PETER MCKAY: In 70 years, have we gone from the greatest to the weakest? Silly spats prove how weak our leaders are

Winston Churchill's Tories were in coalition with Clement Attlee's Labour Party for the duration of World War II. Although there were many rows, it held together from 1940 until 1945

Those who grew up during the Hungry Thirties, and fought in World War II, were called ‘the greatest generation’ in a 1998 book by U.S. author and broadcaster Tom Brokaw.

They were ‘the greatest generation any society has ever produced’ he said. Winston Churchill’s Tories were in coalition with Clement Attlee’s Labour Party for the duration of World War II. Although there were many rows, it held together from 1940 until 1945.

Now it’s suggested that Tory David Cameron’s 2010 coalition with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats won’t last as long. In an interview, the PM mentions the possibility of it ending prematurely, and facing the new circumstances ‘in whatever way we should’.

In 70 years, have we gone from the greatest to the weakest?

In 1943, our coalition government was threatened by a Germany dedicated to our destruction. 

The 2013 coalition is paralysed by the question of whether or not we should continue to belong to the European Union, now led by all- powerful Germany.

Seventy years ago, some thought we should make a pact with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, but they were regarded as fringe figures.

Now a majority would like to  see our membership of the EU  re-negotiated — and, if that fails, leave it altogether. But a minority think we should stay in the EU, even if it means sinking what remains of our sovereignty into a federal superstate. 

The minority has seized control of the levers of government. They are determined to oppose a referendum, fearing its outcome.

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Our wartime coalition was agreed on the threat posed by Germany. Those who wanted to remain on friendly terms with Hitler — despite obvious signs that he sought world domination — were the appeasers. Now economically mighty Germany seeks to control Europe in exchange for allowing weaker nations to stay in the eurozone. Aren’t the appeasers now those in the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem parties who ignore public disquiet about this development?

Politics was more serious during the last coalition government. The politicians seemed to be people of substance. Parliamentary debates were reported fully. There was less triviality and fewer obvious idiots.

The 2013 coalition is paralysed by the question of whether or not we should continue to belong to the European Union, now led by all-powerful Germany

Now it’s kintergarden stuff by comparison. Who cares if one of Cameron’s friends thinks that Tories who oppose gay marriage are swivel-eyed loonies? The friend concerned, the so-called Lord Feldman, denies the story. But he owes his position to meeting Cameron at Oxford. So who the hell cares what he thinks?

It’s suggested Cameron thinks some of his party activists are swivel-eyed loonies? Possibly, but who cares? I don’t suppose there has been a leader ever who didn’t think ill of some activists. Churchill’s disdain sometimes extended to his entire party.

But what might you call a Prime Minister who forces his party to legislate for gay marriage, knowing it’s poison to much of his rank and file — swivel–brained? Today’s vote on the gay marriage bill could trigger a revolt by as many as 100 Tory MPs.

A wise leader doesn’t take sides against his own people. He certainly doesn’t use against them the insults hurled by enemies. If he thinks his tribe is lacking understanding on some complex issue, he finds a tactful way of talking them round. Making them vote for something they hate — or against their party — isn’t tactful.

Like Cameron and Clegg, Labour's Ed Miliband is a pure creature of politics, parachuted into a safe Northern seat he would never otherwise have visited, and later the leadership

Deputy PM Nick Clegg hasn’t done himself — or the Liberal Democrats — many favours in coalition either. There’s a growing perception he loves power for its own sake, and will decamp to some lofty European job once he loses his current perch.

Like Cameron and Clegg, Labour’s Ed Miliband is a pure creature of politics, parachuted into a safe Northern seat he would never otherwise have visited, and later the leadership. His reliance on our economy remaining flat — so that he can  criticise the Coalition for it — isn’t good enough, a lethal boomerang when we’re up on our feet again. 

Besides, even the dimmest voters can remember he was in the government in control when our banks needed rescuing. This explains why — after a torrent of bad publicity for the Tories — Ed’s party can manage a mere three-point lead in the opinion polls.

The thing about great generations is that, usually, only afterwards  can we appreciate what they did. With weak ones, we see it  almost immediately.

  Carey Mulligan, described as the saving grace of The Great Gatsby, the latest film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, says: 'There's a lack of great material for women sometimes'

Carey Mulligan is described as the saving grace of The Great Gatsby, the latest film version of  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. But, complying with the fashion for moaning when she has little to complain about, she says: ‘There’s a lack of great material for women sometimes.’

How many times have we been warned about the danger of actresses not being provided with roles that stretch them to the artistic limits? Meanwhile (lack of great material notwithstanding), there’s the movie-promoting parade of the Cannes Film  Festival — a great, glittering  posse of pouting pulchritude, including Carey herself, as  well as Emma Watson, Cheryl  Cole and omnipresent model  Cara Delevingne.

All here today, gone tomorrow, seeking their future in the past.

‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,’ is how Fitzgerald ended his sweet-sour 1920s story.

Happiness? It's getting us all down

Having spoken on TV last week about her bouts of depression, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s daughter, Katharine Welby, 26, will ‘spearhead’ a church  campaign to teach happiness, we are told.But can happiness  be taught?

The pursuit of happiness — written into the U.S. constitution — is a huge obsession in the West, but some academic researchers think its counter-productive.

‘As a nation we’ve grown sadder and more anxious during the same years that the happiness movement has flourished,’ said Carlin Flora, writing in Psychology Today.

Surely we all have a happiness quotient, or HQ. Some are constitutionally more capable of it than others, regardless of their life chances, achievements or prospects. 

If grief is the price we pay for love, aren’t the blues necessary if we’re to appreciate happiness?

  Europe's Got (NO) Talent      More from Peter McKay...   Is Cameron readying his lifeboat like Blair? 12/05/13   Don't panic yet, Dave. It's Red Ed who should be worried... 05/05/13   Sir, we are charging you with being a celebrity... 28/04/13   Will one of our cities be next to face 'lockdown'? 21/04/13   Grocer's girl who 'got above herself' 14/04/13   Ed needs a dose of the old Blair snake oil 07/04/13   Labour's addiction to welfare hurts us all 31/03/13   Now Dave's 'dog whistle' guru is calling the tunes 24/03/13   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE We're no more cut out  for the Eurovision Song Contest than we are for  the EU. 

The stuff they think of as popular music sounds even worse than our own, which is pretty bad. Some of the acts that scored higher than the UK on Saturday night would be forcibly ejected from Britain’s Got Talent at the  audition stage.

The Romanian Dracula lookalike singing in a high falsetto, the creepy, elf-like figure from Malta and  Greece’s troupe of  eccentrics dancing knock-kneed in kilts would all have passed muster for a Monty Python send-up  of Eurovision. 

As for the droll commentaries from each country — and from Sweden’s resident hostess — these made our own Graham Norton, by comparison, sound  like fellow Irish wit Oscar Wilde. We all knew (from The Goon Show) that the German sense of humour was no laughing matter. 

I hadn’t realised this applied to the whole of Continental Europe.

Move over, Downton Abbey... here come The Lambtons

As you may have read elsewhere, the late Viscount Lambton, who resigned from  Parliament and the Conservative government in 1973 after being caught in bed smoking dope with a prostitute, left his entire £12 million estate to his son, Ned, who inherited the Earldom of Durham, and next to nothing to his five daughters.

Lambton’s son-in-law, the ex-columnist and editor Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, 89, husband of broadcaster Lady Lucinda Lambton, thinks Ned should now ‘share out some of the booty, so to speak, with his siblings’.

Perry adds: ‘Having backed the hereditary aristocracy all my writing life as a journalist, I feel bitterly disappointed by my brother-in-law’s cruel and selfish behaviour towards his sisters. Three of them have no money at all and he is spending fortunes.’

Perhaps the brilliant Julian Fellowes might dramatise The Lambtons as a sequel to his Downton Abbey. And the cast?

The late Tony Lambton, I suggest, could be played by Leslie (Dirty Den) Grantham; Eccentric Lady Lucinda by Dame Maggie Smith; Ned Lambton by Rhys Ifans, who played Spike in the film Notting Hill; and Sir Peregrine by Downton’s Hugh Bonneville.