7 - The political culture of 10 Downing Street

Summary

…upon Narcissus was imposed the further duty of rapidly assimilating the popular idea or tendencies of the day, and presenting them to his chief, as it were, in concentrated pellets.

H. W. Massingham, ‘All in a Garden Fair’, The Nation, 24 Feb. 1917.

…His main position seems to be that the war is primarily ‘the war for public right’: and that our main object is to make Germany accept and keep treaties…But there are some considerations which I wish (if you agree) you would argue with him when you next have a chance, (i) Supposing we really got Germany on her knees (and she will be there, before she agrees to the reconstitution of Serbia), ought we not to keep her there a little longer, if we can, even at some sacrifice, in order to readjust the map in the real interests of national freedom? As we hope for no more war, we may never have another chance….

Reginald Coupland to A. E. Zimmern, concerning Kerr, 18 November 1916, Round Table Papers 817.

As contemporaries had anticipated, members of the Garden Suburb did much to interpret Lloyd George to the world and the world to Lloyd George: ‘cultivating the Prime Minister's mind’, in Massingham's hostile phrase, and cultivating public opinion at the same time. They helped to create a body of thought which influenced the Prime Minister's public statements and, to a lesser extent, his acts of policy.