By Calvin Palmer
On his last flight to the United States as Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill wrote his own breakfast menu. It included whisky and a cigar.
The menu of the BOAC flight in June 1954, at the height of the Cold War, did not meet up with the Prime Minister’s expectations so he wrote one out for himself.
The meal was to be served on two trays.
For the first, he listed “Poached egg, Toast, Jam, Butter, Coffee and milk, Jug of cold milk, Cold Chicken or Meat.
“2nd Tray. Grapefruit, Sugar Bowl, Glass orange squash (ice), Whisky soda.”
He then adds: “Wash hands, cigar.”
He had tried to amend the printed menu but in the end wrote his own on the other side.
The menu was kept by the air steward and it is to be sold at auction along with press cuttings from the trip.
Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said: “This is one of the most remarkable pieces of Churchill memorabilia we have seen.
“It shows what a hearty breakfast he ate and it was all washed down with a whisky, after which he smoked a cigar.
“It is the type of indulgence we’ve come to associate with Churchill and it reassuring to know he ate so well in his 80th year.”
He added: “There are some smudges and ink stains but it is a wonderful piece of history.”
The menu is expected to fetch up to £1,500 ($2,138) when it is sold at Mullock’s auctioneers in Ludlow, Shropshire, on appropriately enough, April 23, St George’s Day.
It is worth remembering that in the world’s last great conflagration, Hitler, who detested tobacco and refused to allow anyone to smoke a cigarette in his presence, was defeated by a triumvirate of smokers – Churchill, FDR and Stalin.
Now look where we are today, with the health Nazis in the ascendancy.
One can only imagine the verbal lashing Churchill would mete out to them, if he were alive today.
Alas, there is no champion to fight the tyranny being thrust upon smokers.
Even Barack Obama, once a smoker and probably still an occasional smoker for all we know, forgot about his fellow smokers when he signed the increased federal tax on tobacco.
And do you really think the revenue so raised will go to funding any healthcare program? That is a just a sop to sanctimonious illiberal people so that they will nod approvingly, thankful that their tax burden will not be raised.
The money from the raised tobacco tax has probably already been accounted for by what AIG has received in bailout money.
Instead of a New Deal for the economy, how about a New Deal for smokers, protecting our rights and our pockets?
And if states need to make up their budget shortfall this year, why not tax bottled water? If people are willing enough to pay for something they can get by turning a tap — faucet in America – they will gladly pay any extra charge in tax.
In a fair and just society, the healthy should be taxed on their habits just as much as the unhealthy.
Time for a cigarette.
[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]
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