that was the right thing to do. but that is a response to what happened with the casualties and the hoarders and if you go back to your rest and come i think it was the first stage, if we didn't have that, there was no way that we couldn't have gone to the issue and done what we plan on doing in fall of 19 week i. >> we have reached the end of the time and the authors will be in the colonnade in the next couple of minutes. hopefully can get a copy of their books and please join me in thanking them. ..

>> >> we are live on c-span2

night so if you can make it to the microphone here for those watching on television crew tried to see this at a later date. and also one 2.0 because this is a large crowd we have never had an emergency and we hope that won't happen to night but there is an exit in the back. also an emergency exit right over here. just keep that in mind. at the end of the evening if you have the book and would like to have it signed when expedite things.

>> we do have one special guest here at the churchill center. [applause] we handed out some wire kind of things and that includes partnering with george washington en university to build the churchill santer on the gw campus that is nice for those of you who live here in washington d.c. but i just want to say how delighted we are to have the mayor with us tonight to discuss his new book "the churchill factor" the writing and publication of this book would coincide with the cohen -- in january of this coming year. and the anniversary gave us the opportunity to

reintroduce to have no influence of one of the world's most important figures. you were brave to jump in and but if you have not looked look into a very personal one. at times it is sunny and very much a polemic as the finest statesmen ever produced. while churchill proves very difficult to categorize to have a clear political identity part of that discussion.

so what you are not very familiar with with the entire biography that would take up the entire hour but he spent his formative years at oxford as a member of the conservative party elected to the house of commons in 2001 and elected mayor in 2008 and he was successful hosting deal in big games in 2012. as well was riding his bike to work. so they do have several things in common besides

politics and the ability to put pen to paper churchill ended his life writing 43 books summer in that neighborhood. but he has plenty of time. [laughter] he can clearly ketchup as winston churchill. when not mayor of london he only has 18 months to go and could be in parliament for the next election there is no speculation where he to be the conservative party leader. [laughter] but perhaps even to become prime minister himself one day. >> but perhaps a recent

review put on some by a margin and thank you for joining us today. [applause] >> good evening everybody. can you hear me in the back? churchill would be proud to see quite so many people here tonight. although i think he would have been surprised quite frankly. if they ask me to do a book about church show on the anniversary that i knew a lot about winston churchill the more the himalayan

glamour edits glittering ahead with another then another. i knew for instance church show was very brave but i had not realized the only british prime minister in our history. i didn't realize quite how many people had those friendly relations. always of course, with compassion and i knew vaguely with the royal air force or the escort to begin to learn to fly a plane barely 10 years previously.

and then add the controls of the devices with the glorified'' laundry baskets in the sky. and they are begging him to do given that. so with fatties of comparison or one out of 14 million. and i had forgotten he had gone now 36 times in world war i like a baby elephant. and i knew he was energetic

but that biorhythm that allowed him to drink a pint every day. and spoke 52,000 cigars in his lifetime. unfortunately the port chap contracted cancer. [laughter] to have a huge dinner, a champagne red wine or white wine but then to pace up and down that is perhaps for the morning. and then to pride themselves

and some can write fast after a good lunch. that is the message and is more than any other 20th-century author. not more than shakespeare but shakespeare and dickens combined. but i had not realized then how many are still true. and then i found this very spot in he was weaving a

bit. she said winston you are drunk. he really did reply of what was unthinkable today madam you are ugly and i will be sober in the morning. [laughter] you could not get away with that nowadays. it really is true that when a conservative minister was caught with a guardsman at hyde park it happens from time to time with british politics. but then he replied without

looking up from 6:00 in the morning it makes you proud to be british. [laughter] >> but i was aware the second world war was very far but i didn't realize quite how much he had done all the things to reform prisons through the job centers and though living wage into the p break.

[laughter] led by his invention into a champion of aviation after he returned he was crucial not just of the action of the first world war but and with israel and jordan and iraq so with that ungrateful volcano. and of course, he was there at the beginning with the a idea of a united europe.

end to know exactly what he would have wanted and as david cameron once he would have wanted reform and won them prime ministers with the negotiations and the use that he cleaned himself. and then to be absolutely certain the the european summit he would've had wanted to conduct negotiations with the french

[laughter] and then with the interlocutors. is seen as you are a double cross hour. [laughter] and kid decide he played a huge role in the architecture of world order and the transatlantic. and you can see traces of the middle east and above

all it is absolutely true that he stood out. hello. if you imagine the dagon ticked -- a gigantic monotype pot on -- monty python and with the consumers of tobacco things would have been very different and much worse. he refused to except the argument and they were the powerful voices they would

not be decisive it is churchill and church alone. he was wary destinies night her coat. and with that fateful meeting of the british cabinet he makes an incredible speech from each of us on the ground. they will cheer. all of the desire to a deal.

but if churchill had not been there the pressure from the media but i really think he would've made an accommodation that would have been calamitous. so that is why. but it wasn't the enough. but he knew from the very beginning in almost as important with churchill in

america with two years and four months by the way. and nowadays through that transatlantic you think of sitting on the bench with fdr with the pride in his american ancestry the only citizenship he could claim at the end of his life but we have to except the if you have the copy of this book this book is nothing when

the relationship with the first k mount bragging to audiences that was lower -- more. than imperialists. and in the 1920's he comes out again with america's attempt to displace britain that he speculated the two countries actually go to war.

and his wife told him to become so anti-american he could never hope. and then is told america it is a wonderful place. and then said we should kiss america on both cheeks. but that was still in the '20s. then he comes out 1929 and they are perplexed and are happy with some of his habits. and then said mr. churchill

like a serpent he replied i have them looking for a drink like that all my life. [laughter] so it was not easy. and by 1931 his feelings started to change. and came to recognize what was obvious and not only stoppable but in the interest of his own country. and then with the english-speaking people or even a common currency.

said drawing by his own that he brilliantly designed. but that was his idea. but that was the church to go to the second world war to a lover of america and the position of romantic. where we care more about the relationship. the romantic asymmetry. and he moved roosevelt and is closely as i studied.

he and his speeches not just at the british radio to debunk that but he a&m particularly at the american audience when the and this was an ever-growing numbers with the most popular radio personality in america during the years of the war. he would use very short words to get his points across. end we shall never surrender. even with the anglo-saxons.

surrender correct. and a surrender. [laughter] what should we say after never surrender? remember correct? he says and if which i do not for one moment believe to be subjugated. and then to carry on the fight with all power and might steps in the with the

british politics with the american audience. with that process it is not that to begin last. and i am afraid to say to britain and my country but in return for the 50 destroyers that only half were functional but then in

public called the most sordid act in history. and then with the united states of america when was the last check candid in? does anybody know? 1970? it was 2006 and 42 million pounds with a check signed. [laughter] and to have that triple a rating will lower the debt but it does show a pretty hard bargain.

and with the difficulties to exceed roosevelt to start to make the case about the moral imperative. so america was steadily being brought in by churchill to a large part by the time it came for japan with the convoy is where the supplies at the very beginning of the war, once

america was on our side. and then to appreciate and then said never be separate. and then to believe passionately in the relationship. because of the values and

the independent judiciary, all of the idea is and then for those english-speaking people. but what we can be certain for what he thought it could certainly it's not even

accepted around the table. even lottery players style. >> if not for his bravery and his substance but this would not exist with britain as they whole today. and one final example when it leads into history of the second world war.

and then to come down after a hard day work and she spotted something and covered repeated the and it said top-secret and reached down and picked it up and showed it to her son. and then went straight back. and then was treated by the people and tell he had seen

an officer when somebody senior came down and guess what it was? they called the war cabinet the following morning. in the security breach where it had been in day looked and they saw the story was true and they decided to go ahead. and then turning to the chief of the imperial fleet how did this happen?

and as he did so often he started to cry and said she should be a commander of the british empire. make it so. but unfortunately she only got her m.b.a. e. but the point in 1945 with the british public, there was his own reckoning -- resignation. them afraid that story despite all efforts of verification.

[laughter] intend then lamp disposed to believe them. [laughter] we're at the crucial moments in thing kevin's he did. [applause] >> thanks for the presentation. church shills unique over the erratic things not just the campaign but we have the

chancellor going back on the gold standard disastrously. it is the bizarre attempt behind the hopeless and i am assuming the book is a little more candid the. [laughter] >> and the chapter. [laughter] >> but more to the point between the sometimes erratic behavior and the fact every single man in 1940 is a whole.

that is the argument of the book by the way. n does not attempt. it was called winston churchill i see in america it is not called playing roulette with history. [laughter] but with that crisis to go back on gold and antwerp with the russian civil war whenas regarded as erratic and unstable.

he did get a lot right. and humanitarian and was well ahead of his time. but fundamentally right in the late '30's. because he was a brilliant reporter. and then to write about the battlefield of the campaign. and then he does not like it. and he has arguments about that anti-semitism.

and then goes back with campaigns and campaigns. but in the event by 1939 or 1940, and they need somebody on the scale of churchill to have more courage. but one year from that date 30,000 british men and women and children have died. but it was the right thing to do. >> do you think the u.k. will see an honest leader?

[laughter] >> there are no politicians today who are elected for this scandal. he was one of. the things to church so that our times to not require such. that is the paradox of an all with the freedom in the peace over the last seven years they are on the scale with the ambition with the courage of winston churchill [laughter] >> thank you. >> i share your aberration -- admiration but comment on

the call to the 1934 speech he made which i do recall. i wondered if you had commented on that? >> the question is about churchill's deplorable language about india there is very little excuse of all the charges against him that is with the officials were telling him to do. so he needs to be forgiven for that. at least the ambition was noble.

but you could say he was right to nowadays but now it is perfectly right to be allowed to marry your respective of who they are. that was his modern sentiment with churchill. but indian independence 100 percent wrong and still wrong today and use language about it betted is disgraceful and should be trampled by elephants. the only thing that i could possibly say that with his

vision of the empire had done some great things of the barbaric practices with the untouchables in many cases were reduced. and he was worried that that was not entirely absent. certainly ed defense of his handling about though war and i am afraid that is not handled very well. i will not put my hand up to that one. >> mr. mayer i read your book when it came out. what are your thoughts on winston churchill and his view of the european union

today? >> i think he would want to be there and to be engaged. he would not necessarily want this country he says different things at different times toward different places as the great campaigner but he sees britain as being in the church. but not actually participating in the union. i wish she had still been prime minister.

if he had been he would have said yes. and it seems possible that given the huge importance in 1948 by far the biggest producer, there is a huge say of how this works. but it seems entirely conceivable or intergovernmental with that loss that we have seen today. that is the best that i can do. but britain was not appointed to be excluded from the conversation. but his vision for my country was very simple

closely associated with the united states and with the former empire it seems to be the sentiment of the policy. every prime minister it seems to have tried to have taken that. [laughter] >> i agree that. >> we can call it the union. >> but the relationship florida and how that created a problem. >> churchill unlike any british politician with his

agility going from one horse to the other. and he said a political party if you could just pick the one you carry across. but actually if you look at but i think he made the case that he was more consistent. or to be riding on the principles of free trade or to go in the wrong direction. free trade in those days was possessive like in the urban areas but in churchill's

view it was his father's idea of democracy for the right approach. so i would argue that he was more consistent but no one ever performed that's and then to be across the floor once. >> o leader of the tory

party why would he follow the a vice? you would be marvelous. [laughter] >> i write to the daily telegraph. [laughter] i am not aware that they said that. >> but david cameron he has had to play a very difficult hand with the difficult circumstances of the hopeless liberal democrat characters. [laughter] they got a lot done and i think that situation with

abandon the labor party and in confidence to abandon that labor party there is a very good chance there is a conservative majority after the election. and i am indeed seeking reelection in the next year or so. in may in fact. [laughter] they. in may. [laughter] who can remember what churchill said? after a grueling afternoon where he had watched the raf up in the scud -- this guy

holding the germans he said don't talk to meet i'd have never been so moved that he keeps setting plan that -- and he kept saying in oxbridge. any way that is what will happen. it will be alright. >> give church was in charge today how with his foreign policy be different given the middle east? speenine these questions are very hard because we cannot summon his ghost or with his views but there was no

solution but the thing in my view was the declaration to read the stuff he says, when he gets the delegations of the jewish settlers and the palestinians in the 80th with which he approaches and the vision to help the arabs turned palestine, you have to support the idea things did not turn out the way he hoped that he deserves congratulations and support for that.

water you going to do? that seem to be with the arabs wanted. people today that it is my view of the best solution of that area would be a benign version of the global empire that when you have such strife over such a large area you need the power to hold the ring the british empire tried but they cannot do it for 800 years. the ottomans did it for a long time to have such an

imperial power today here in washington and that is the reality. >> what about mr. johnson? >> invisibly like cameron. [laughter] >> i thought so. >> we have time for one last question. speenine i am not like winston churchill. he failed to get into stanford a three times. [laughter] quite right. >> i would like to turn your attention to hong kong. to talk about winston

churchill moral courage and also practicality. how would he view occupy central or hong kong standing up for democratic rights? event while it is to be very aggressive about their views of the matter in all the years i'd remember a system of democracy there knowing that we were handing it over to the chinese but it is the

right way. in two members of the intelligentsia is the appetite but the young people in china but there is the cultural difference. it will come in economic distress the they will feel the pinch but it is not happening yet. >> no comment. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> thank you. thank you. [inaudible conversations] and. . . . .

[inaudible conversations] julia gillard is the first female prime minister of australia. she talks about her life and her experience in an office. speaking of the brookings institution in washington d.c., this is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> wonderful, good morning everybody. i'm rebecca winthrop the director of the center for the universe adult education at the brookings institution. it's my great pleasure to