments.

    Those days are past and history will record its verdict. After the Debate of May of last year, although Mr. Chamberlain had a comfortable majority, he did not hesitate for one moment to sacrifice his great position on the altar of national unity, and I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, who has paid him such an eloquent tribute, will agree that he never had a more loyal and unselfish colleague. Intrigue was foreign to Neville Chamberlain. We mourn him; we shall
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    miss him, and if I had to search for an epitaph for him it would be: "Neville Chamberlain, a selfless patriot, who gave his life to his country."